There She Stands

It is morning. My eight-year-old daughter and I pedal our bikes to her school with cool coastal air, breathed into our town every night by Mother Earth’s rolling hill lungs, greeting ours.
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We turn left on 1st Street and I see her standing there: a 47’ tall woman made of steel. With her head rising over the warehouse next to her, she owns her power. She doesn’t flaunt it. She simply is.

Woman. Here. You can look at me, you can think whatever you want to think. I am here. ​

I had seen her before. She is one of three pieces in The Bliss Project, created by sculptor Marco Cochrane. Her name is R-Evolution, and somehow she is also me. Somehow she is every woman.

Where we perceive duality in her and me, where we perceive separateness in her body and mine, where you and I appear to be two different beings… we are invited to see through clearer eyes.

Do we rise to this God-kissed occasion?

Here’s the dance.

How do we be alive in our human bodies while simultaneously accepting that we’re not separate?

Can I look at this statue of feminine splendor standing before me, and see myself in her?

How do we honor the deeply personal stories of our lives, our paths, our feelings, fears and dreams, while also joining our mind with that place where we’re eternal?

How do we live our essence while experiencing life in a body?

How do we take responsibility for our impact — those goofs, so human, that make messes in relationships — while returning to see through the eyes of Spirit, always forgiving with Self and "other", always in the knowing that Love is actually who we are?

Am I willing to own — to accept and embody — that I am Woman, and nobody else has power over me? No man, no parent, no boss, no job, no opinions or remarks, no religion or government?

It is easy to get stuck in judgment, yet every. single. second… we are offered the freedom of remembering who we really are. We are offered the freedom of remembering that in each other.

Do we choose enslavement by choosing limited perception, or do we own our freedom?

Cobblestone under our bike tires, we cross the old railroad tracks. We turn right over the drawbridge.

She was striking.

But why?

Sure, R-Evolution is massive. But it's simply a woman — her body, as she was born, natural.

In Sweden, where my husband is from, no big deal. Nudity is natural. But I was born and raised in America, where freedom sings a different song. Nudity is obscene. Women’s bodies are often treated as objects, as property — not our own.

Biking over the drawbridge, I wonder how I'm teaching my daughter to love, accept and honor her own body. 

Children deserve the best of us. No experience I’ve ever had has compared to the Oneness I felt when my daughter’s little body was in my womb. We were physically one — as with every mother and child. My daughter’s got me — I would do anything for her. Mothers can relate; our connection with our children is indescribable.

This is personal. This isn’t personal.

What is the power of Woman?

In that place where she’s different from Man, we can state the obvious: We carry and deliver new life.

When we fully behold the power of this — as women — GAME OVER.

This planet would look radically different overnight if women owned our power today. I won’t pretend to know what that would look like because the power of Spirit, dancing with the complex particles of the physical universe, is far more masterfully creative than human consciousness. But I can begin to dream…

There is enough food for everyone, and it’s all grown with reverence for Mother Earth’s body.

Water is clean. Children swim in healthy oceans, creeks and lakes.

No body is abused. Bruises on a child’s skin are from that time she fell on the trampoline.

Sexual interchanges are between adults, consensual — and when there is misunderstanding it is taken seriously, and soon thereafter, healed.   

World class support is readily available for every human soul. Our pain, our confusion and despair are soothed by someone skilled to see — to see who we really are — as that’s what Love sees in its mirror.

Rivers are free. Dams evaporate. We barely remember ever plugging-up the vivacious blood of our planetary body, drowning her canyon walls.

Humans accept that only Love heals. That when we hold others in our mind through blame, it is actually ourselves who we imprison.

Libraries, museums and playgrounds are abundant and every city block has at least one stellar masseuse.

Society is designed around Life, breath, this precious gift that could be gone at any second — not around economies.

How would that look? I go blank. Divinity, please paint a picture of your dream.

It all starts here — with me, with you.

R-Evolution owns her power, standing. She owns her power, in the form of Bliss Dance, dancing -- once at San Francisco's Treasure Island, now at The Park, Las Vegas. She revels in her own human female form as Truth is Beauty, now living at the San Leandro Tech Center.

She... We... WOMAN... remembers that in all the pain involved in the human experience, each moment offers freedom through dance, singing, a swim, or surrendering your limbs to lay down on Earth, letting her soil hold your tender human form. Each moment invites us to be held inside the womb of Spirit, whose Love has no end. 

Today is an invitation to simply and boldly be you. Easy? No. And... you are made of courage. Own it. With boldness, you will make messes — yet your essence is immune to harm — the Who of you is made of Light.

Women, we are so much more powerful than we now see. 

When we own our power, we are free.