Jenny Forester: Autumn Musing

I was very late for one September ritual, so I decided to break in during the feasting, but a lovely deer, who also attended the July ritual, came by to feast, as well. Deer seem to me to be inherebtly gentle and I imagined the women of SisperSpirit attempting to get close to this gentleness. This event made my heart melt and open and I remembered that this organization and these women came together because of this gentleness, seeking it and attempting to connect with it and trhough it.

Grace Paley says we can be mothers, lovers, listeners, and nurturers and still be critically astute and radical and have projoundly moral minority opinions. She points out her own flaws and foibles and doesn't get bogged down in them. Foibles are not worth hating - what's worth hating is poverty, injustice, war...

SisterSpirit is full of profoundly beautiful and complex individuals. I, for one, can say that my faults are abundant, my attitude can be somewhat lacking in positive vibes and my energy can look somewhat like the Star Trek charcter, Ngelum, this nebulus control mongering megalamaniacal cloud. But this is no excuse for me to act like a creep. I have to watch my tongue, I get to say I'm sorry, i get to be reflective and I get to step up again, after a healthy dose of sef-forgiveness.

Grace is sometimes a commitment to being ineffective and foolish because we all are and it's human and when we can offer ourselves acceptance, we're more likely to be able to offer it to others.

Below is a list of songs, poems, and movies that capture the idea that we don't have to believe in the perfection of our sisters and co-activists in order to be effective, united force for what is good in the world.

Kasey Chambers' poem call: Not Pretty Enough
Anything by Emily Dickinson
Alanis Morissette's Good enough, Would not Come, Eight Easy Steps and Thank U