Last Saturday was our 4th Mother-Daughter Red Tent. I learn and observe new things with each one. I am grateful to be building experience and making a positive impact on girls’ lives, even if they might not be aware of it. Here’s the crux of the challenge: how to make it cool enough for girls to not only want to experience these kinds of rituals and ceremonies, but to also promote it to their friends and other girls. From my experience, including my relationship with my 15-year-old daughter with her minimal level of buy-in, most of the girls are only coming to the event at their mothers’ requests. Because we moms didn’t have good experiences with our own first moons and/or coming into our womanhood, we all want it for our daughters.
Native Americans have this beautiful saying:
“When a girl first gets her moon, she meets her power.
During a woman’s menstruating years, she practices her power.
When a woman stops bleeding, she becomes her power.”
Thinking of this week’s headlines about sexual assault, if we hunger for change in our cultural norms, we have to realize it starts with us. We can only get so far trying to get a government made up of predominantly white men to change some laws. It starts with us redefining what a modern woman is and taking back our inherent powers. A great deal of our powers come from our blood mysteries. The patriarchal system has demonized and capitalized on menstruation for too long. They have turned a beautiful huge part of who we are into a disgusting thing to be ashamed of. It’s time we take it back and train our daughters to embrace our cycles for their own source of sovereignty. So, how do we make it cool? For one thing, it’s time we start dialoguing with our daughters and asking them for advice.
Native Americans have this beautiful saying:
“When a girl first gets her moon, she meets her power.
During a woman’s menstruating years, she practices her power.
When a woman stops bleeding, she becomes her power.”
Thinking of this week’s headlines about sexual assault, if we hunger for change in our cultural norms, we have to realize it starts with us. We can only get so far trying to get a government made up of predominantly white men to change some laws. It starts with us redefining what a modern woman is and taking back our inherent powers. A great deal of our powers come from our blood mysteries. The patriarchal system has demonized and capitalized on menstruation for too long. They have turned a beautiful huge part of who we are into a disgusting thing to be ashamed of. It’s time we take it back and train our daughters to embrace our cycles for their own source of sovereignty. So, how do we make it cool? For one thing, it’s time we start dialoguing with our daughters and asking them for advice.
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