March 8 2014 Ritual: International Women’s Day – We Celebrate You! By Diann L. Neu
This International Women’s Day we honor you for your generosity to women around the globe. Connect with WATER and you meet women worldwide!
March calls us to solidarity with women ― women friends, women’s communities, women worldwide. What women come to your mind and heart this International Women’s Day?
Women Friends
Solidarity work that emerges from justice-seeking friendships is solidarity work with a human face, letting the most deeply affected set the agenda, telling the rest of us how we can be helpful and humane.
It is work that includes hugs as well as legislation, watching one another’s children grow as well as stopping nuclear war, attending to the environment as well as ending global conflict. Solidarity is just as spiritual as sacrament is political in women-church.
―Mary E. Hunt, WATERwheel, Summer 1990
Women’s Communities
The hand of the child cannot reach the ledge; the hand of the elder can not enter the gourd: both the young and the old have what each can do for the other.
― Yoruba Proverb
Women Worldwide
The mountain-moving day is coming
I say so, yet others doubt.
Only awhile the mountain sleeps.
In the past
All mountains moved in fire,
Yet you may not believe it.
Oh man, this alone believe,
All sleeping women now will awake
and move.
―”Awake” by Akiko Yosano, 与謝野 晶子, (1878-1942)
Women in Solidarity
Praise women of the seven continents for the new life they bring.
Praise to you, sisters of Asia, for your strong resistance to oppression.
Praise to you, sisters of Africa, for raising your voices in public squares.
Praise to you, sisters of Europe, for your leadership in peacekeeping.
Praise to you, sisters of North America, for confronting racism and economic inequities.
Praise to you, sisters of Latin America, for struggles that bring about equality.
Praise to you, sister in Antarctica, for your scientific research.
Praise to you, sisters of Australia, for your steadfast demands for justice.
―Diann L. Neu
Act for Women
• Take a walk with a girl child. Listen to her!
• Do something special for yourself. Enjoy a concert or a long bath!
• Contact an international woman friend. Connect, connect, connect!
• Cook dinner for a woman friend or several. Savor the moment!
• Volunteer at a food pantry or soup kitchen. Share your time.
• Sign a petition in support of women. Make your voice heard.
• Make an impact in an instant. Donate to a woman’s charity.
Happy International Women’s Day!
