A Birth Day For Women And Men
By Barbara Mayer
Sedona AZ (September 10, 2014) – Recently I was honored to be present at separate birthday celebrations of two fantastic women. In each case these were not the typical “Here I am, give me a present” birthdays. Instead, each of these women chose to witness the true fullness and beauty of her own age — as well as to empower all women present to share their own positive views of how to embrace the continuing gift of years.
Today’s media is engrossed in the scandal of Ray Rice brutally beating his future wife unconscious, and his ultimate dismissal from the professional football scene. I choose, however, to honor each of these women who becomes stronger with each birthday as she powerfully lives ahead into wisdom, age, and very real and very meaningful grace. In the birthday celebrations I witnessed, each woman took time to claim her age with dignity and a very beautiful strength. These were times of all women honoring themselves as they shared their own unique visions of how to bring new awareness and compassionate action to our very troubled world.
The age of the Jock Mentality and treating women as less than equal is in its dying gasps. No more. Not in these times. Not as women today are claiming their place as equal partners in the walk of life. Women are now also emerging as new and powerful leaders who are helping create a new way of being – both in our daily lives and in our place in human history as well.
The Shift into the Age of Aquarius with its feminine emphasis on compassion, caring, and each person living her or his gift is now occurring. As “a woman of a certain age” myself, I am thrilled to see older women now reaching out to younger women — and even high school young women — to meet and share opinions, concerns, and talents. We are now living into a new Age of Inclusion and Equality, and I congratulate each of our birthday women for reminding us to truly be caring individuals — capable of hearing the cries of the world – and then doing something about it. So I thank Lori, and I thank Pash for making their own gifts of years a beautiful and meaningful gift to us all.
I don’t usually include my poetry in this column, but please allow my adding this poem to today’s writing. I wrote it a few months ago in the Boynton Canyon area, and I dedicate it to birthday women Lori and Pash – as well as to all women who are now claiming their own meaningful gifts and powerful presence in a very needy world.
Eternal Woman
At last – in this space beyond time
I step into the Light which, somehow, I have always known.
Rising from the shadows of so many ages past,
I claim the strength of my sacred woman soul
as I become you, Eternal Woman,
Eternal Heart of that Which Is Divine.
I heal now as I myself am healed.
I teach as I become the lessons once eternally ordained.
I live words of wisdom once inked on sacred scrolls
as I claim the fullness of my womanhood,
empowered now, and strong – so beautifully strong!
I become Love of the One Source which is Loving Essence Itself,
And I am humbled as I claim this sacred opportunity
To manifest my own womanhood –
Radiant now, and bright with authenticity!
No more fear now. No doubt.
No echoes of unworthiness, incompetence, or insufficiency.
They never did exist, I realize – posing just as silly conjures
from too many years of being beaten down.
Now I am aware beyond knowledge and I sense beyond feeling.
I revere this womanhood which is my blessing and my gift
as I step forward to embrace this world
with the compassion of my sacred woman’s soul.
At last – it is done.
I am become Woman Heart now.
And so – it is eternally begun.
— Barbara Mayer
Barbara Mayer is a poet, author and interfaith/interspiritual minister who lives, writes and shares the Spirit in Sedona, Arizona.