Life is an amazing thing and it probably never stops to amaze me. Last week, while a #ecoTrain passengers me including concentrated on answering the question: What Is Matriarchy? What do you think a matriarchal society would look like? I got an interesting request - a proposal to create a collage for an initiative I immediately fall in love.
I am always pleased with such synchronicities. For me, they are a sign that you are moving in the right direction. That what you do is important on the level which is beyond your understanding and you can hardly ever get it in full.
And here I got a chance to experience it again. While I was trying to put into words that amazing experience of unity, abundance, co-operation and harmony I found in the matriarchal world that existed in the distant past and where the women were respected, my subconscious tried to find a way to express the concept of the other female union - the initiative that existed HERE and NOW, right on Steemit called W.O.V.E.N
I thank @rensoul17 - a wonderful woman who is the ideologist of this movement for this opportunity to use my creativity in something that is so dear to my heart. And also because, without knowing it, she became the link that led me to other wonderful people from tribeglobal-love.
@rensoul17 is a fantastic poet and writer, whose post I enjoy a lot and wonder if I will be ever able to use the English language in such an emotional and heart touching way. She also together with @eaglespirit and @girlbeforemirror co-facilitate Steemit Vision Quest
organized by @cabelindsay.
W.O.W.E.N. is an acronym for Women of Victory Excelling Now. The idea behind a project is to unite women. It doesn’t matter where you live, what you do. This is the place to share, engage, create, support and collaborate. I believe whatever I say, my words will be much less touching than @rensoul17, who described her idea in the article I Am Above And Beyond Being Bothered ... WOVEN.
I extracted few quotes from her article that impressed me immensely. While reading them I couldn’t turn my back and say “No” to Ren's request.
Sometimes we have to endure a season of longsuffering where life doesn’t feel or look good. And we have to continually feel the pain, the struggle, the loneliness and the hurt of it all.
words (c) @rensoul17
While we could only afford to give energy and attention to the present moment and all that life in that moment was demanding and screaming for us to do. We had to move on in life or get left behind. And many women go through life HIDDEN in plain sight. And so many of those around us every day don’t truly know us or see us. They only see the Mask we wear.
words (c) @rensoul17
This post is a beginning of a platform for a healing renaissance to happen, for us to take back our power as women of this earth so that we can resume our rightful roles as the healers and nurturers, mothers of Planet Earth, and so much more.
words (c) @rensoul17
Whatever your gift or your way of expression is I ask that you join this group of women and share and add your fuel, your gift to the fire. And if we truly come together as women on a mission of returning to live the best life possible it will happen and it will happen faster as “WE” more than “I”.
words (c) @rensoul17
In Russia, we say that everyone has his/her own gifts. For me @rensoul17 has a gift of words - she is able to put them in such a manner that you can literally feel them, so I do encourage you to read her article here to get the full idea of what is W.O.V.E.N. is.
And my task was very simple - to try to convey the same idea in a visual image, the one you can look at and can get the idea behind.
First of all, the theme of W.O.V.E.N. resonates with me a lot. When I was reading Ren's article, all of the women I had the honor to meet in my life involuntarily surfaced before my eyes. I thought of them with gentle and caring love as I always feel about them. I value each of them for where they came and what they have been through, for the wisdom they share, for endless support they give despite anything. It all echoed the W.O.V.E.N. for me.
I was thinking of all of them, of their struggles yet distinct way of being themselves and lightning their light into this World. I wanted to find a way to express it in a simple form. I was looking for the main image what can represent this inner strength they have. The one that would represent their struggle for the right to be a woman, for the right to be yourself, for the right to do what you want, for the right to live the full life and be Above And Beyond Being Bothered.(words (c) W.O.V.E.N)
I always adhere to the principle that everything has its time. Apart of it, I also know that our subconscious mind is capable of doing miracles - sometimes you are tormented by the question for a long time, but you only need to distract yourself, to do something else as a solution is in itself. I believe in the power of the subconscious and believe that this invisible force works when nothing seems to happen. It happened this time again. I allowed W.O.V.E.N concept sink it taking my time to find the answer to my question and it came when I least expected.
I was finishing my article Looking into the core: What is matriarchy? What do you think it would look like? #ecoTrain QTWTwhen I saw an inner vision - the image, which eventually became the basis of my collage just instantly flashed in my mind. I smiled as it felt right as if the experience I just described in my article was getting a new shape.
I want to state that the image itself is not my creation. Long ago I have downloaded it from Pixabay - the source I widely use to create my collages. It has a number of fantastic images published under COO Creative Commons and when you use it no attribution is required. At the same time, I always want to give credits to those fantastic authors who make these gift to us, artists enabling us to use their work to make our own creations.
I do not why my subconscious mind pointed this particular image to me for this project, but I guess that was the right choice as after I found this image the rest turned out by itself. I already do not remember exactly where the idea to play with words woMen and woVen came from, but I definitely liked the final creation and I think this is the way it should be.
And in truth, I do not see my special role in what happened. For some reason, it seems to me that it was just an amazing combination in time and in space when the theme of women and women's development became the focus of my attention and helped to act as an intermediary that could combine all in one and create this form.
And lastly, I'd like to show you the gif that I created for this project.
This is my gif-T for every woman who has gone through difficulties on her way and reached the stage to be Above And Beyond Being Bothered.(words (c) W.O.V.E.N).
Let’s it remind us of inner powers each of us possess and the outer power of collaboration and support we can create uniting.
I support @ecotrain project, which also use #ecotrain.
-1-The most difficult question one can ask. I believe the question: “Who am I?” is one of the most difficult questions. I personally never found it easy to answer it. Well, how can I describe in detail who am I? What criteria should I use? Can I answer it at all or do I have a sort of illusion on who I really am? It seems to me that any person has so many different layers, directions in which he/she develops, that it is difficult to put it one concept which will be able to give the reader a full understanding.
Image (c) 2 Sheela Na Gigs by (c) Jan Campbell, Avocado Stones