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While I understand that we must go through growing pains to get beyond the point in history (which would be anything before now) where women are treated badly – and I don’t need to spell out what “badly” means in this context – the danger of those growing pains is the very social root of the “me too” phenomenon.
I am sure we have all seen people, men and women, young and old, try to show their support to others by saying they had experienced something similar. They search their minds for something that could vaguely fit for the purpose of dredging up empathy.
Their intentions are good.
And we all also know of others who competitively jump in and try to one-up the original story. “I caught a bigger fish.” “My labor lasted longer.” We sometimes crudely call this a “pissing contest.”
Still others are on shaky emotional ground. When they hear of something someone else experienced, colored through their eyes, they wonder if perhaps that innocuous hug or the accidental pat was something similar. And because they aren’t emotionally stable – so many of us aren’t – they begin to believe it. They begin to actually reframe their memory to fit the narrative.
Do I think we have all been mistreated? Of course. Every last person has, at one time or another, been treated badly. But in a country founded on the principle that all people are innocent until proven guilty, there have been a lot of folks losing careers, relationships, and social standing on the basis of accusations.
I don’t know what the answer is but I’m afraid what will happen is that so many false claims are being made that the legitimate ones will be shamed into silence.
Do you have any answers?
Source: Memories Submerged in a Poem
Last night I had a dream. In it, I could see a map of the United States, and within each state I could see the counties, and within each county I could see the people, and their voices were raised in song.
As they sang, new voices of their neighbors, family, coworkers, and friends joined them, and their little spot, their little county, glowed brightly. Not red or blue, but lighted, a symbol of purity and intelligence and good ideas.
I could see each individual, as well as seeing how they contributed to the glow, as county after county, state after state, lit up brightly with the light of goodness, education, kindness, and intelligence. The voices of this beautiful song drowned out those who would cry of hatred and terror, declaring lack and parsimony our only salvation.
Such love, and happiness rose inside of me I couldn’t contain myself and sang loudly, letting my voice join the others in song.
There were some though, who seemed to leave. They walked away smiling and I was jealous of their happy countenances. I wished I could be singled out to go wherever it was they were going. I saw movie stars and past leaders and those whose bearing was of such an upright stature I just knew they were important, though I didn’t know their names.
And then I realized they actually hadn’t left. They were still there, happily offering support. As I sang, one of them briefly stood next to me. If my voice faltered, and I didn’t know the words, she sang them for me, low and under her breath so that I could catch up and sing along.
I woke full of new purpose, realizing that it’s only through love, education, kindness, and generosity that we can switch on the lightbulbs of awareness and comprehension in those whose cries are hateful.
To learn the words of this song, look to those who came before you. Their behavior, recorded words, and substance stand as our lessons, and our inspiration.
Does that mean we should smile in the face of inequality, stand down when we see cruelty, or turn a blind eye to suffering? No! Sing louder. Sing of a day when everyone has the things that they need to be the best they can be: food, a roof over their heads, health and medical care, education that brings them to their full potential, equal rights for all, and a living wage for a day’s work.
All around you are those who came before, singing this song, and all you have to do is listen, and sing along.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-
– Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776.“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863“We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man…”
“There exists in the minds of men a tone of feeling toward women as toward slaves….”
“…Let us be wise, and not impede the soul. Let her work as she will. Let us have one creative energy, one incessant revelation. Let it take what form it will, and let us not bind it by the past to man or woman, black or white.”
– Margaret Fuller, from ‘Women in the Nineteenth Century‘ (1845)“Well, if a criminal comes around your house with his gun, brother.. it doesn’t make you a robber because you grab your gun and run him out.”
– Malcolm X“Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope: In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead.”
– Barack Obama“Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr, April 3, 1968, I’ve Been to the Mountaintop
Sweet Town Clean Historical Western Romance Book 16
Sarah Christian (Author) [Amazon Link]
A tornado tearing its way across the Dakota Territory plains leaves Maria Alvarez alone in the world, her parents and all their dreams of starting a new life evaporating like rain in the summer heat. Injured from her ordeal, Maria finds her way to Sweet Town, where a kind miner takes her under his protection.
Having discovered a rich vein of gold and yet having to wait to extract it, Almanzo Zimmerman is at a loss for what to do with himself until the beautiful Maria tumbles into his life. On the verge of being one of the wealthiest men in the territory, Almanzo fends off rumors of Maria being his kept woman while the idea of marrying this lost beauty becomes more and more tempting.
With pride and prejudice trying to tear them apart, could there be a rainbow at the end of this storm?
In the shadow of wild Deadwood sits quiet Sweet Town. Established in the Dakota Gold Rush of the 1870s, Sweet Town is surrounded by gentle hills and fields of clover. It’s a place where anyone can start over and redemption is never out of reach.
Sweet Town romances tell the stories of the community as its members fall in love. These inspiring stories explore the power of charity, the nature of good and evil, and all the miracles that can happen when you open your heart. [Amazon Link]
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Alice’s Table: Have a flower arranging party and the attendees get to take home the arrangement they make. https://alicestable.com/event-host
Read the following article: Why I’ve learned to leave blank spots in some patients’ medical records
Apply this principle to your own practice. How might your own notes and remarks in a client’s chart reflect on you or them if scrutinized in court?
“If you don’t document it, it’s not discoverable.” – Dr. Robert P. Marlin
It is vitally important that you assure your undocumented clients that they are safe with you.
Birth requires a sense of safety.
Be a safe place for your clients, in all ways. Protect them in the event the overreach of the law requires that you hand over your records or report those without papers to be here. If it isn’t written down, it did not happen.
There’s a picture circulating on Facebook and Pinterest and at first glance, it seems like an empowering statement for women, but something about it bugged me. I decided to rewrite it and while going over each line, I discovered that each claim backing up each statement came from a place of negativity. I know that claiming our power can be a challenge, but the first step is to simply claim it, without cataloging our faults or illuminating our tribulations. Here is my version.
(Outlaw’s Brides Book 7 – Final book in series)Kindle Edition
Sarah Christian (Author) and C.M. Stone (Author) [Amazon Link]
Having lost everything she ever knew or loved, Faith Summers follows a sign, leading her out west to Kansas to marry a man she had never met. But when she arrives, a mysterious man in black greets her, explaining that her intended groom has been killed. Drawn to this stranger and certain her fate is somehow intertwined with his, Faith vows to stay by his side and see him through his troubles to the end of his journey, certain it will lead to her own salvation.
Ben Myers faces serious problems, with no room for superstition or belief in some greater plan for his life. He saw his own plans derail years before, when he saved two young orphans from a lynch mob and lost his position as a deputy sheriff and became an outlaw as a result. Now that he’s close to finally catching the man responsible for so much wickedness in Dodge City, he’s torn between pushing Faith away for her own good and keeping her close to protect her.
As the city draws ever closer to a history defining clash, Ben must choose whether to hold on to the cynicism of his past, or fully embrace faith once and for all.
(Sweet Town Book 15) Kindle Edition
Sarah Christian (Author) [Amazon Link]
After struggling for far too long sharecropping in Georgia, Sasha Douglass follows her sister Beulah into the Dakota Territory, where opportunities abound. Sasha hopes making a new life might also mean finding a romantic hero of her own to sweep her off her feet. But Seamus O’Brien – a man with big dreams who promises things he has no right promising – can’t possibly be that hero.
A perpetual disappointment to his father and a poor replacement for his dead brother, Seamus travels to Sweet Town where his brother-in-law is the mayor and richest man around, hoping a little bit of that luck might rub off on him. But while he’s hunting the biggest gold vein in the Sweet Town foothills, he finds himself entranced by a far more precious treasure: Sasha herself.
(A Midwife Story Book 1) Kindle Edition
Brontë Stone (Author) [Amazon Link]
Carol leaves the depressed dust bowl of Kansas in 1932 to follow her husband’s dream to work on the mighty Boulder Dam. Enduring heat, and primitive conditions, she perseveres until her husband dies, and she finds herself in the dangerous position of being unwelcome in the very town that is sheltering so many from the ravages of the Great Depression.
Tim is an engineer, and has traveled from his family’s comfortable home in New York to work on the new dam. Working long hours he is lonely, and invites the young woman to stay with him while she finds a way home.
What is a young woman to do when she is miles from home, in a wild place where the population is mostly men, desperate men, during desperate times?
Alchemy 