Grace and Peace from me to you, through the Grace of God given freely to all who believe and receive. I don’t know about you, but it feels to me, as if I have been caught up in a whirlwind. Every time the tumultuousness ends or more accurately seems to end, I feel disoriented and even confused. There seems to be an exacerbation of the I don’t knows’, not my problem, you’re on your, owns’, anger and unresolved CONFLICT and CONFUSION . The mourning of Lent, the healing of hearts wounded by those people, those places, those things desired but lost, those old belief systems that have never served us well, that we still hold onto with all our power and might. Thank God for the Women who have incubated and given birth to dreaming and achieving the dream. 

The Women we honor this month did not begin life in wealth and luxury. Created in the image of God, the commonality shared by these high achieving Women was a wellspring of creative positiveness. They BELIEVED in themselves and saw a need and sought to fill the gap created by the need. Society (Caucasian) had no place for women of color except to serve. Servant class was where we were regulated status as unpaid labor then lowest paid laborer, artisan, entertainment, and easy victim. Women of previous generations, race and culture have faced the same barrier that said “no women allowed to think better or higher thoughts or excel beyond a man at anything. That would be an insult to the man.

Independent free creative thinking women were often accused of trying to be a Man. Inventions women thought of to make life easier at home were snatched and attributed to the creativity of a man. The excuse then was, “if people knew a women designed/made the item, no one trust or buy it”. Patents were made more difficult to get by women. Imagine the first American woman to get a patent for a machine that wove straw and silk to make fashionable hats. However, it was illegal under the law for a woman to get the patent, so it was in her husbands’ name and husband who go the credit. Married women, in that era, had no legal identities separate from their husbands. No bank account, could not buy or sell anything, sign a lease or even be a legal guardian to their own children. Spinsters had a little more freedom. The first Women’s Rights Convention was July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.

Peace Prayer Purpose Power,

Pr. Orinda