|This write-up is an invitation to pause, to reflect and to widen one’s perspective. The intention is to include the different choices and level of consciousness and existence and to remember that we all belong.|
I recently received official word that I will be receiving an award, along with associated fees. An amusing situation, I don't know how I ended up on that list. I have respectfully declined this award. While I may lead this conversation in expanding on the “whys” and “why nots” ask women to pay for an award in the event her work is recognized and celebrated, such is not my intention. I know women who will move forth with this award along with the fees and I know women from the past who have done same. An award of any kind gives access to platforms, to presence, to visibility. An award is one of the many ways of being seen, validated, celebrated, and honored.
In my work and walk with myself and with women, one of the deepest longings that shows up in conversations and sessions is the “longing to be met”, this is the unmet longing of the child, this is the unmet longing that is passed across generations. This longing ripples within us all regardless of our identities.
Who do we long to meet?
We long to meet ourselves, we long to be met by our parents, by us as the significant one, to be seen as worthy and as enough. We live in a world where for centuries we have been attempting to bring forth, to honor and to include women’s worth and while doing so, we have missed on the most important part, a woman’s worth, infact any human being’s worth has least to do with what they do in the external world. In a world that is centered on doing, producing, and intellectualizing, we are missing out that there is no award that can uplevel someone’s worth. This is a stride that women have been on for years, “the run for awards”. Such stride may leave one thirsty for more, because the longing to be met cannot be quenched by the external world.
I am not negating the call to inspire and be inspired, to recognize, to validate and celebrate each other’s lives, commitment, and dedications. As humans we need such fuel to further ourselves into life, to grow and expand. The walk inward starts in the external world, it often takes an external validation to take one inside.
In 2017, my embodied and living idea of what an award meant, shifted manifolds, I was taught that an award is an echo to include, to see me and to see more than just me, an award is more than celebrating one fragment of me, it is rather about expanding my ability to include and to relate.
