Gloria Steinem, Marilou Awiakta & Alice Walker: Multiple Hearts Exploring Their Pasts
Learning to find and read books based on their timeless merits, instead of chasing current bestseller trends, is a skill to always pursue developmenting further.
I have been slowly reading Gloria Steinem’s 1992 book “Revolution From Within” for a long time and I’m still not through it. It is one of those books I choose not to race through. With many books, complex or not, I can speed read them or get the essence of them quickly. But this book is too substantive and smart for me to read quickly. Further, I do better reading short portions, giving me time to cognitively try to digest things before moving on.
In Chapter 2, titled “It’s Never To Late for a Happy Childhood,” Steinem writes:
“The unconscious is timeless. A taste or smell or sound that accompanied strong emotions of the past can renew those forgotten feelings - just as the sound of a radio in an empty room once did for me.”
“There is no single way of reentering the past. Often, a teacher, therapist, or trusted friend becomes a surrogate parent who makes us feel safe enough to begin the journey.”
“In general, the deeper the wound, the more an empathetic guide or at least a personal commitment to a trusted process is necessary before the unconscious that has protected us all these years will make the journey home.”
“When I think of my mother, for instance, who was my parent but could not be her own, I find comfort in these lines from Cherokee poet Marilou Awiakta:”
Motheroot by Marilou Awiakta
Creation often
needs two hearts
one to root
and one to flower
One to sustain
in time of drouth
and hold fast
against winds of pain
the fragile bloom
that in the glory
of its hour
affirms a heart
unsung, unseen
- - - -
(The above poem was also quoted in Alice Walker’s 1983 book “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilou_Awiakta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Walker
© All rights reserved by Gloria Steinem, Marilou Awiakta, and Alice Walker.
Gloria Steinem is my hero. She encouraged women to use their free will at a time when the “little woman” was expected to clean house, raise kids, have dinner on the table when hubby got home from work, and, heaven forbid, harbor no opinions.