International Women's Day

What are you doing to celebrate IWD this year? Are you going out with friends to enjoy a cultural or social event? Are you staying in to think of others who cannot or do not feel like celebrating because of where they are and what they've endured? There are so many little things we can do that (in the spiritual scheme of things) make a difference: ring a woman friend, email an encouraging message, take someone out who has mobility problems or financial constraints and treat them... Attend an event run by a women's organisation you've never joined with before and support one of their events if they have one - even if you once long ago fell out with someone from that organisation and vowed never to return! Nothing should hold us back from showing solidarity with one another, not just on this one, special day of the year, but every day.

There's nobody really holding women back, but us women - we ourselves! Imagine if we all truly united and put aside our divisions and objections to one another, if we took the needs of women thousands of miles away on the other side of the world (or just down the street in the next neighbourhood) as seriously as our own... Too often, women blame men or hide behind them and let them take the flak - a big like 'the party in opposition' in politics. Let's agree, finally, to stop doing that. Let's use all our powers and intelligence for the good, not just of each other and our sisters around the world, but for everybody! And let's not stop there! Let's champion the cause of Mother Nature and the needs of all species. Isn't that our duty?

Wishing you the greatest IWD ever

from Jan and the women of the Red Tent (Heart of England)