Stand Together

Come closer, children. Come closer still. Sit where the fire warms your faces and the night wind cools your backs. Feel the earth beneath you; steady, listening; for she too remembers what I will tell you. Lift your eyes to the heavens. Do you see her? Yes, the Moon. She is watching, as she has watched since the first dawn. She has watched your mothers, and your mothers’ mothers, and all the women who came before. She will watch you, and the daughters who come after you, and the daughters of their daughters, unbroken until the end of time. Tonight, I will tell you the story of her covenant - the covenant between the Moon and her daughters. In the first days, when the world was still raw and trembling, the Moon wandered alone. She rose and fell through endless nights, waxed and waned without witness. Sometimes she blazed so bright that she turned the oceans into mirrors. Sometimes she hid her face, veiled in shadow, unseen even by the stars. But no one shared her rhythm. The Sun was too...

When I was 14-years old, Britney Spears sang “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” and parts of the lyrics rang true in my life. I was apparently a girl and a woman and this didn't sit well with me. Although it was drilled into my brain by family and society, I knew I was still just a child.  Have you noticed that in most cultures, girls “grow-up” or “mature” faster? How true is this? Do you think this actually happens? Or is this a way for patriarchy to groom girls to be compromising throughout their lives? I believe yes, there is no other reason why we place such a high-pressure expectation on the shoulders of children who just happen to be born female.  The below picture was shared by someone I know. The occasion was Children’s Day  at a school in India. Do you notice the big difference between the two genders represented here? Look closely, how are the boys (on the top) dressed and how are the girls dressed?    My struggle with this picture is that on...