When You Leap, You Will Sprout Wings - Having Faith In Our Selves and Our Ability to Heal

I consider myself a risk taker. I always leap believing things will work out on the other side. As a woman, this leaping has been scary because of all the messages we receive that we cannot do it. As I prepare to undergo training as a midwife, this fear of leaping is very real. I have also sprouted wings and though I do not know where the path will take me, I know I will fly.

I remember what first put me off to the idea of becoming a midwife. I was scared of having that much responsibility in my hands, both literally and figuratively. Still the quiet voice that has always pushed me to face my fears persisted. I let that voice go silent in high school when I didn't excel at mathematics and science. I chose communications in college and as the Universe would have it, I was redirected to my charge as a healer through my second major of Black Studies. Learning to embrace my African roots gave me the faith I needed to know that I was meant to help women heal, but first had to heal myself.

Women for a long time have been made to be afraid of their power. I know I've been afraid to embrace my power and have faith in my ancestors. We have been demonized for our innate healing and intuitive abilities, handing it over to a patriarchal system of separation and domination. I often talk about the medical system as it stands; to clarify, I am not against medicine. I am against a systematic method of operating that denies people the right to be treated humanely and with compassion. I encourage medicine and healing modalities that are meant to prevent illness and truly heal people, not just cure and hide the symptoms. Medicine and the healing arts have been in existence as long as humans have been on the earth. When we separated ourselves from spirit and from each other, this is where the issues began. This is a scary leap for us as a collective, who have been indoctrinated with fear of our own bodies . Furthermore, our ancient indigenous healing modalities have been distorted. We are afraid to trust that which kept us alive through the centuries of colonization. What is interesting is that many of the pills and medicines used by the current medical system are based from our ancient healing knowledge. It can be concluded that we were stolen from and have had it fed right back to us in the form of orange bottles and medical procedures.

The women of the world were the original healers. We were challenged by the church and state and killed by the millions; still to this day, I believe the major reason we have so much violence towards woman is rooted in wanting to kill our power completely. What is this world without women, who leap and sprout wings every single day? We are charged with the responsibility of bringing life into the world. This is what empowers me on my midwife path - that I was born to do this. It is a calling - to be a gatekeeper for the wise woman birthing the world. It is my hope that women will continue to use their voices to empower and heal ourselves, so that our daughters may take great leaps and fly into our long-awaited future.