Thinking Beyond Limits to a World Without Violence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDSTa6tJ-ag&feature=youtu.be

We have been taught since we were born that the world is meant to be the way it is. But the reality does not fit our hearts, our minds, our sense of what is right and wrong, our sense of what is necessary, our sense of what needs to change. Most women on this earth have been violated in some way by men. Most still have no freedom to choose our lives, too many have no access to money of our own. Too many girls are kept from going to school. Most people on this earth live in poverty. Too many have no access to medical care. Business is being allowed to cause ruination of the earth. Untrue history is still told, leaving out the brilliant ideas of women. History is still being told with one narrative, hiding that it has not always been this way, insisting that leadership must be solely or dominated by men. The truth is still not being told that this is not how it is, everywhere. But we know. And with more and more trust and strength in ourselves, we are telling a different story.

I am so heartened by what is happening these days. By finding each other, by challenging the way we have been told “it has to be”, we are creating a different world. A world of equality, of love, of compassion. A world in which we address poverty, inequality, violence of every sort, toward a different world. We need to trust ourselves in our greatest, seemingly impossible dreams, trust each other that we can hold onto the vision that a different world is possible and that indeed we are here and finding each other to make this happen. A world in which women and girls are educated, leaders of our communities, and in consultation with each other, globally. A world in which business is charged with serving the people who work hardest, and in which only business that conducts itself in harmony with the earth is acceptable. A world in which sexual slavery, forced marriages, control of women has been ended. A world in which there is no more war. This, I know, is in our hearts, these hearts that have been ridiculed so often throughout our lives, these hearts that now are creating a magnificent vibration of love through our connections within our communities, across our countries, and throughout the world, with each other.

It is through the love and the brilliance of women, the love and the determination we have offer, that we will be able to bring into reality what we know is possible. It is by the men and boys who believe alongside us that they too will benefit, that they too desire the vision we have been presenting to take hold, that this can be possible. A world without violence.

We have been called rebels, upstarts, dangerous, biased, selfish. We have been called utopian, impossible dreamers, naive. This we need to keep letting slide off our shoulders. Run from it, leap into the air together, fly with our gigantic dreams. We are pushed to continue to create change as we transform this deep pain we carry, this unbearable pain that we carry from our lives, and from what we know each other has gone through. We have created a magnificent, dazzling light, a potent mix from times of desperation and fury into brilliant love. We have been transforming this reality that we live in, into a recognition of and a commitment to this absolute necessity for change. This necessity for change is calling, building with an insistence that is all of the pain of women combined, into our collective call to each other, a call strong enough now to break a sound barrier, fill the air with rainbows, cause a cosmic shift. We know deep in our hearts that we are needed, that this change is needed, that our leadership is needed. We are creating a new world, a very different world, a very beautiful world for all, in which we have freedom, equality, justice, respect and peace in our lives, in the lives of all, and for the earth itself. So let’s keep trusting ourselves and each other. Let’s keep going. What we need is to make this happen. We are on our way, and finally, we are finding each other.