Women Have Always Been Warriors

Warriors come in all colors, both sexes, all religions...
We are born to the struggle of life
Our touch may be gentle, our voices soft
We are mothers, teachers, ministers.. your wife.

Warriors fight for their children, their homes,
They fight for the right to live on earth.
Our hands are soft and rough, our hair long and short
We labor in business, on farms, to give birth.

Women have always been warriors,
We stand by our family and friends...
Our backs stoop with age and straight in youth.
Women are Warriors in a battle that never ends.

By Paula© October, 1998

Women, You Must Learn To Be Warriors

Women, you must learn to be warriors.
Now when times are dark and our men
Are afraid to tell us what is in their hearts.
There is so much trouble in our land
That it is up to you to decide
Which direction the wind must blow.

Women, you are our tree of life.
Just as you were a long time ago
When a man said: carry my seed.
If you go forth from this darkness,
Telling our story of courage and survival,
Then our tree will grow strong with your words.

Women, do not worry about tomorrow.
Even when daylight is long in coming,
The sun remembers its place in the sky.
Take this blue shawl of knowledge and
Wrap it around your daughters, telling them
That women must not be afraid to be warriors.

Author: Nancy Wood ©

Mountains and Women

The hearts of mountains
and the hearts of women
Are both the same. They beat to
an old rhythm, an old song.

Mountains and women
are made from the sinew of the rock.
Mountains and women
are home to the spirits of the earth.
Mountains and women
are created with beauty all around.
Mountains and women
embrace the mystery of life.

Mountains give patience to women.
Women give fullness to mountains.
Celebrate each mountain, each woman,
Sing songs to mountains and women.
Dance for them in your dreams.

The spirit of mountains and of women
Will give courage to our children
Long after we are gone.

Author: Nancy Wood ©

"Ain't I A Woman?"
by Sojourner Truth, 1797-1883

That man over there say a woman needs to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helped me into carriages or over mud puddles or gives me a best place... and ain't I a woman?

Look at me! Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could head me... And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man---- when I could get to it--- and bear the lash as well and ain't I a woman?

I have born 13 children and seen most all sold into slavery and when I cried out a mother's grief none but Jesus heard me... and ain't I a woman?

That little man in black there say a woman can't have as much rights as a man cause Christ wasn't a woman. Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him! If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, all alone together women ought to be able to turn it rightside up again.

(History Tidbit on This Speech)

This speech was given by a black women in Boston in front of the Union's when women were trying to get rights after a big factory burned killing 100+ women garment makers. She alone had the courage and tenacity to stand in front of everyone and speak on behalf of all Black Women on the issue that although they were not treated the same as white women, they counted just as much! She was comparing White Ladies of the time to the Black Women who were not allowed any of the courtesies mentioned in her speech...

Sojourer Truth took her name because it meant "carrier of truth"

Owlet's Comment:

I have read this before and find it very eloquent.

A few years ago I read an article which said: (sorry fellas), "...so you could look at being male as a sort of birth defect" (Dr. Joyce Brothers?). It has just enough medical truth and just enough humor to make it feasable. Most of my life, I believed men and women were equals. I no longer believe that.
I saw a cartoon once which said: (woman speaking) "Why would I want want equal rights, and give up my superiority?"

Now in my wisdom and age, (smile) I realize that there can be no equality. We are like the teeth on a set of gears. When properly aligned, we work smoothly, when out of sync, we clash, and tear each other apart, slowly and noisily. We don't need equality, we need good sense applied.

Paula© October 1998