Expanding possibilities

Back in the 1980s, when referring to a woman as a girl was non-PC, my husband called me his ‘baby woman’.

Girl-power

Times and our concept of girlie have now changed. In place of being ‘only a girl’ we can now be girlie (at any age) as well as everything else we want to be. Which means we have expanded our possibilities and have more choice, including the choices of having fun in a girlie way, without giving away our power, autonomy and other choices. This can be as frivolous as wearing outrageously short skirts (who me?) or as important as re-connecting with our femininity, getting our own needs met and individually and collectively making a positive difference in the world with girl-power.

One small step for woman

For many women, especially those of us who have been involved in the corporate world or lost our sense of playfulness, girlieness may be worth exploring and enjoying. We need to be careful, however, not to use girlieness, consciously or unconsciously, as a cop out, rather than showing up and responding fully and authentically.

David Deida talks about more feminine people wanting to be taken on a journey. In our abundant times, there are many journeys available, at a price. There is also a widespread avoidance of taking full responsibility for oneself and one’s choices and we are exposed to a great deal of clever persuasion. These factors do not combine well unless we learn, practise, hone and use discernment.

Additionally, girlieness is only available to roughly half the population. This is not true of femininity.

"…all men of power use the way of “woman” whenever possible, because any man that understands knows that the way of the woman is a thousand times more powerful than the way of the man." Shantam Nityama (full interview)

Having something men don’t, may appear to take us out of the competitive arena but it is only because we have adopted a masculine way of thinking that we want that. When we are in touch with authentic femininity, competition becomes irrelevant.

Continual expansion

The challenge is that we have all, men and women alike, learnt early on not to be authentically feminine. To rediscover that, we have to explore the unknown, following the guidance we find within ourselves, and, because the feminine is ever changing, keep exploring.

Despite its piss taking origins, ‘baby woman’ offers a couple of useful pointers for this more extensive exploration and opening, containing, as it does, the idea of being both innocent and mature.

Innocence

It is only when we are innocent that we can be really present to anything or anyone, including ourselves and our hearts, or have original thoughts or innovative ideas. At other times, what we think we know, or what we want to get or what this moment brings up for us from our past, get in the way.

Childish vs childlike

When we are fully present to a situation, we can be childish (with concern only for ourselves and our immediate interests) which tends to make us a liability and nuisance to others, or we can be child-like in our innocence and respond from the fullness of ever growing and deepening awareness of ourselves, others, life etc. In other words, we can enjoy child-like innocence and employ maturity.

Baby women and baby men

Mature innocence can also make and keep our relationships, our world and our lives fresh, expansive and delightful.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at 8:43 am and is filed under feminine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.