13/10/2024
2024 International Day of the Girl Child, I got this message from one of my kids. Just WOW! And DEEP gratitude that the dots connected!! Keep RISING my lovely kiddos! I love YOU forever!
"Hey, Mama,
I feel that by writing this, I will be able to articulate it better. Today is the International Day of the Girl Child. I am not sure I have ever been able to remember or put a significance on past celebrations of this day.
Today I am whole, I am seen, I am heard and I am accepted.
I don't know if I would have ever recognised what it is like to be truly seen or heard if it didn't start from me - from hearing myself speak, seeing myself and understanding all these, first for my own self.
My journey would not have been like this. I honestly do not know how I would have manoeuvred adulthood without ever having heard you, sat with you down and witnessed you holding space for me to be able to be myself and know that I truly know myself.
Passing through your hands at a young age has me always wondering "why am I not able to see myself in the stories that are shared on behalf of me?" As I was sharing earlier with you, understanding that it's not everyone who went through a phase of intense 'peeling' (of what does not serve me) to come "home" to who truly they are - has saved me so much words, (trying to explain myself) like when I am being misunderstood.
I know when to say, NO and to say it respectfully. I know when to take a deep breath and rest. I have understood surrender, even as I become older and want more control, I recognise that it's not everything that needs me to control it. Or even that, I need to control anything.
For me to get here to understand life is deep. Conversations are deep. To keep going to the depth of situations to heal and 'find' myself even more, is really powerful. To have had the opportunity of someone to push me to BE this for myself is not something that has happened to so many people.
Sometimes I share bits of me, and I ... see people get shocked and surprised at how that could have happened to me and I am still here. Truly, I see how healing makes huge things become, not small, but a part of my story that I have embraced and become a part of, in such a way that it can not surprise or shock me because that's me. Even though not in my entirety, it's still me.
I am here. Sometimes I struggle with depressive episodes - very bad ones - and the wisdom to name the emotion and dig why I feel it, it's something I got from those early years of being around your voice and your BEing!
So thank you mama. I celebrate you for putting all this for me to be able to 'eat' and 'digest' for myself; for the gift of not teaching but INVITING me to myself through so many ways. In this way, I am able to be a safe space for other people to truly pursue this journey for themselves; slowly through the values that I sit on - I am love, I am compassion, I am whole, and I am light.
Being whole and Enough for myself is so, so huge!
Happy International Day of the Girl Child
I love you
Gats"
