The Arabs had their “Spring.” Now women are having theirs. Halleluya! In virtually every country in the world on this Valentine’s Day women are dancing for an end to violence against them. JoAnn is one among them dancing in the streets of Atlanta today.
If ever there was a good reason for a day in the year called Valentine’s day, this is it. Never mind the obligatory cards and roses. Let’s give this day over every year to this cause until the violence and degradation that one in three women are currently likely to experience has stopped. Then, if we want to, we can go back to doing what started out in the Edwardian Age as the only socially appropriate way for a real gentleman to declare love for a lady — sending a card.
In the meantime, how about Hallmark creating a whole genre of Valentines cards that not only give men a chance to declare their love but include a promise to honor and cherish the women in their lives as they should be honored. That is, as equals and worthy of our respect.
I also challenge women to play their part in the shifting the energy by including in their amazing choreography a dance routine on Radical Forgiveness. If one billion women, all on one day, were to do a Radical Forgiveness worksheet on those men who abuse them, I believe the abuse would stop immediately. Women have to realize that they have been complicit in creating the inequality and, yes, even the abuse, by believing they are not worthy. Doing the Radical Forgiveness work would put an end to that centuries old energy pattern. Now, wouldn’t that would be a Women’s Rising.
Thanks for your support of women.
The movement needs men to get involved.
You are a great asset to our women-kind.
Gratitude.
Hi!. I am glad that this is happening. I DO NO COMMENT MUCH AS I DO NOT WRITH WELL INGLIS AS YOU CAN SEE. BUT I AM GOOD AT LISENNING.
Hi Elvia,
I appreciate the effort. Nice to hear from you.
Colin
Great idea, we did it here in Lebanon too. Dancing to stop violence against women is a wow concept and we truly hope it will amke a difeernece in our world dominated by men.
I believe in your work Colin I read your books and a sa coach I use your radical forgiveness sheets a lot. Removing the limiting beliefs that people have is the hardest part of my work and guiding clients to forgive is ever challenging.
I agree the only that women hve contributed to this injustice and with your help I try in my work to make them acknowledge that, then learn to love themselves in order to reach forgiveness of self and others.
Thanks again, without your guidance I can’t do my job.
Hi Grace,
Thanks for passing it on to your clients. This is one of the toughest things to get women to accept.
Blessings,
Colin
Right on!! As the mother of two girls, I am always on the look out for those moments when my young girls have slipped out of the space in which they respect themselves. It starts there! Thank you for your work. I have benefitted greatly.
Dear Colin,
I struggle with what you have written about One Billion Rising. First I must admit, I am new to your way of thinking. I got onto your website looking for information that will help me decide which of your programs to buy. I am also a survivor of long-term domestic violence. My experience, is that most people who have not experienced this condition, in all of its manifestations, do not understand it, though many think they do. I’m sorry to say that I run into this mostly with men. Even the most sincere, and kind hearted of men have a tendency to minimize the abuse, and to throw it back on the woman who has endured it. I see your above comment in this light. Yes, it would be good for women to accept themselves more fully. Yes, if I had thought better of myself, I would have given my husband a pass. But please understand, the cards are stacked against women making the right choice. In all of the time that I was with my husband I sought help from countless books, therapists, friends and family members. They all said the same thing, in a variety of ways: the abuse was my fault, and if I would try harder, my husband would be more of the “good man” that they assured me was his true nature. Well I tried harder, for twenty three years, and with each year, the abuse got worse. It very nearly killed me. My challenge is this: if you walk through the world looking at things that you know are blue, but everyone says they are red, eventually you will doubt your own perceptions, and sanity, and you will come to see blue as red.
We cannot say to women, change on the inside, and you won’t be abused. Because domestic violence is too much a part of our culture, too imbedded, and too subtle, for that to be the real answer. Change must come from all participants in our culture. I ask you, as an influential member of the dominant power group, please recognize this reality, and work to change it. To say that women need to work on themselves, however true, serves to reinforce a social attitude that keeps women in abusive relationships, and gives men the power over them. In your position, you have the opportunity to combat the myth that domestic violence is the fault of women.
This letter is my contribution to One Billion Rising. Thank you for reading it.
Best,
Ginger
Hi Ginger,
Thanks for the challenge. I agree with everything you say about abuse to women, but if you are new to my work and perhaps haven’t yet read the book on Radical Forgiveness, you wouldn’t have seen very clearly the difference between what happens in the human world and how different things might look from a spiritual perspective. I can only tell you that when we begin seeing things from this point of view, everything changes. My suggestion is read the book to really get what it is I am saying. It might change your life.
Blessings,
Colin
Yes!! Wonderful.
I could not agree more. I have already started with my radical forgiveness on all these men who did not give me the recognition I deserve. However, my mother needs far more forgiving than all these men. Sometimes we have to look real careful as to the originator for the feeling of unworthyness.