Look for the magic

An Entry for WoLF’s Letters to Girls

BY N

Letter to Little N,

You were born a female human. This carries a lot of baggage with it. Many thousands of years of default baggage - it looks like deception, manipulation and power structures that work to undermine our sovereignty. It looks like self-doubt and disconnection from our inner and innate intuition. It looks like spending half our lives feeling and being victimized and the other half, if we’re lucky, realizing we can move on from that.

But being a female also carries magic. Look for the magic always. That magic can change the default.

Our bodies are amazing structures with the power to create and nurture life, to ebb and flow with the cycles of the cosmos. We used to know this as a species and have largely lost that knowing, so look for the clear-eyed and fierce women who take no shit - they will help you navigate. Look for the women who are good listeners and who can teach you about the warmth and safety found inside yourself. Look for the ones that resist the power-over structures.

Create. Dance. Do every little thing your heart truly desires. Not the petty, shallow stuff, focus on the things that make your soul sing - the things that make you cry from the beauty and truth of them.

Have a natural skepticism because bad actors are everywhere and manipulation is a default behavior in this world that humans have built. One of the ways to find safety and belonging is to make sure to gather with women you trust. “All space becomes male space unless females maintain a concerted effort to mark a space for themselves” - Sheila Jeffreys.

Lastly, learn to go outside and surround yourself with the remaining natural world. You don’t have to go far. Sit on a porch and listen to the rain hit the roof. Watch ravens soar in the city park. Go for a hike and observe the way the water flows off of boulders and into an ephemeral stream. You can learn a lot from watching our beautiful planet simply exist. YOU can simply exist and that is enough.

I hope you find the waves of peace inside of your soul.