The Quiet...

Quiet moments that morph into healing, into a journey of forgiveness...

The quiet lies still beneath a moon-filled night...stars winking out messages of hope, of peace, of more as I stand still beneath them breathing in cool night air.

These times of quiet, of silence, of stillness come more frequently these days...moments of reflection most assuredly, however, most often it is a mind quieted and silenced by awe and wonder at natures beauty.

Laughter comes easier, quicker...tears too...this is a benefit despite what I previously grew up believing; that tears were weakness, a sure sign to predators that you were easy prey.

Instead they are a harbinger of healing, of hope, of coming out of a deep well of sorrow and fear. Tears wash us free of our captors...they free us of our sense of shame and shed light in dark places; as a heavy curtain is thrown to let in soaring sunlight.

What is revealed in stark relief is TRUTH...the real truth regarding monstrous acts against your person and the fault that was laid at your feet. As if the waves buffeting you to and fro amidst another storm of the century, frequently visited upon your mind and body, were your responsibility. If only I had loved more, better, deeper...if only I had spoken more eloquently, more directly...oh the list goes on and on, coming from the depths of a soul awash in conditioning and mind manipulation.

And still...still people ask 'why didn't you leave?'

Or my personal favourite...'why didn't you fight back? I'd have fought and it never would have happened.'

The fighting back is quickly swallowed whole by the unfiltered rage spewing over you, a hundred times worse than usual; thus sealing your fate, ensuring your silence the next time, your fists kept hard at your sides.

Perhaps we should re-write the narrative to showcase who truly deserves the questions, fast and rapid-fire.

Perhaps women should start fighting back by putting the men who dare to harm them so horribly, in the ground. There would be less abusers in the world to continue meteing out trauma and abuse like candy. Less work for the boys in blue.

Word would get around that women are no longer taking sexual harassment, rape, physical abuses, mental and emotional abuses, sitting down.

God talks of justice...of fighting against evil.

Gods work?

These are all questions of minds that have seen terror unlike any other...of those who have seen death and shaken hands with that cowled grim reaper.

Where does it end dear hearts? Where does death and mayhem, abuse and chaos end in this world?

The end begins with us...each one. Together and alone, standing for what is right in the eyes of God.

'Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.' Ephesians 5:11

If good men and women do nothing in the face of evil, are we not a part of that stain?

When someone looks the other way as a man accosts a woman he has never met...who is in the wrong? Both men...both. By neglecting to intervene, the man who saw is as guilty as if he had taken part in the sexual harassment. Women too...

No more...if you're not a part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem. It is so far past time that good men stood up to those testerone filled predators. However that looks.

Time for us women to stand as warriors and find a path to justice for those who cannot find it themselves.

Time to stand dear friends. Time to draw a line in the sand.