Martha's profileThis Woman's JourneyPhotosBlogListsMore Tools Help

Blog


    October 07

    Women Warriors

    The women gather...
    The nature of my work brings me close to many women, all colors, rich and poor and somewhere in between... some I speak to only once, some I talk to almost daily... it is an honor to work with women... to work for women... to share their stories... to hear the "her"story... I guess I am a herstorian...
    By our nature, women are protectors, nuturers, nourishers, caregivers...
    We all know a woman, man or child in a relationship that is unsafe... let me tell you some things I know about domestic violence
    • most women don't fall down the stairs on a weekly basis
    • most women don't bruise easily
    • most women don't hit their eye on the kitchen cabinets every couple of weeks
    • most women don't duck or raise their hands to protect themselves if you move suddenly or raise your voice
    • most children are not born believing that their mom's are "fat", "stupid", "ugly"
    • most children are not born believing that THEY are "fat", "stupid", "ugly"
    • If you suspect that your friend, neighbor, co-worker, colleague, classmate is being battered, either physically or emotionally:
    •  PLEASE do not turn your head.
    •  PLEASE question their frequent less than believable excuses.
    •  PLEASE try to help them feel safe.
    •  PLEASE try to help them be safe
    • PLEASE try to have frequent contact
    •  PLEASE understand that many women will stay in a battering relationship for YEARS, often only prompted to take action when their children are threatened.
    • PLEASE remember that most of these women fear for their lives, and often the lives of their family and friends.
    •  PLEASE remember that many of these women are convinced and believe that no one will believe their story.
    My hopes for this article are to provide a forum for women (or anyone) to speak out, to share your story, to share your support and love for those in our community experiencing domestic violence & to increase awareness. I also want to share my love, support and commitment to a dear friend who has lived a million nightmares... and is moving back into the light! I am SO proud and blessed that this bright spirit is in my life! Thank you Julieann for surviving!
    As part of this story I have established an email address dedicated to receiving your story if you are not comfortable and safe publishing it in your own name... if you send your story to this email address: WomenWarriors@gmail.com I will publish your story anonymously, using my name... if you have information about resources in your community, please send that information to the email address: WomenWarriors@gmail.com and I will compile a list of resources and will assemble a list to publish here. If you need help finding resources in your community, I will try to help you find the information that you need. This entry will move to a permanent heading here later.
    Share your stories, spread the word, share your knowledge, show your love and be gentle with yourselves and others!
    Martha

    Comments (16)

    Please wait...
    Sorry, the comment you entered is too long. Please shorten it.
    You didn't enter anything. Please try again.
    Sorry, we can't add your comment right now. Please try again later.
    To add a comment, you need permission from your parent. Ask for permission
    Your parent has turned off comments.
    Sorry, we can't delete your comment right now. Please try again later.
    You've exceeded the maximum number of comments that can be left in one day. Please try again in 24 hours.
    Your account has had the ability to leave comments disabled because our systems indicate that you may be spamming other users. If you believe that your account has been disabled in error please contact Windows Live support.
    Complete the security check below to finish leaving your comment.
    The characters you type in the security check must match the characters in the picture or audio.

    To add a comment, sign in with your Windows Live ID (if you use Hotmail, Messenger, or Xbox LIVE, you have a Windows Live ID). Sign in


    Don't have a Windows Live ID? Sign up

    Oct. 30
    Oct. 24
    Picture of Anonymous
    Charlie wrote:
    What a great website you have. Thank you so much for sharing.
    Best wishes,
    Charlie
    Nov. 9
    Missywrote:
    Good Morning Martha - hope this Monday finds you and yours safe and happy. Thanks a bunch for coming by my space and for your nice comments. I bet your weekend was a beauty down in the ol' Gulf watching the water ebb and tide. If I lived on the Gulf full time, I'd probably never get off the beach. So much to observe and feel at one with. The vastness of it amazes me in itself. I know there are larger bodies of water, but the Gulf is the only one close enough to me that I do get to visit from time to time.
     
    You have a wonderful day Sweetie!!! M.
    Oct. 23
    CJwrote:
    ;-)  I've seen you in my stats, so I knew you were there.  Just figured when and if you felt a need or desire to say something, you would.  Thanks for stopping in.  It's amazing how youthful we can feel when our kids and/or their friends are around, isn't it?  Kind of stirs up that inner child and makes them want to play!  Enjoy your weekend, hun.  God bless!  (As for that third eye, I think Julieann hit that right on the mark!).
    Oct. 21
    Julieannwrote:
    Good morning, sweet Martha!
    These images are gorgeous!!!! Your Third Eye is obviously developing more and more and your spirit is expanding just as the ocean. Ahhhh....the ocean. No matter how we try, we cannot attain it. Like trying to understand the magnificence of a women and all her currents. Thank you for my visit to the ocean. Getting cold here in Georgia!!! I know....I am a wuss to you New England girls.
    Very difficult night. Didn't sleep well. Kirven, unexpected left and took Birdie and I didn't feel safe. Finally fell asleep around 4:00. So tired. When he left, he took the programs accidentily for Karen in a box in the back of his car. I couldn't catch him in time!!!! DAMN!!!!!
     
    Okay, getting myself in a bad mood and I have lots of editing to do today to send! I will jusy have to look at your pictures again and get back my serenity. By the sea, by the sea...by the beautiful sea ...la de da de da ...
     
    MEN!!!!!!!! Okay...just slipped out!!
     
    Love you,
     
    Julieann
    Oct. 21
    CJwrote:
    I'm going on a hunch here, and that hunch was that you  needed a hug.  So here's a gentle ~hug~ for a gentle soul.  Hope you have a peaceful weekend!
    Oct. 20
    Hopewrote:
    beautiful idea.. will be keeping you in prayer for this to become a healing within.. for so many that are abused.. holding your hand in this.. soft hugs ~Hope
    Oct. 17

    Just a simple message of love and support here. -- Abe

    Oct. 14
    PJ Bwrote:
     
    Those lovely photos at my site..are of course beautiful. That BEAUTIFUL LADY..JULIEANN....fixed them up for me.
     
    And yours ...took my breath away..truly...I can smell the ROSE...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
     
    Thank you for stopping by...Please come back.
     
    Hugsssssssssssss.
     
    ~*~Paula~*~
    Oct. 9
    Missywrote:
    Good morning Martha - and my what a beautiful song you sang to me of the water, and the dolphins playing in the moonlight. It made me feel like I was back at my home in the deep south in Fort Morgan, Alabama. When we have been there, on two different occasions, I was allowed a prime opportunity to see a group of five or six dolphins about 50-60 yards off of the beach, just playing and jumping up in the air the way they do. It was what I would consider a rare moment. I love the feeling being at the ocean gives me. Complete peace. The ocean, it's vastness, so powerful, yet so peaceful, - something about that old body of water, the Gulf, it's just different from the other oceans. I guess because of it's natural protection with the reefs and all, it's just something special, I like it much better than the Atlantic. The Atlantic seems greener, rougher, not so protected from the rougher currents, plus I like the white sands of the Gulf in comparison to the beige sands of the Atlantic, much cleaner.
     
    Thanks so much for sharing your a portion of your beliefs with me. I have long been interested in the path of Witchcraft, but I also do believe in the Christian God and of Jesus, but, I do believe that all Gods come back to One, and I believe that all of our Sisters and Brothers who were burned at the stake all those years ago were not evil in any means, only misunderstood. They were the ones who held the knowledge of the natural, the healing powers of the herb and plant, and stone life. They knew the eclectic mix of how to address certain problems with whatever means available at that time. And they were burned at the stake for no reason other than being Evil itself. I keep many volumes of books on witchcraft and herbals and stone uses and all sorts of nice things like that. Christians have used magic in their own path for centuries and are so jaded by the teachings that they do not even realize they are using what is considered by many to be witchcraft. No one is right and no one is wrong. We all have our own set of beliefs from the inner sanctum of our souls. This is where we will find the God or Goddess that we so dearly believe in. I think too, that even my God, the one I have always believed in and upon can have the feminine side of the path as well. God is not just one thing but many, and he or she, as the case may very well be, can do anything to enable us to be whatever we wish to be. I kind of incorporate my background teachings of Christianity along with what I have learned of different paths of witchcraft. Because I just do not think that everyone's wrong. I have this one book, called, Ancient Christian Magic that explains a lot of the rituals used in the old testament. And even God sent magic to split the Red Sea when Moses need the powerful Magic to save the Christians from the Pharoah and his army. So, how can we, the ones who believe in one way of living and set of inner beliefs down another's path? We cannot. Not with an easy heart anyway. If I were to sit up and say that so and so's way is totally wrong and against everything then what kind of person would I be? And how would that leave me in judgement by my own Savior? I think he might be pretty dissapointed in me for not being more open to another's beliefs and ways. Paganism, and Christianity are not so far apart. I don't think anyway. I think all those hardnosed Christians who put someone down for believing in something different are mainly screwing themselves, because I just don't think God or Jesus would be proud of them for downing someone else.
     
    Thank you again for sharing a part of your beliefs with me. It really helps me to learn more of other's beliefs, so that I might be able to connect with more people and open a new door in my own life. I hope that I have not offended you in any manner, by sharing my own side of the path, because that certainly was not the intention. I am going to stop for now, because I could ramble on for days about theological values and beliefs. This is just something that I am in pure awe about. I sit with eyes of wonderment like a small child when it comes to this stuff.
     
    Love ya Chicky - and catch some good sun rays and moon rays as well for me from the old Gulf and send them my way in a sweet meditation... Missy
    Oct. 9
    CJwrote:
    Amen to this!  And of course, me being the mouth of the south that I am, I'll definitely pass this along!  I will keep these women and women like Jane in my prayers.  God bless!
    Oct. 9
    Becca Kwrote:
    God bless you for this.
    From a survivor.
     
    Becca
    Oct. 7
    Deborahwrote:
    Martha, so powerful,so necessary, and the music is great.  I will probably be sending you an email soon.  Bless you, dear lady.
    Oct. 7
    Julieannwrote:
    Dearest Martha,
    Again, another powerful blog....very powerful and a much needed one. Oh dear Martha, your heart and life mission is huge. I am so honored to be in it as you are in mine. Thank you for honoring me and all the others who never got a chance to have the last word. All women are grateful for crusading for them when it would be so easy for you to just take it easy because of your health. You are just like me, Missy, Jeannie, Hope and the others. We all have a purpose and that is to join together as sisters and DO SOMETHING with our lifes.
     
    When your sweet adorable quick witted loving sensitive Sara called me this morning, I was so filled with emotion. She is so much like you, Martha. ahhhhhhhhh so incredible. She is stitched in my heart now.
     
    The pictures are a given no matter what. I believe that Kirven will keep his word on the camera and web site. The reason I trusted him in the beginning was that he said he always keeps his word. He has a good heart and he said I could tell you and my children the night I called you guys from the cabin to tell you about the new Nikon and lens. 
     He is sorting things out this week-end on his horse back ride with his sister and another woman. I am embarrassed to tell everybody that I wasn't wanted but he said he said he had to think about his life. He will do the right thing so don't worry so much. I believe that. Sorry I cried so much about it last night. I was jealous and hurt I wasn't going. Felt like Santa Claus had taken back his present to me. Please tell Jeannie I didn't go  and thank her for her beautiful words.  I am back at Kirvens and trying to find those documents that you need. He was sweet and left the place nice and clean for me. I will try to call you from his phone. Mine is low.
     
    I back you up on this...you know. Missy is an incredible support. She is one that walks the walk and her talk is as real as they come. She speaks up loud when there is an injustice. Not afraid of anything or anyone. Her eyes she is terrorized with. I know. We share the same fear in that. I pray for her everyday that she will be able to get new eyes. No one has any idea how hard it is to see what we see. And yet she sees better than most. She has that Third Eye going strong.
    Well, back to Kirvens. Been nice to be with my dearest friend, Allen and all the animals. Call me at the usual there.
    I Love you sooooooooo much And Sara!!!!!!!! Thanks for the music!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!
     
    Julieann
    Oct. 7
    Missywrote:
    Wonderful idea and love your font. I have glaucoma and anterior base segment membrane dystrophy which will end in blindness. I can have cornea transplants at that time. If there is a set available at that time. Which, surely, enough folks sign the back of their driver's licenses that they surely have a bank of these. I'm hoping anyway. I don't know about you, but my family knows my wishes, and I have made all the proper arrangements to be an organ donor in the case something happened to where I could not live viably and with dignity. You know what I mean exactly, being a nurse yourself. I don't want to lie in a bed on a vent, with a feeding tube, having to poop and pee on myself and having others to wipe me up. Not the life for me. I have already told them(family) not to let that happen to me, I would rather go on to the next realm of living. And threatened to come back and haunt them every day if they did let that happen to me... Thanks for a wonderful idea on your post and for using a very readable font. Love ya Chicky!!! Missy
    Oct. 7

    Trackbacks

    The trackback URL for this entry is:
    http://thiswomansjourney.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!4659E0159AD60E36!521.trak
    Weblogs that reference this entry
    • None