#When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

[innervoiceartblog]

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.”

― Terry Tempest Williams from: 'When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice'

[maslimanny]

Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.!!

[heresay]

We can change, evolve, and transform our own conditioning. We can choose to move like water rather than be molded like clay.

Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

[dk-thrive]

Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy.

— Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice (Sarah Crichton Books, April 10, 2012)

[sneakers-and-shakes]

Women's Month Reads

In honor of Women’s History Month, I thought I’d share some books I’ve read recently written by women about women and, mostly, for women.

When Women Were Birds: Fifty Four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams

A mix of prose and poetry Terry intertwines her life, conservation efforts, and her mother’s death into a story that reads like a well written journal entry. She combines what it means to be a woman, the earth we all live on and our connection with it and each other, interweaving the concepts much like the graceful flight of a bird.

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

A classic from 1929 when women were allowed even less than we are today and yet the concepts still hold true. Woolf talks about fiction and writing and how it relates to women in what feels like a long string of consciousness thought making this already short read go by even faster. There’s almost certainly an analysis on the past and the relationship fiction and poetry had with women, the past, as always, still influencing our present.

Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya Chemaly

If there is ever a book that factually notates the woman condition, it is this one. She brings to light many of the harsh realities of being a woman that most of us simply carry around in our subconscious and lays it out for the world to see and understand. There is a safe space in here to feel the anger we so rightfully deserve to feel and brings us closer together.

Bonus:

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez

This is sitting on my shelf as my next read but I have heard many great things about this book as well. I wanted to include it since I will be reading it soon.

Real Self Care:  A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness by Pooja Lakshmin, MD

A fantastic book detailing the woman condition as it relates to self-care and mental health. Dr. Pooja Lakshmin presents ways to redefine what self-care is in a world where the goal is often more to make money than deal with the real matters of mental health, and lays out steps to achieve it.

 -.-

These are just a few of the books that I found were fitting for this month and I am sure there are countless others that I would love to hear about from you guys! Thanks for reading!

[champ-wiggle]

Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.

Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

[belamuse]

Why I write (and share words)

and facilitate life story and mythopoetic writing processes (where women share words) for others:

“When one woman doesn't speak, other women get hurt.”

― Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Image: Alexandra Schoen

[julesofnature]

Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.

Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice 

[exhaled-spirals]

How shall I live? I want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living in. I want to survive my life without becoming numb. I want to speak and comprehend words of wounding without having these words become the landscape where I dwell. I want to possess a light touch that can elevate darkness to the realm of stars. [...] We cannot do it alone. We do it alone.

Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

[vmaddesso]

Excavating... remnants of joy in the debris of nightmares.

Yes, sometimes, waking up and mornings can be excruciating.

Finding the joy takes work.

It is possible.

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.” ~Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

[irrepat]

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

by Terry Tempest Williams

[innervoiceartblog]

“For far too long we have been seduced into walking a path that did not lead us to ourselves. For far too long we have said yes when we wanted to say no. And for far too long we have said no when we desperately wanted to say yes. . . .

When we don't listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don't, others will abandon us.”

― Terry Tempest Williams.

From 'When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice'

Photo: Swinging 1930's beach style!

[maslimanny]

Take a deep breath and sidestep my fear and begin speaking from the place where beauty and bravery meet--within the chambers of a quivering heart.!!

- Terry Tempest Williams,

[heresay]

It is the dirt of our lives—the depressions, the losses, the inequities, the failing grades in trigonometry, the e-mails sent in fear or hate or haste, the ways in which we encounter people different from us—that shape us, polish us to a heady sheen, make us in fact more beautiful, more elemental, more artful and lasting.

Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

[dk-thrive]

the world is meant to be celebrated

Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.

~Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice (Sarah Crichton Books; April 10, 2012)

[magicinwords]

If ever there was a story without a shadow, it would be this: that we as women exist in direct sunlight only.

Terry Tempest Williams, from When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variation on Voice