I'm weary of violence against women. A few nights ago after watching yet another news story about a young woman who goes missing while taking a run and turns up murdered, I turned to my husband and cried - "We are not safe! We should not have to constantly carry pepper spray or our keys between our fingers wherever we go!"
Women all over the world are not safe. And I just need to name it. And lament. And fume. Yes. I know there are so many horrors in our world and I lament those too. But today I'm lamenting how unsafe it is to be a woman.
And I'm praying.
Shannon Evans gave me the words this morning in her book, Feminist Prayers For My Daughter. If you do not have a daughter to pray this prayer for - I invite you to pray it for all the daughters of the world.
O Thred of Solidarity,
You weave your way through one woman and the next, connecting in spirit those who live worlds apart. As my daughter faces the very real challenge of womanhood in her Western context, may she also carry the burden of her sisters around the globe:
for the daughters who are abandoned in favor of sons,
for the daughters who are denied an education,
for the daughters who do not have the right to vote,
for the daughters who are refused a driver's license,
for the daughters who are victims of genital mutilation,
for the daughters who are given in marriage as mere children,
for the daughters who routinely suffer abuse.
For these and others whose pain is more acute than her own,
may she feel empathy.
May she draw strength.
May she support change.
May she be compelled to pray.
May she carry her sisters.
May my daughter's world always be bigger than her own singular experience of it.
Amen
