Road Diary 08/03/23 - Joshua Tree, CA
It’s International Women’s Day and I’m grateful to be spending it on vacation with the 4 most influential women in my life, my mom, Jennet, my sister Naomi, and my partners Tlell and Hillary.
These women have made me who I am today, encouraging reflection and critical thought and inspiring me daily to rise above challenges and never stop growing.
I’m reflecting today, as well, on the countless female friends and mentors who have shaped my life, the teachers and professors, the former partners and lovers, the close friends, past and present.
I’m grateful to live in a place where women can confidently, strongly, and explicitly have this influence on men and boys, and in society. This, I recognize, is not true everywhere, and so today, I want to acknowledge and honour not just the women who are in my life and who shape our society here in Canada, but the women all around the world who make families and societies functional, who carry the weight of inequity and intolerance, and persevere despite it. To those who defend their children and those who fight for their’s and other women’s rights.
Today I think about indigenous women here in Canada, fighting for the recognition of their missing and murdered sisters, daughters, mothers, and relatives— fighting for a future where MMIW is no longer a necessary or common acronym. I think about women in Afghanistan and Iran and elsewhere in the world whose place in public life is being eroded as we speak. I think about trans women in America whose rights are at this very moment being egregiously attacked and whose safety is being threatened by the very government that claims to be a global beacon for liberty and justice.
We cannot fully celebrate our freedom until all people are all free. So while we celebrate today, let us also regroup and reflect. This fight isn’t over.
To the fellow men in my life, now’s the time to step up our support while also stepping back, practicing our active listening and looking to the women in our life for guidance.
Happy International Women’s Day!
