rising [women's march]

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

- Maya Angelou

To My Daughters,

We could have marched in Canada, but I needed to march there.  The country of your passports, but my birth.  So we journeyed & we marched.

We marched because I wanted us to show with our bodies, with our presence, that everyone is deserving of dignity & a voice.   People with every skin tone.  With any passport.  People from the LGBTQ community.  Those who feel excluded.  Immigrants. Refugees. People who have disabilities. Women. Men. Everyone on God’s green earth.

I hoped that our small presence could help to stand against the darkness that defines people as “winners” and “losers”.  That declares that people in some countries are more important, that they come first.  To sing over those lies with our songs & with our feet.  There are only God’s beloved on His green earth.

You won’t remember, tiny baby, but I want you to know that I carried your small body with me among thousands to fight for that warm flesh.  To say to the world now & to you, especially – that your body is sacred & beautiful & was not made to be judged in a contest, objectified in a gaze, or grabbed against your will.  Your body carries the image of God over all His green earth.

Your papa made a beautiful sign for you.  There were so many people with us, people choosing to be brave & strong, people on every continent, all over God’s green earth.       

I don’t know what the days ahead hold.  But I want you to know that we were there & that together

we were all a sight to be seen.

- Mama

Protesters on 42nd Street in front of Grand Central Terminal during the Women’s March in New York. 
Credit: Nicole Craine for The New York Times