Spirit Matters: Women deserve celebration every day

I write this on March 8, International Women’s Day.

I am thrilled there is a day established to not only honor and recognize the achievements of women throughout history, but also to bring awareness into the lives of all women that we matter.

We not only matter. We are rock stars.

Some might read that last sentence and roll their eyes, and that in itself illustrates the problem.

If women were rightfully and equally recognized every day for their value, simply by their nature of being, we wouldn’t have to have a day that says “Hey! Look what these women (and the women in your lives) have done.” We would be celebrating their achievements, big and small, every day.

Some will argue women are recognized. We have a woman vice president, after all. We have and have had women Supreme Court Justices. We have women who rise to the top in every field, often after having had to work harder to prove themselves in ways that are not expected of men.

Women heal others physically, emotionally and spiritually. They educate. They lead. They inspire.

But in a world dominated by the “masculine” energy of drive, analysis and achievement, why are women not recognized for their unique and equally powerful energy, and energy that has literally borne and sustained life from the beginning of time.

No one living on this planet arrived here any other way but through a woman. I am not discounting the role men play in the continuity of life, but it is women whose bodies are designed to nurture and nourish a human life, not only to birth, but all the way through life.

A woman never stops being a mother, even to her child’s dying day, and beyond.

And even women who have never borne children carry the innate genius qualities that allow them to assist in “mothering” all human beings, through their intuition, receptivity, nurturing, empathy, collaboration, compassion, self-sacrifice, authenticity, creativity, softness, and inner strength.

With all of this in mind, why are we still allowing those responsible for us being born into this life, to be treated with so much disrespect, on a global level?

Why aren’t we educating and regularly celebrating women’s contributions to humanity, as a foundation of our society and culture?

Why are we not only not giving every one of them the tools and resources they need to fully actualize themselves in their unique genius, but making it difficult, if not impossible for their souls to fully bloom, according to the intention of their Creator?

Why do we so often treat rapists with kid gloves?

In January 2015, Brock Turner, a star Stanford swimmer raped Chanel Miller, a 19 year-old-freshman college student behind a dumpster, when two Swedish bicyclists intervened.

Turner was convicted in March 2016 of three felony charges: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person.

In court, Miller read a statement to Turner:

“You don’t know me but you’ve been inside me. In newspapers, my name was ‘unconscious, intoxicated woman.’ Ten syllables and nothing more than that. I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity, to relearn that this is not all that I am, that I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party found behind a dumpster. While you are the all-American swimmer at a top university, innocent until proven guilty with so much at stake. You cannot give me. You cannot give me back the life I had,” she read.

Turner was sentenced to six months jail time and probation. He was released after three months.

I wonder if the words Miller spoke to Turner in the courtroom registered with him, and other men like him who were listening.

I wonder if they comprehend they are violating in every way possible the potential mother of other human beings, a woman just like the woman who brought them into the world.

I wonder if they comprehend the kind of lifelong physical, emotional, and spiritual damage they do to their prey.

I wonder why this still happens, and if things will ever really change, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, today.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.