Her Destiny is Change Read online

  It was at this exact moment in time that Dally Blyth’s gift and ability to be heard became apparent. Dally Blyth was a natural-born leader. She stood up and began to speak. There was a solemn quiet. When she spoke, the quiet was like a pulpit, lifting her up above the fear and uncertainty. The women had left their homes and families in massive numbers. Most had left with children in tow, many were badly injured and in shock…They needed to know what was next…and as Dally Blyth stood to speak, they looked to her for direction and support.

  ***

  Dally Blyth stood up and looked around her. All she could see was a sea of women and children. They barely moved but all eyes were on her. From her mouth came the words that moved the women. From Dally Blyth’s eloquent address, the emotion that had gripped all of the women present was given a name, a direction, a movement — and this movement had taken action. Her eyes spoke almost as loud and strongly as her voice.

  “Women of the Wideness…It is time. We are strong and we are sure in our beings. We have lived many sessions as the weaker, the less than, the slave. We have lived many lifetimes alongside our men, serving them, caring for them, meeting all of their needs.

  There was a time in our history when the position of the women in the Wideness was even less valued than it has been this past session. Indeed, in our lifetime, some women have worked alongside the men…but always there has been something missing...something basic and something strong. Today we all know what had been missing. Today we witnessed what we lacked in the Wideness.

  EQUALITY — we never enjoyed total EQUALITY. For as far back as our collective minds can remember, we have not been valued, not heard, certainly not listened to and definitely not considered. For as far back as our collective minds can remember, we have never truly been thought of by the men, and even possibly by ourselves, as equals.

  We have worked the jobs, the offices; the doors to the workplace have long been open to us — but the pay, the titles, the voice?

  We tried to reason. We tried to speak. We tried to explain. Jane and I went so far as to try and speak to the Echelon of the Wideness. We entered the Great Hall…and we were first ignored and then ridiculed.

  Our presence — always demanded; our service — always demanded. Demanded. Return to the home. Return to the kitchen. Demanded. Return to the bedroom. Demanded.

  And our demands to be treated equally — not even considered. Our place in the Wideness, demanded, but never respected.

  Today we fell to unspeakable horrors — to our bodies! But we will speak! We will show them that they no longer have the power. They thought they owned and could possess and repossess, shoving their weapons into our bodies, wounding us, humiliating us into succumbing! We did not succumb! We did resist! We did persist!

  Today we choose to be free. Today we choose to be for ourselves…today we choose to teach our children differently. Today we did resist!

  I tell you now… We will prevail…We are strong. We are amazing. We are women and we can do all that we choose! We own ourselves! We belong to ourselves!

  We belong to destiny and that destiny is change! Now, we must get to work and build our own Wideness… The women looked at each other. They looked into each other’s faces and saw the pain, but they also saw something else. They saw in each other the courage, the will the fight.

  After some seconds of thoughtful silence, punctuated by the sounds of weeping and pain, Dally took an audible breath and shouted, “What will we call our Wideness?”

  Then there were another few seconds — this time the silence was absolute. From somewhere in the pool of damaged women and children, a voice was heard. And this voice was listened to. “Let’s call it, the Realm of the Womeness!”

  Dally Blyth’s words were received more than heard. Those listening became more than individual women, they became followers, there was at first, an almost singular silence. Then, the silence morphed and soon it was one very deep, collective deep breath. The sigh that followed was tender and calm. It wrapped the women in strength and sense of pride and, yes, victory.

  ***

  And so, the Realm of the Womeness was born from their collective women’s destiny. And that destiny was change.

  There was an energy captured by Dally Blyth’s speech and it catapulted the women into action. This action was strong and purposeful and could not be suppressed.

  Part 4

  The Women’s Forward Movement – the Realm of the Womeness The Women’s Forward Movement – the Realm of the Womeness

  Some of you may wonder what happened to the women of those sessions long ago. Well, I will tell you. Dreams. Dreams happened.

  *** The women moved into a part of the land that had been abandoned some years before…a string of old mining ghost to;2wns, surrounded by lush woods and running with streams, now pure after many sessions of unfettered abandon.

  Yes, they had moved. They had left to start their own world — the Realm. Like any labor, the growth of their bellies was tiring and the birth of their new home, like time, stretched their skins, their muscles and their patience. It tested their will, their conviction, their reason and their love of self.

  As the women arrived on the outskirts of the Wideness, their feelings were in chaos. They were appalled, humiliated, angry and hurt. Many arrived stunned into silence. Many arrived dazed by the horror and sadistic atrocities that they had experienced and witnessed. Some of the women felt anger. Some, desperation. Luckily, they had each other to comfort and guide, to channel and change the desperation into an even stronger, more ferocious anger. Anger — the strongest motivator for change. It was the power of this anger that moved them into action. It was the power of this anger that allowed the women to start a new place without looking back, without regret. This energy, born from the pain and humiliation of the Great Split as well as the time leading up to the Great Split, was a vibrant energy that had the Realm of the Womeness built in a matter of weeks. All was a flurry of motion — building and planning all at once. The older buildings that were in the old mining town at the edge of the Wideness soon grew and more were put up.

  The first order of business was to get housing in order. The women worked together. They knew and understood that what would happen next was entirely up to them…Their lives together was now a blank book of life, of fables or maybe, a whole new shestory — waiting and ready to be written. This excited and energized them. Those who had been beaten down found a drive, a surge of power. The women, once united in their cause, had a synergy. Alone they could only dream and wonder. Together they would be able to create a safe place, a habitat of women — a home of their own.

  And so the Women’s Forward Movement became the drive of deliverance of the women and the children. The energy and determination that were brought forth were stronger than anyone could have anticipated. The strength, the determination and the will of the women brought deliverance from all that had happened. They worked harder both physically and mentally than they had ever worked before, harder than they ever thought possible to work.

  As they worked through the night and into the day, night after night and day after day, hour after hour, muscles and mind stretched to the absolute limits of each woman’s ability and then more, until nothing seemed impossible. Each one of the women, in her way, began a dream. They worked and worked as their minds set on a united goal and shared dreams. They rebuilt the ghost towns and the surrounding areas. Homes, some tiny one roomers, some larger, able to house a whole family and more…Walls were torn down and others put up, dreams were dreamt through the haze of the day and the heat of the nights. These dreams beat down their nightmares and the pain of the war that had been waged against them, against their right to be and live freely. Their dreams were like the dry twigs in a fire lit by the violence they experienced.

  These dreams led them through hundreds of tomorrows, the possibilities seemed to go on forever, as did their work. These dreams, somehow

  collectively shared on some ethereal level, gav
e them hope. Somehow, their dreams became part of the Powers of All Around, part of all tomorrows. These dreams were of a different sort and style than the ones these women had had before the Split. These dreams were of a life of hard work and freedom, of respect and understanding, of choice and possibilities. These dreams were outside the Wideness, these dreams were of another world, of life, of the Realm, their Realm…the Realm of the Womeness.

  *** The past now physically behind them, just a shadow of what was…The women were on their own. Life was not easy, nor would it be easy in any near future…But the realization and the dreams they were achieving were their own and their children’s — their daughters and their sons. Starting this new kind of life, getting on this new path, this new way of living was not something very many had thought of…but their new reality was a dream. Most of the women who had thought of themselves as the caretakers, responsible for the readiness of the food on the table and the well-being of their children and, in some way, of their communities, now took this sense of responsibility and applied it to the world they were building…It had to work. They had to succeed. For these women, there was no going back. They could not and would not fail and would not return to what was…There was now, only now…the dream, the Realm, the Realm of the Womeness.

  *** The days and nights were filled with work and the struggle to survive. There was also ample confusion. They had moved on and made their decision to create the Realm. They did have direction — but the journey was not clearly mapped out for them. They had only each other to rely on. As they began to birth their new home, the men could not leave the women alone. They followed them to their new habitat and watched them as they worked. Some of the men came over time and time again to try and get their women back. They could not understand that the women had left. They could not believe that the women would not return. At times these men would act violently, trying to force their women to return; they would grab the children and force the women to follow, as if their violence would serve as impetus, as if they could beat these women into submission, into returning to live as less than equal. These women, who had discovered within

  themselves a strength and courage that allowed them to build their own homes, create their own

  community, these women could not and would not go back to who they were in the Wideness. That was not going to happen.

  ***

  And then there was Jane. Jane Double D’s role birthed itself. This was one of the simplest of births. This was Jane’s natural role. It turned out that this is what Jane had spent her whole life preparing for.

  It was during these violent incidents with the men that the importance of Jane and her methods of self-defense came into their true scope of

  importance. Consequently, Jane found herself very busy in these early days. She was not so much involved with the building but her skills as a Judoshii came in handy and she protected many of the women from outraged and furious husbands…and began to teach the children some basic self-defense moves so that they could fend off their crazed fathers and protect themselves from any harm, even if unintended harm. Jane became their defender, their teacher, the symbol of safety. She taught them all not only how to defend themselves — she taught them that they could defend themselves.

  *** Since many of the women had children and couldn’t very well work while taking the necessary steps to protect, feed and care for their children, schools and childcare was set as one of the highest priorities after securing a system for meeting the basic needs of food and shelter. Almost immediately, a school was set up and put to a broader use than basic academics. This new educational system included a strong and basic childcare program. These were the priorities immediately recognized and dealt with in the new habitat. This educational childcare system included teaching self-defense and self-care. It was clear from very early on, following the Great Split, that the children were the responsibility of all in the Realm. The men didn’t seem to have that internal essence, perhaps they simply were not raised to be caretakers. And so they had never worried about the actual caretaking. The women

  demonstrated their awareness of the importance of caring for the children so that the Realm could grow and be strong. The children of the Realm were taught the basics of survival, including growing and foraging for food, preparing food, as well as being taught and given the responsibility of caring for one another. This meant that an entire new generation of both boys and girls were being taught and raised to know, without any doubt, the importance of caring for and feeding not just themselves, but each other. In the Realm, the elder children were expected to look out for the younger children. While not every child had younger siblings, the children developed a communal sense of responsibility. The idea that girls had mothering instincts that boys didn’t have was simply false. In the Realm, the elder children, boys and girls, especially those who had watched their mothers work to build their new homes, instinctively knew to take care of any child who was their younger. This simple basic need turned value — communal caring for each other’s children, especially the younger ones — had a profound effect on the concept of mutual respect, respect for each and every life — male or female; young or old. The boys and girls raised in the Realm soon learned through their daily life that all were indeed equal and meant to live and be treated equally and cared for equally. Equality, respect and caretaking soon transformed into ideals that could not be separated from each other.

  Equality in the Realm was not the only thing new for the women. There was also the whole new, or nonexistent, economy. In the Wideness, the women did not have control over finances,

  nevertheless there was still a class distinction. There were those whose husbands were well off and owned their own homes and businesses — those whose daily existence, food on the table and financial security for their children was ensured. On the other side of the continuum, there were women whose partners were not adept at providing a secure daily existence for their families. Those women who were living without a man also had no guarantee from day to day that their meager possessions would not be claimed by the men in their lives. While the financial position of the majority in the Wideness included the basics, there had been a definite disparity. That disparity dissipated as soon as the women crossed over from the Wideness and began their journey building the Realm.

  You would imagine that this would bring about additional conflict and discord, not to mention discomfort. But these women had all shared something bigger than a dissonance in their economic situation — and this was not only the aggression faced during the Split. These women may have been born into, or married into, wealth, but the wealth was not theirs. So instead of carrying the feeling of the male-centered entitlement with them into their new home, they each brought with them the overwhelming desire to erase this dissonance. Having spent most of their lives until this moment dependent on the men to agree and decide how each coin was spent, these women were determined that any wealth that they did manage to attain with their own hands, minds and hard work, would be put toward the safety of their community. And this included, first and foremost, securing of future. Ensuring that future generations would grow up in a world of equality — not worrying about their basic needs and knowing that each and every voice counted; knowing that each and every soul had a place of their own, a part of the society’s progress, that their children’s education would be a basic factor, counted in along with all of the other necessities. These women did not want to have to ever worry — or have future generations wonder if they would be able to fulfill their potential because they were too busy worrying about their daily survival.

  The women, who had been allowed to work in the men’s businesses, had become better at the businesses than the men themselves. The men had become lazy — ‘why should they do all of that work when the women were willing...?’ This also factored into the speed and relative ease of planning and willingness to build that the women had in the Realm.

  Within the first year after the
Great Split, the Realm of the Womeness grew into an impressive land, run by the same women who had once participated and were so committed to the well-being of the Wideness.

  The women were tremendously organized from the very beginning... They had to be.

  Multitasking in the Wideness had been an important trait and proved even more useful in the new habitat. Demands on all individuals, including the children, were very great. The work was broken up and divided into a kind of socialistic setting. This seemed to be a natural development given the need to care for those who couldn’t care for themselves. There were those who had been severely wounded during the Great Split, as well as small children and elderly. Each woman was given responsibilities that had to be carried out. The women were expected to do the very most that they could...to give the most that they could — no exceptions. If this new life and habitat was to succeed, everybody was needed. This absolute devotion and commitment to building their community soon became their way of life, their creed. An almost religious zealousness took hold of each of these women. The women found themselves more committed to this new life, this new habitat than they had ever been to the Wideness. This approach to life was borne out of a sense of belonging and building that the men had somehow missed when they allowed the women to work and silently participate in the Wideness.

  Destiny is change. Change begot the Realm and the Realm became reality.

  *** The women of the Realm looked to Dally Blyth and Jane Double D as their natural leaders from the beginning. Dally Blyth and Jane, for their part, willingly made ‘urgent decisions.’ Jane was not completely comfortable with this position and it was clear that a better system and method of governing was needed. It became clear that some sort of committee would be needed to make rules and judgment. It was a natural occurrence then, when all eyes turned to the Daily Deed as their regular point of address. The Daily Deed, after all, had been the original source and the planting ground to develop and then enrich this new life — the new habitat, the Realm.