Wake up, woman! Follow Your Pleasure

Submitted by Marcy Sauter

Have you ever been moved to tears while watching someone do exactly what they were put on this planet to do? I have, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful scenes to behold. Perhaps it’s a musician that plays beautiful music, or a gardener that has a gift to keep a bounty of fruits and vegetables growing, the ballet dancer that pliés his way across the stage, the cook that pours her heart and soul into the fresh cookies she bakes and the jam she lovingly makes for her friends, the attorney that fights for justice with passion, the mama that raises her children with love and kindness, the math teacher that shares his knowledge through carefully designed lessons, or the surgeon that gives hope to the dying, or the midwife that lovingly catches babies.

I often wonder what gift or talent we’re missing out on because someone is not heeding the call of their desire. It makes me sad to think that I haven’t heard the song that’s hiding beneath that seed of doubt within someone’s heart. It’s heartbreaking that a poem wasn’t shared with others due to a fear of sounding imperfect, and tragic to think of the athlete who won’t train because they were told they wouldn’t achieve success by pursuing the potential that their body held.

How different would our world be if each and every person did what they were created to do? How would your life be if you didn’t live within the expectations of culture, gender, family, tradition, or worse, self-doubt? If you shed every label that was placed upon you, what would you be capable of? How would you be living your life differently than you are now?

Our society is really good at labeling us from birth.

Good baby, bad baby
Good sleeper, bad sleeper
Big baby, little baby
Happy baby, fussy baby, and the list goes on.

Beyond infancy, these labels continue to weigh us down, and sometimes they define us. They threaten to convert us into what we aren’t meant to be.

When I was a kid, well-meaning people told me things that made me ashamed to be the way I was, making me feel like a weirdo. As I shed the labels that were put upon me, the passion for life began to burn in me again. The realization that I am different is now comforting. There is no one on this planet who is just like I am! How cool is that? There’s no one just like you, either.

We are amazing!

The women with whom I work, and my new understanding of this concept of living, have inspired me to write this poem. My hope is that you’ll start shedding the layer of labels which prevent you from doing what you were meant to do in this life. The world waits for you to wake up and share your gift.

Wake up, woman! Have you gone to sleep?

Have you lost yourself in culture? Are you in deep?

Have you been put upon a shelf?

And lost your soul, your voice, yourself?

It’s time! The time is now!

You may think twice, you don’t know how!

You’ve been reduced to few roles

Your heart, your mind, it’s taken its toll

So now it’s time, you must not sleep

Your life awaits, don’t live as sheep

There’s so much more that’s in that box

The key is there, unlock the lock

Wake up, woman! Don’t you forget

Don’t slumber on, or you’ll regret

Waste not the days, or months, or years

Lest you grow old, and drown in tears

Awaken!

Edited by M.L.

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