Taking Back Our Power

Today I reflected on ‘It Was Hers’ -a beautiful verse by Terri St Cloud. It made me think about my own choices and behaviour over the years and how I had given away my power to so many others. In my effort to be ‘nice’, I was quite simply not nice to myself. Like many other women I know, I  have, in the past, allowed people to take my power away – no, I even gave it away freely! But I took back my power.

But we are taking back our power.

It was hers

they took.
they invaded.
they pushed.
they violated.
in so many different ways.
a lifetime of pushes and takings
and making her feel less than valuable.
sitting back, she began to see it.
how it had gone on and on.
and in seeing it,
she began to realize –
it was up to her now
to shout,
to whisper,
to sing,
to move
and to believe in her value.
no more taking that from her.
it was hers.
no more giving it away.
it was hers.
proudly,
with strength
and with knowing,
she held it.
she lived it.
she became it.”
—Terri St. Cloud

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.”
― Susan Polis Schutz

“You almost have to step outside yourself and look at you as if you were someone else you really care about and really want to protect. Would you let someone take advantage of that person? Would you let someone use that person you really care about? Or would you speak up for them? If it was someone else you care about, you’d say something. I know you would. Okay, now put yourself back in that body. That person is you. Stand up and tell ’em, “Enough!”
― Queen Latifah, Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom