I’m going to Alchemy because I’m ready to roar

I grew up in an America that discouraged women from openly exhibiting our power. I married and had two children, at which time safety for my family often required my public silence. My children are now grown and don’t share my last name. I am ready to roar and want to be with women who aren’t afraid to assert themselves and don’t see all success as competition with them.

I am proud of what my country has accomplished since the sixties, but I am worried by the many who want to return to the painful injustices of our past. It is easy to get discouraged when we realize that, like Moses, I will not live long enough to enter the peaceful promised land all over the earth. All I can do is help encourage and support those who have the youth, talent, and vision to keep us from sliding backward and to plan a path forward.

I am like the woman in Helen Reddy’s song:

“I am woman hear me roar,
in numbers too big to ignore
and I know too much to go back and pretend,
cause I’ve heard it all before
and I’ve been down there on the floor
and no ones ever going to keep me down again.

Oh, yes I am wise
but it’s wisdom born of pain
yes I paid the price
but look how much I gained,
if I have to … I can do anything!
I am strong (strong) I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman

You can bend but never break me
cause it only serves to make me
more determined to achieve my final goal
and I’ll come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul

I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe,
as i spread my loving arms across the land,
but I’m still an embryo
with a long, long way to go
until i make my brother understand.”

I may never get my brothers to understand, but I’m confident that I will meet many sisters who do, during the Alchemy Event. Whatever wisdom I have garnered in my life, I hope to share with other women at Alchemy and beyond. I succeeded in bringing up my daughter to be an award winning teacher, so I have some success at mentoring women. I serve as an editorial mentor for WorldPulse, an international organization, based in the United States, that mentors women in citizen journalism. I look forward to hearing success stories of fellow powerful women, perhaps even assisting some in telling their own adventures.

Yvette Autin Warren Author: Our Tennessee Mountain Home Coker Creek Connections Getting Into New Orleans Seafood