Welcome to the Holy Week of the Gutsy Gal!
It is no coincidence that this week begins right after Easter and Passover. It is, after all, inspired by the Original Gutsy Gals, Miriam and Mary Magdalene, who for too long have been relegated to handmaidens in the master’s tale. But folks, it simply ain’t true. Miriam and Mary Magdalene are the Blessed Midwifes of Divine Light. Miriam with her tambourine delivers us from the bondage of self through the waters of Life to the promise of Presence. Mary Magdalene waits for us at the tomb /womb of our re-dying and re-birthing and welcomes us over and over again into Mystery. These Gutsy Gals each walked to the edge of their known unknown and leapt into their lives. They have a story to tell in you and me and every Gutsy Gal we meet along the way.
May our paths cross this week.
Gutsy Gal
The Spirit of Perpetual Rising
April 17-24
This week we celebrate Gutsy Gal.
You won’t find her on any official calendar
of any official religion or otherwise unofficial
underground circles or covens.
Search the canons of mythology and theology,
and you’ll find plenty of Feisty Fionas
but not one by the name of Gutsy Gal.
You’re looking in all the wrong places.
Go into your bathroom.
Walk up to the medicine cabinet.
Take a good look at the woman in the mirror
(ah! just look at all those merry wrinkles of time well spent!)
Give her a wink.
You have just found Gutsy Gal.
Now that you have found one Gutsy Gal,
how about another one?
Gutsy Gal is everywhere.
As soon as you see her in the mirror
you start seeing her all the time…
Hint:
She is usually perched on the edge ——
Just about to leap.
Just about to rise …
The woman in the wheelchair at the gym
who crawls to the edge of the pool
and plunges into deep waters with giggles of delight.
The woman brought to the edge of despair
who wakes up one morning and prays,
“Enough of this! Help me out of here,”
and is surprised by kindness.
The woman who hears the call
and fears the call
and cartwheels off the precipice of her hesitancy
into the fullness of being alive.
The woman on the edge of unbearable grief
who gradually dances with whispers of remembered joy
and begins again.
The woman who meets us at the edge of our consciousness
and escorts us into the inner sanctum of our holy of holies
… and the women who go there.
The woman who stands up to the tyranny of power,
to the self-serving cruelty of ignorance and indifference
while others sit down and shout her down
and still she persists.
The woman who tells the stories.
The woman who midwives the change.
The woman who heals the only human
with a bow to the eternal divine.
The woman who meets the stranger with an open heart.
The woman who welcomes the stranger into her own heart.
The woman who stands on the edge
and dances and sings and laughs
in the midst of it all
because she must!
Should you be so fortunate
to cross the path of Gutsy Gal
(who sometimes leaves her hat in the most unexpected places)
bow deeply to the light in her
that shines in you.
Blessed be!
