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Blogs by Niki Collins-Queen
“Women Writing for (a) Change”
12/14/2009 12:55:03 PM
Mary Pierce Brosmer's honesty and openness in “Women Writing for (a) Change”created the space to embrace the ups and downs of my own journey as a mental health counselor and writer.
Brosmer, a teacher, writer and poet, is the founder of Women Writing for (a) Change, a nationwide organization that offers writing workshops, and the Feminist Leadership Academy of Cincinnati for building sustainable communities of women leaders.
The purpose of her book is to connect writing for personal growth to writing for transformation of culture and nature. To create our pattern, learn to say what is happening from multiple perspectives and weave it into the whole.
Brosmer encourages us to value both interior and exterior life and the action-driven masculine and the reflective feminine. Her story and poems invite us to share and transform our “attention-deficient culture” into a refreshing “multi-layered resource-rich” world.
Brosmer's chapter titled “Listening Within and Moving Out” about witness consciousness and dissociation holds much wisdom. To explain witness consciousness she quotes John O'Donohue. He says “Your identity is not equivalent to your biography,” there is a place in us that was never wounded, where there is tranquility and confidence. Brosmer says home with a small “h” is this world and our limited bodies whereas our real at-Home-ness is our participation in the all, a belonging and peace with things as they are. She says, “I am convinced that I bring more good and do less harm now that I live in regular relationship with my shy soul as opposed to my restless, irritable ego.” Dissociation, in response to trauma, is a survival strategy where a part of the self splits off. The person often feels helpless to act or speak on their own behalf. Witnessing and writing can heal by building a bridge between the two selves. The traumatized person writes themselves whole.
Intimacy is found in the presence of non-armored bodies, open hearts and non-competitive and nonjudgmental listeners.
Brosmer's chapter titled “The Planet Passing Through Us” is deeply moving. She talks about the research of Richard Louv in “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder” and how we can no longer assume nature will always be there. Brosmer's poems and prose show how writing and witnessing can be a tool for creating a relationship with nature that is more appropriate to the present planetary reality.
Her observations and recommendations about leadership are both helpful and insightful. Leaders help others find their voice. Traditionally leaders fixate on their own speaking with no regard for what happens afterwards. The conscious leader is aware of the impact of their words and invites others to speak and points out ways the words can become action in the world. Gregory Bateson's quote, “The pattern that corrects is the pattern that connects” is a Brosmer mantra. A leader uses their power to make space for the unexpressed and the underprivileged values of life. A good leader can sit in a circle, be vulnerable, let go of their certainties, listen, tell their story and make space for others and know when to be silent long enough to balance all the years of standing up and taking too much space. It means correcting by connecting.
Brosmer's book inspired me to write my truth and provided the support and encouragement to speak and act on it.
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