Top 20 Strong-inspiring Films for Womyn

 Top 20  Strong-inspiring Films for Womyn 

'I’m handing in this apron of silence, so

Tuck your tanks under these skirts

because this is mystory now.

Let me initiate you into

MY

dog-eat-dognity:

Δelta- Οmicron- Γamma.

It bites.

Ring those Bells Far Away Bobbie

with a twist,

and crown this

Queendom already.' (Smith, 2016)

Need something inspiring to watch, to see a woman resiliently survive and thrive? Robin Rideout asked me to list the top ten (10) impactful films for me, films that motivate, lift up, and give hope. Here are 20:

I sit and watch

 I sit and watch him
soft silent breathing, and creamy newborn smell.
Relaxed into his onesie cuddle.
Breath up and down, up and down
All the world ahead.

 I sit and watch him now

giggling toddler, and grass tanned face.

Fatigued by play he collapses.

Breath up and down, up and down
All the world a wonder.

I sit and watch him 

out with mates, sneery and sarcastic.

Guarded now, conditioned to control joy, do what's expected.

Breath shallow up and quick down
All the world critical, skeptical.

I sit and watch him

Blinking lights of the monitor, and restraints on his arms.

The head I use to cradle now torn open in mummy wraps.

Heart monitor up, down, down, down

Looking for an exit.

Learning to Belong by educator Anita Toronyi

 ⛺'I assembled my acculturation tent as a migrant by securing it in 4 places:

1. Getting out of my comfort zone – embracing the new language, culture, and customs through assimilation & tremendous resilience.
2. Seeking out mentors in each place - strong mother figures were my anchor.
3. Participating in all social settings open to me as a newcomer.
4. Accepting my new identity -the new me in this society- as a growing part of my multiplicity.'

#UWindsor academic & German educator #AnitaToronyi, 2023

[Image: #SeumasHetherington]

Look Below, 2023

 👁️ Look Below 👁️

For artist Leonard Jubenville, on the occasion of his life’s retrospective exhibition, ‘What Lies Beneath’, Thames Art Gallery (January, 2023).

Look below and see the glow, workings of a world rich and full. 

 

Absorbed beneath the visible, sheen of this evolving floe 

Genesis of new life, labouring dark and birthing light. 

Look below and see the glow, workings of a world rich and full. 

 

A river bank, a complex womb, forging, feeding  

through the opaque gloom.  

Look below and see the glow, workings of a world rich and full. 

 

Beneath green pears, lie limpid brown; ripening fruit and Summer’s down. 

Sun-dried laundry covers warm, moist soap scented of the foundry’s mint. 

Look below and see the glow, workings of a world rich and full. 

 

Fall leaves foster fresh new shoots - amaryllis, gladioli  

and velvet suits.  

Across the furrowed fields evolve, the living gestating resolve. 

Look below and see the glow, workings of a world rich and full. 

 

Seams left on a marble snowscape, guide us to our Winter’s feed. 

As it is, beneath the surface, in all dark patches of our sphere –  

everything important lies below the toiling gloss of rich and full.  

In painting, 'it's the spaces in between that create the picture.'

 Years ago, our Erieau neighbour, painter Carol Bowman described her process with water colours. She said: 

‘It’s not the objects that are important; it’s the spaces in between that create the picture. You spend your time in the spaces.’

This has always stuck with me. So much of life is the space between.
In literary criticism and intersectionality we are told to, ‘Pay attention to what is not there.’ What has been left out? 

What has been left unsaid?

It is the rich space in between that is the foundation for community, for love, for life.

Attend to the spaces, not the objects.

3 Leadership Lessons from Canal Boating

 Three Leadership Lessons Learned from Boating the Oxford Canal 🛥️

1. The front always leads; but it is the stern, where you originate from, that will secure your ship to shore.

2. Work ahead while waiting. This will ensure a smooth transition through locks and changing waters.

3. Work with the natural rhythms of the weather: Pause when it is stormy; Sail as much as you can when the energy of the sun is shining. 

The March 2022 Lewis Heather Fires

 

50 Words: Lon Dubh (Scottish Book Trust)

 

Her mam had been sick with the consumption for weeks, and had taken to her bed, so Mina took the milk up to the castle doors. That morning on her way, Mina saw a black figure flying over her head, and looked back at the house. There, on her mother's window ledge was Lon Dubh, the blackbird. He had come for herself. Mina dropped the pails and ran back to the house, up the steps. Mam was sitting up on the edge of her bed looking bright, healthy. 'Can you fetch me a cuppa a' gràidh?' her mother asked. When Mina returned with the cup of tea, her mother was gone, and the bird no longer there.

[Image: Chatham-Kent artist Tracy Root's painting, 'Solitude of Silence' 2021]

50 Words: Quilt of Life (Scottish Book Trust)

 

 

I ran my hand over the wee stitches she had sewn. Touched one loop after another: one, two, three in time, space and rhythm onto what Granny had called the Quilt of Life. She was gone, but her fingers, the pieces of fabric of her days, were still here holding me.

50 Words: The Metagama April 21, 1923 (Scottish Book Trust)

 

Mina:

My best friend's tears on my face. A dark sky; and fire after peat fire burning along the coast. Villagers came down to the bottom of their crofts to see the Metagama pass. No one spoke. I clutched the black bhìoball the Minister gave me until the imprint was raw.