Abstract
In May 1987 I lay in a hotel room in Montreal, waking to the excitement of my participation in the formation of a Canadian Women’s Health Network, a forum of 20 women meeting to establish a national coalition to promote women’s health. I would represent the voice of rural women—one voice among 20 talented women, feminists, from across the country. Imbued with the sense of responsibility and opportunity in representing Canadian rural women, I experienced an image arising from my connection to a body that was more than my body; my connection to a mind that was more than my mind. Like an angel embodying the collective potential of women isolated by their geographic context, I was part of (embraced by) an awakening body, a body of political, economic, social, and cultural power that existed in the health, knowledge, willingness, creativity, and generosity of rural women. A focus on efficient use of scarce resources was irrelevant in the emergent force of this massive, abundant potentiality. I experienced an awesome sense of connection that has remained with me ever since. I experienced the embodiment of an awakening prosperity, the potential of including the once marginalized, undervalued, unrecognized, and trivialized, economic value of rural women. I knew my focus needed to remain with the radical and immediate harvest of this ripe potentiality and not be snared by a limiting mind-set that emphasized competition, scarcity, and constraint.
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© 2004 Edmund V. O’Sullivan and Marilyn M. Taylor
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Petrie, V. (2004). Fostering Ways-of-Giving Within Communities. In: O’Sullivan, E.V., Taylor, M.M. (eds) Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness: Selected Transformative Practices. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-8238-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-8238-4_14
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