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Original poster

Feminist self care. A thread to comfort and console.

58 replies

ArthurbellaScott · 12/12/2023 16:02

A Poem for Someone Who is Juggling Her Life

This is a poem for someone
who is juggling her life.
Be still sometimes.
Be still sometimes.

It needs repeating
over and over
to catch her attention
over and over,
as someone who is juggling her life
finds it difficult to hear.

Be still sometimes.
Be still sometimes.
Let it all fall sometimes.

Rose Cook, from Notes From a Bright Field (Cultured Llama, 2013)

Notes From a Bright Field - Cultured Llama

by Rose Cook Rose Cook’s Notes From a Bright Field is ‘a single quiet path, in and out’, capturing the transitory beauties of the everyday: a mother’s ashes imagined as ‘Lux flakes’; the ‘fruit-gummed glass’ of a cathedral. Where the poems’ themes are...

http://www.culturedllama.co.uk/books/notes-from-a-bright-field

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DameMaud · 12/12/2023 20:41

What a thoughtful, lovely idea of a thread!

Here is one of my favourite, comforting poems as a contribution:

Wild Geese (Mary Oliver)

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 12/12/2023 19:36

Lovely idea for a thread. The OP in the 'Taking the (feminist) cake' thread you linked has it right about female activities being belittled. One of the most heartening, restorative and restful things I do is go to a craft guild meeting once a month. I ditch my family and the housework and spend most of the day there with an entirely female group, of all ages (though mostly older) and walks of life. We chat and share skills as we get on with our various creations.

etmoiandme · 12/12/2023 19:20

Oh this thread is much needed just now, thank you.

MrsOvertonsWindow · 12/12/2023 18:13

Fuckwits abound. FWR is catnip to a certain type of anti women poster.
None of us have to engage. Kudos to the women who do take them on and expose their misogyny & nonsense. But it's fine to ignore & step away to do something that's self nurturing.

OP posts:
Unex · 12/12/2023 16:20

Treat yourself with the same kindness and gentleness as you treat others
Have respect for yourself
You are important

Having a rest is a perfectly legitimate activity

OP posts:
Original poster
ArthurbellaScott · 12/12/2023 16:05

It's been a while since we did one of these threads. Seems a good time, in the dark days of a difficult year.

Good, strong women get burn out. It's okay. It's solvable. Just takes a bit of time.

Feel free to add ideas for self care, soothing music, poems, or cake recipes.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3284366-Taking-the-feminist-cake

Taking the (feminist) cake | Mumsnet

I love, just love, the way in which FWR responds to goady threads by gentle conversations about baking and bees and cups of tea. On a recent, threa...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3284366-Taking-the-feminist-cake

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