BEAR MEDICINE

An International Women’s Day Message

Today the world celebrates women.

But before we celebrate who we’ve become.

Let’s sit for a moment

With who we were.

The little girl

who felt everything

in a house that needed her to feel nothing.

The teenager

who learned to make herself smaller

so the room felt safer.

The young woman

who kept choosing familiar

because familiar felt like home

even when home wasn’t safe.

The woman

who drove through the desert

and came out the other side —

not because it was easy

but because something in her

refused to stop.

Bear medicine arrived for me this morning.

Picture after picture of bears.

And I thought, wait a minute.

Of course.

Of course it’s the bear.

The bear doesn’t apologize for hibernating.

She goes inside.

She rests.

She integrates.

She comes out

when she’s ready.

Bigger.

Slower in the best way.

Knowing exactly where she’s going.

That’s not weakness.

That’s wisdom.

For every woman today

still in the hibernation.

Still in the desert.

Still in the hard season.

Still in the room that doesn’t feel like home yet.

The bear says.

Stay in.

Rest.

Let it move through you.

What’s being built in the dark

is bigger than anything

you could force in the light.

And for every woman

who came out of the cave this year.

Who published the thing.

Who left the thing.

Who said no to the thing.

Who finally said Yes, to Herself!

Happy International Women’s Day.

You made it.