“Courage is as often the outcome of despair as hope; in the one case we have nothing to lose, in the other all to gain.”

-- Diane de Poitiers

I recently divorced a very abusive man. For ten years, on a weekly basis, I allowed him to rage at me with words so vile, and sometimes hands to choke my words away. I must have believed I deserved it somewhere inside, or else I never would have stood for it. It took SO much for me to leave! I had to drive four hours away to relocate, and still I kept coming back, time after time until I had finally had enough. All this, and I am a healer, Reiki Master, Yoga Instructor and Expressive Arts Facilitator. Even with all of these amazing gifts that I have acquired and given to myself throughout the years, I still stayed and stayed.

Now I am healing. I am pulling myself out from underneath piles of rubble. I am dusting my self off and proclaiming my fierce warrior priestess, the one who loves herself to the absolute strength of all the world... I am she, who is the earth, and I fight for a place for my children to grow without these voices in their heads, to give them stories of strong goddesses, strong women, and fairy worlds where unicorns live and kindness and love rule. I unschool them, I allow them to mold themselves, and I am constantly reminded that I must be fierce in my determination to tell them how amazing and important, beautiful and loved they are...

I continue to hope for, and work towards creating a better world, really a better world, one where women and children (and men) are safe to feel love, joy, and all of the emotions that make for a full life experience; for community, for nature to return, for toxics to be cleaned up and the rivers and the children and the horses to run free again...

~ Maaike Medina

“As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-- Marianne Williamson

“Working through fear to the central significance of love brings us to beauty as naturally as the darkness of night leads to the glow of dawn.”

-- Robert Sardello

Maaike wonders why it was so hard for her to leave her abusive husband. David Deida offers an insight on this question that relates to so many women. Tune in next week!