Oh International Womens Day, here you are again gifting at least half the world's population just the one day every year to officially fly the sisterhood flag. In the face of gross gender disparity, unequal pay for the same work and the lioness's share of emotional labour across the board.I find myself unusually stumped on what to say. All day. No trilling for this little black swan. Because we're no closer to approaching a line determined by dodos with dicks than we ever were but streets ahead at moving that imaginary marker to reflect the whole truth of life and love and relationship: the experience of what it is to be human.In Australia Share The Dignity is mounting a massive and long overdue campaign to remove the tax on sanitary products. Pop over to their page and rally.https://www.sharethedignity.com.au/axethetax/Here we are in 2018 still inexplicably TAXED for our physiology yet products like condoms, nicotine patches and sunscreen are GST exempt. There is much to shout loud and incensed about there. Ideally while premenstrual.In our everyday lives women are shaking off their schooling to play nice, to pipe down and not let emotion determine our contribution, as though men don't too wade through that ocean every day. As if it is of no bankable value when it is the sole barometer of personal truth, no matter your genitalia. To swallow whole our gender's collective trauma and how we have been built since our youth to compete. And best against each other because when you divide you conquer.I was born into brotherhood, two great men my kin, but sisterhood was a strange forest I still often struggle to navigate. I know it to be built on unholy truth, deeper and more real connection than I am always comfortable with. It nourishes me in places I didn't know were starving and provides a bottomless container for my blooming. It shimmers, the holiest of grails that is inclusive and intersectional, deep and wide and wise. Always.It doesn't need one circle on the calendar. Tosh. It merely underlines the change still required that falls to those glittered. If we each continue to shine our light, it will invariably fall across she who requires it right now to sparkle. Today and every day that follows this one.Image via @positivelyglitteredWords c. Kerrie Basha, 2018
