Hello again - Audre Lorde's quotes as guide for this trip

"I find more and more women-identified women brave enough to risk sharing the erotic's electrical charge without having to look away, and without distorting the enormously powerful and creative nature of that exchange.  Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world, rather than merely settling for shift of characters in the same weary drama."

"For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like the only alternative in our society.  Our acts against oppression become integral with self, motivated and empowered from within."

"To refuse to be conscious of what we are feeling at any time, however comfortable that might seem, is to deny a large part of the experience, and to allow ourselves to be reduced to the pornographic, the abused, and the absurd."

I read Audre Lorde's book on the plane to Barbados and it was the perfect choice.  Audre Lorde's words always remind me of many types of freedom.  It seems to me that she communicates what she learned from her experiences as she tried to understand her place and agency in her world and the many positions she inhabited.   As I read it I realized that I must believe in something spiritual because, as I've told everyone I know, my mother's influence has been the most important and enduring gift I have ever been given.  And, the connection I make between my mother and Audre Lorde is that I think my mother learned the same kinds of lessons as she moved through the world.  She did not necessarily articulate them as much as she lived a life that expressed her sense of freedom and the responsibility that comes with those lessons.

While my mother was alive she communicated her understanding of woman in struggle with social norms and her own individual needs and dreams by her continous decisions to interact with the world on her own terms.  Now, when I look back, I understand all of her advice and I know better now how that advice has shaped my life.   I live in the midst of understanding that contentment and the kind of happiness that comes with freedom.

It was that sense of freedom that made me choose Lorde's words for my trip and it is that freedom that continues to grow and take on these incredible faces as I travel and meet others who are committed to change.  This understanding of freedom is not one I take for granted and it is not limited to a dictionary definition.  As I mature, as I travel, as I read, as I listen, and as I observe, my ways with the world continue to shape my sense of self as an individual and as a woman.  I can say, now without hesitation, that both the negative and the positive experiences have given me the knowledge, the advantage, and the vision of an even more incredible future.

Already, in Barbados, I've visited the university, and outdoor night concert of Christmas music, and today I made a trip to one of my favorite places - the outdoor market.

Some of the photos I hope to share with you.  I must warn that the connection has been slow, but I will find the patience ::))