Create: It's On Me

My jewelry choices are normally pretty plain.  They are small, typically glass and cord.  Every once in awhile I wear something on a chain or something that sparkles.  Although, lately my lack of sparkle has been put aside for my bangles - very thin, mostly antique or vintage, bands of silver.  They don't sparkle so much as tinkle.

And so my craft this week for going out of bounds is this lovely necklace and bracelet set.

Why is this stepping out for me?  Lots of colors, lots of randomness as nothing in it is uniform. 

It actually reminds me of a lot of the popular jewelry right now or in the recent past.  But mine is all glass.  Even the seed beads are glass.  I guess my way of reminding myself to be out of bounds is a symbol of what's popular in the mainstream?

But being out of bounds isn't just out of society's bounds.  It's about breaking yoru own bounds so you can achieve what you truly want.

This jewelry reminds me that I don't have to hide, that I can stand up and say whatever I feel like saying.

Have a great weekend!

Write: Out of Bounds

Exercise:  Think about one of the two questions below.  Take ten minutes to answer in the form you choose.  It could be poetry.  It could be an autobiographical story.  Or it could be a sci-fi piece set two hundred years in the future.

What does it mean to be a woman out of bounds?

or 

What are the boundaries hedging women in place?

I am a woman.
I will not be forced into a corner.
I will live, love, and laugh
a woman.
I will raise children, raise a roof,
and raise a fuss at the glass ceiling.
I will not allow myself to be fenced in,
forced to fit, or faint at adversity.
I am a woman.

Inspire: Women Out Of Bounds

I recently received my first requested book from Paperback Swap.  It is Women Out of Bounds, a book about historical women who broke out of the bonds that held most women of their age.  It includes women such as my favorite pirates, Anne Bonney and Mary Reed, as well as a female human cannonball, a woman who sold winds to sailors, and a woman who ran for president of the United States.  And no, I'm not talking about Hilary Clinton.

This book, although I've only leafed through it so far, has introduced me to some amazing women.  These women didn't just stand up because they wanted to flout the authority of men.  No, they did it because they wanted to be themselves.  I'm amazed that these women haven't been given more notice.  In fact, a good majority of the American women in this book I've never even heard of. 

As a feminist, of course, I enjoy this book.  I think that any woman should enjoy this book.  Of course, I think that any man who believes that women are his equals should enjoy this book.

But this book also resonates with me on a different level.  Not just 'we are women, here us roar!' and 'Equality!' but as a person starting to really understand what it means to be herself.  As I have mentioned previously, I have spent the majority of my life hiding from notice beneath a thick shell.  I have been frightened of doing what I wanted because I felt someone would laugh at me, someone would say that I wasn't good enough, I wasn't bright enough, I wasn't enough. 

But I've been changing.  I've realized that I am myself, and no one can put me down unless I let them.  I am talented, and bright, and creative, and joyful.  This book has not told me 'how' to find myself or how women should stand up for themselves.  It just relates the women in the past who were in such difference places than I am, and they did things their own way.  They didn't care what others thought.  They didn't care what was normal or proper.  They just went out and did it.

This attitude, this feeling of knowing oneself, is something that everyone should have.  Female, male, orangutan.  Know yourself and do what you feel is correct.

Who are you?