It’s women’s history month and it’s so exciting to see an abundance of media about woman who have made significant impact on our world culture and the evolvement of our society as we know it today. Women have held many roles throughout history. Traditionally, women act as anchors for any society, due to the fact that we bear children and need to create a safe home for our offspring. While acting as anchors, we also go out into the world to earn a living and feed our families. If we are fortunate and have a partner that is a teamplayer that burden is shared. We don’t usually hear about women adventurers and their amazing accomplishments. Most girls aren’t encouraged to be hero worshippers. Historically, we decide what we are going to do and go about accomplishing it without a lot of fanfare. Things have changed now and there is media everywhere, that is funneled towards us in a myriad of ways. It’s thrilling to hear about women who have really made a difference in technology, sports, business, the arts and more.
The dictionary’s definition of a hero, is a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character. In this world, heroes are important. We are all together on this life adventure and it takes all of us to create the best world possible. It’s a collective effort, as we put forth the best we have, to create a better world and lives for all of us. We are faced with challenges because that is what is life all about. It’s about meeting your challenges and learning from them that creates growth and hence, we evolve. There are particular instances where we shine and we become heroes because we climb the mountain and we overcome obstacles. We persist through adversity. Some heroes are noticed and some are not. You don’t have to be famous to be a hero. You can be your own hero. In fact, in a perfect world we would all be our own hero. Counting on ourselves and finding our inner strength and utilizing it.
This month, The Inlandia Institute in partnership with Riverside Artswalk, Stevie Taken and The Riverside Downtown Public Library, presented ‘Sheroes’; quirky, hilarious, one of kind true stories told by live storytellers. I was fortunate enough to have the privilege to tell a story and hear the fascinating stories of my fellow storytellers about our female heroes. It was an amazing and unforgettable night of sharing. I told a story about my farm girl sheroes. These women were my sheroes because they had to do heavy manual labor for the majority of their lives, but never gave up on their hopes and dreams and kept the faith that life was good even in times of severe hardship. I admire women like Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie and Rosa Parks. Hearing their stories as I grew up, made me realize that women could contribute great things to the world besides having a family.
One of my favorite sheroes is Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David. She is little known to people today. She was a French woman with an outrageous and uncoventionable sense of adventure. She was known as Alexandra David-Néel, born in French Belgium, 152 years ago. Alexandra David-Neel was many things. She was an artist, an explorer, a spiritualist, a buddhist and an accomplished writer. Her most groundbreaking work was her journey to Lhasa in Tibet and she’s known as the first woman to have ever entered the Forbidden City.
Alexandra David Neel was born to educated parents and to a life of priviledge. Her father was an activist and ensured that his daughter understood man’s inhumanity to man at a young age and that it was unacceptable to be inhumane. The purpose of life was to change society for the better. During her childhood she began studying and practicing rituals to spiritually evolve and as a young teenager would frequently set out on her own to explore the world and find her own answers to her burning questions. By the time she was 15 she had travelled alone to several countries in Europe. At the age of 21 she became a buddhist and delved deep in to spiritual studies. Eventually her parents guided her towards the world of opera, to learn a profession and have a regular income, despite the fact that she was a heiress and had ample resources to carry on her travels and study. Her music career brought her to more exotic locations where she immersed herself in Grecian and African cultures. This is where she met her husband, who became her back up and support, handling her finances and allowing her to continue her journeys around the world to study religion, meditation and human spiritual evolvement. She travelled to Tibet to forbidden regions to gain knowledge of the arcane and studied how to survive at the higher altitudes on Earth. Eventually, Alexandra David Neel decided to settle in France and build a center for meditation and esoteric study. She brought the knowledge she had garnered living in the Himalayas and traveling through Asia during times of war and famine. Her dream was to foster compassion and love and to spread this to all mankind.
Alexandra David Neel lived a life defined by quest for knowledge and adventure. The willingness to take the road less travelled and find answers to the questions of life. She was not defined by her role as a woman, but as a person of genuine thought, study, and obtaining knowledge for the betterment of humankind. She adventured by foot through freezing mountains ranges, often without food for days. She knew her strengths and had confidence in her abilities. Her biggest strength was her spirituality and she understood how to conserve her body strength for long and arduous journeys. She thrust herself into the unknown in order to challenge her very being so that she could change and grow and continue to gain understanding of the spiritual dimensions of our universe. Today, she is known as one of France’s greatest heroes.
So, here is to women adventurers and their courage to carry on. To live life believing in freedom and love and believing in our future. Here’s to our Sheroes.
“To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment”-Alexandra David Neel
