This Dance

​Stand at the edge of the Atlantic long enough
and the sea begins to teach you.
The tide does not compete with the shore.
Day does not try to become night.
Each is different and because of the difference,
the world remains beautifully alive.

Have we forgotten this?

In our pursuit of equality, have we sometimes overlooked the value of difference?

Nature dances in polarity.
The sun and the moon.
The mountain and the valley.
Yin and yang.
Within the yin lives a seed of yang.
Within the yang lives a seed of yin.

Humanity is no different.

Not every man expresses masculinity in the same way.
Not every woman expresses femininity in the same way.

Some women are fierce leaders.
Some men are gentle healers.

Most of us carry both...
Strength and Tenderness.
Courage and Compassion.
Logic and Intuition.

Carl Jung called these companions the anima and the animus.
The feminine within the masculine, 
The masculine within the feminine.

Wholeness is never about choosing one.
It is about embracing both.

Equality does not require us to become the same.
It asks that we recognise the equal, but different, worth within us all.
Beneath the skin.
Beneath our stories.
Beneath our fears.

The old Irish culture, like many ancient cultures, seemed to understand this.
Warriors were poets.
Queens commanded armies.
Druids were keepers of wisdom, law and healing.

They walked gently upon Mother Earth,
looked with wonder towards Father Sky,
and lived, as we all do,
betwixt and between.

Between strength and tenderness.
Between logic and intuition.
Between the masculine and the feminine.

No one was confined to a single way of being.
Each person was called to express the fullness of who they were.

Is that what we are searching for again?

Not a world where women become less feminine or men less masculine.
Nor a world where everyone fits neatly into old ideas of what a man or woman should be.

But a world where everybody is free to express their own balance of
strength and tenderness,
courage and vulnerability,
wisdom and wonder.

To become fully themselves.

With dignity.
With freedom.
With respect.

And we must also be honest about what happens when respect, freedom and dignity is absent...
When genuine strength loses its soul.

When the masculine distorts -
Protection with control,
privilege with possession,
power with love.

We all know too well -
Women paid that price.
Children paid that price.
Humanity paid that price.

Rape is not desire gone too far.
It is the abandonment of respect and humanity.
Abuse is not passion.
It is fear disguised as strength

Those wounds are real.

They still echo through families, communities and generations.

The conversation about masculinity and femininity must begin there.

Only then can we rediscover what mature masculinity and femininity can be...

The masculine that protects without controlling.
The feminine that nurtures without disappearing.
Neither above nor below.

Strength without domination.
Compassion without surrender.

Courage with humility.
Freedom with responsibility.

When the masculine and the feminine honour one another,
something ancient awakens.

Not superiority.
Not submission.
But harmony.

Not a battle.

A dance.

One that has echoed through the Irish landscape,
across Atlantic waves,
and beneath the skies,
long before our names were spoken.

Maybe now our challenge is not to decide whether the masculine or the feminine should lead.
Maybe our task has always been to remember that neither can dance alone.

And if we can learn that again, we may discover that equality and difference are not rivals.
They were always partners.

The real question is not whether men and women are becoming more alike or more different.

Perhaps the deeper question is this:
Can we create a society where everyone enjoys equal value, equal opportunity and equal respect, while allowing every person the freedom to express their individuality, in whatever blend of masculine and feminine qualities, that feels most authentic to them?

If we can...

Maybe we will discover that the dance was never about becoming the same.

It was always about embracing the whole.
❤️