Meri's Musings

It's been a while since I posted a self-portrait on Wednesday in the tradition started by Misty Mawn. Is anyone still playing along? I hope so. These "self-portrait" posts, difficult as they are at first because you're exposing yourself to strangers, are just marvelous. I just love reading these posts on other people's blogs. They're so telling, so revealing. The pictures show us one way of looking at you. The words tell us who you think you are, what you think about whatever it is you're thinking about, what emotions bubble to the surface when you're unguarded. But I also think that in a very significant way, all of my posts are self-portraits because they give you a glimpse of how the world looks through my eyes, what seems worthy of mentioning, where a stray thought leads me as I meander in my mind. Yours reveal yourself in the same way. I hope my posts also give you a hint of my humor and show me in all my glory. But if not. . . well, here's a ...

Even the most unartistic among us are makers of masks. "Carnivale" copyright 2005 Meri Arnett-Kremian. Because we want to hide ourselves from others or because we don't recognize our own truth, we create the impression that we are stronger or weaker than we truly are. We lead people to believe we are brave when we are quaking in our boots. We imply that we are helpless despite our actual competence, often to make others feel stronger and more capable. We disguise our acute intelligence with shallow thinking, with reckless behaviors that belie our thoughtfulness. We create masks with layers of misleading words, inauthentic gestures, veneers of half-truths overlaying our real selves, worrying that we're not good enough as we are. While these masks may be colorful, they hide our light from the rest of the world, keep all but those closest to us (and sometimes even our intimates) from encountering the gift of our deepest selves. What would happen if you faced the world w...

and he said: you pretty full of yourself ain't chu so she replied: show me someone not full of herself and i'll show you a hungry person. - Nikki Giovanni Growing up, I absorbed the message from our culture that girls are less-than, that women are the visible invisible. I was expected to excel, to use my gifts, while somehow hiding my light under a bushel basket. That made it scary to speak my truth. That made it difficult to know the fullness of myself. That made it nigh-impossible to claim my life and live my power. To nullify the voices that made little me feel small, I learned the wisdom of Amazon women, feminist writers (even if they eschewed the term) who flaunted their strength, who wrote with passion and conviction, who crafted words like arrows that flew straight into my heart and stuck there. red hot truths arrows of power In other words I saw the light (Sisterhood is Powerful) Now in all my blazing glory   I am fierce with reality When...