Hope Has Risen & It Looks Like A Black/Brown Woman

I stopped watching American news and reading about American politics almost 4 years ago. As a Canadian, living beside the US, their news seeps in through every opening. 

On top of that, having an on-line business, where so many of my clients are Americans, it sometimes felt like I was living in the US. 

But about 4 years ago, I realized that it was depleting my energy. I shut American news channels down and stopped actively finding information on what was happening with our neighbours. 

But in that famous June 27, Trump-Biden debate, I snuck a look again. 

And I panicked. 

I sent texts to my US friends that said things like “I’m sorry, but you’re f**ked – and we have no space here for you.” 

It felt heavy and dark like all the hope was sucked out of the planet. 

And then Kamala burst out of the gate. 

My head is still spinning at the speed of this transformation. 

Hope, light, possibility, confidence. 

What the hell has happened? 

Well, Kamala Harris was born for this. 

And she was prepared for this. 

It reminds me of my dad’s favourite poem – by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – which I’ve adjusted to speak to women. 

“The heights by great women reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” 

Kamala Harris has prepared for this. 

Because she knew. She didn’t pretend she didn’t know. She prepared. She was ready. She wasn’t languishing in the background. She was toiling and not telling anyone about it. 

She’s been preparing, learning, growing, developing. 

She was born to lead this transformation in the US – and by that I mean…lead the world. 

She is helping women to see what we are capable of….by being fully ourselves…by not trying to be who other people expect us to be. 

And for me, it’s personal. She’s brown. She has a Jamaican father – and she spent her high school years in Montreal, at my high school (a few years after me) – while her mother continued her research at McGill University – my alma mater. 

There is a new archetype that is emerging. 

The female leader. 

And she is breaking through BECAUSE of these dark times. 

She’s not pretending to be a man. 

She’s not pretending to be a delicate flower. 

She’s not trying to fit in…..anywhere. 

She’s being fully, authentically and unapologetically who she is. 

And some people won’t like her. And that’s ok. 

But I do. 

And I’m so grateful that she is showing the way, showing what female leadership really looks like. 

It’s made me obsessed with American news again. 

Big love,    

❤️

Bev