Feminine genius

I just attended a retreat facilitated by Angela Lecomber called "Healing the Feminine" held Friday evening and yesterday. It was quite insightful for me and deepened my understanding of John Paul II's Theology of the Body (Yup, it's my TOB year).

What was especially interesting was the discussion on the feminine genius* and we were asked to reflect and comment on our own feminine genius.

The concept of feminine genius comes from John Paul II who, in 1995, commented that each "woman has a genius all her own, which is vitally essential to both society and the Church…"

This feminine genius is inherent in each woman and marks her distinct from man not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually.

For example, by nature women tend to be more collaborative, relational, indirect, nurturing, spontaneous, intuitive, hopeful, sensitive and creative.

Reflecting on my own feminine genius, the one thing that stands out is my ability to weep easily. It is one that I rejected for a long time for I was shamed at a very young age for this "weakness".

It is only in recent years that I have begun to understand and embrace my tears, which are a unique part of who I am as woman.

My tears are my body's way of reacting to injustice, beauty, rejection, pain, loneliness, joy and tragedy.

My tears are what move me to act with compassion, anger, courage, despair and love.

My tears represent the core of my sexuality, what is essentially woman in me.

While I do sometimes feel I am ridiculously emotional, I know that my tears represent my "heart of flesh" and, without them, I would be half the woman I was created to be.

So along with my propensity for waterworks, I accept the other constituents of my feminine genius and continue to nurture all that has been given to me by the Creator.



* The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines genius as a peculiar, distinctive, or identifying character or spirit or the personification or embodiment especially of a quality or condition.