Sound our Trumpet
At a low moment in my life, when it seemed like my world was collapsing, a friend invited me to attend, Moxie Matters, a women’s even where Jen Hatmaker shared this story. It’s an amazing and empowering experience to attend a large presentation with several hundred women in the audience. The energy shifts to sisterhood and there is an immediate familiarity of shared experience. I heard this Elephant Story for the first time. It brought tears of relief and comfort to me then and has continued to inspire me ever since. I share it with in the hopes that it will inspire you as well.
“In the wild, when a mama elephant is giving birth, all the other female elephants in the herd back around her in formation. They close ranks so that the delivering mama cannot even be seen in the middle. They stomp and kick up dirt and soil to throw attackers off the scent and basically act like a pack of bad-asses.
They surround the mama and incoming baby in protection, sending a clear signal to predators that if they want to attack their friend while she is vulnerable, they'll have to get through 40 tons of female aggression first.
When the baby elephant is delivered, the sister elephants do two things: they kick sand or dirt over the newborn to protect its fragile skin from the sun, and then they all start trumpeting, a female celebration of new life, of sisterhood, of something beautiful being born in a harsh, wild world despite enemies and attackers and predators and odds.
Scientists tell us this: They normally take this formation in only two cases - under attack by predators like lions, or during the birth of a new elephant.
This is what we do ladies.
When our sisters are vulnerable, when they are giving birth to new life, new ideas, new relationships, new plans, new spaces, when they are under attack, when they need their tribe to surround them so they can create, deliver, heal, recover...we get in formation. We close ranks and literally have each others' backs. You want to mess with our sis? Come through us first. Good luck with that!
And when delivery comes, when new life makes its entrance, when healing finally begins, when the night has passed and our sister is ready to rise back up, we sound our trumpets because we saw it through together. We celebrate! We cheer! We raise our glasses in gratitude for our tribe of women.
I keep this picture close, it reminds me: I’m never alone. Maybe you need this too. If you are closing ranks around a vulnerable sister, or if your girls have you surrounded while you are tender, this is how we do it.”
Celebrate the women in your life today…
Acknowledge their support, appreciate their love, honor their contribution. Know that you are here today because of the tribe of fearless and fierce women that have come before you, and stand beside you… Be that woman to others. Lead, Inspire, Teach, Coach. Stand strong and ready to support the women in your life that are vulnerable. Sound the trumpets and announce proudly that you belong to the sisterhood.
Reflections of Grace…
The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up.
Make sure we are very courageous: be strong, be kind, be humble, be gracious.
-Serena Williams