by Kalyana Champlain

For years women have been known as the hearth and home of a family. We are the foundation from which the family is formed and held together. When we are absent - the family has been seen to be in disarray.

But should it be so localized? Too often we are limited, like the floor of a fireplace - unable to be seen for what we truly are: the stabilizing force, not just inside the nuclear family - but the stabilizing force inside the HUMAN family.

You see it was the courage of Abigail Adams, the wisdom and determination of Florence Nightingale, and the iron will of Sojourner Truth that helped to reform the character of a nation. It was the Rosa Parks, Rebecca Adamson and Major Ana María who have been the voices to help move a government to its feet, waking it like the drowsy child who does not want to roll out of its warm bed. Why? Because we are the gate keepers of life - we know that this child needs to leave its bed to become a better and stronger person. 

And though these names are on a larger scale, we must always keep in mind that they started out like our women that have been recognized through these pages: Strong women determined to bring truth, equality, compassion, and wisdom to the daily affairs of communities that otherwise would have faltered - breathing the life back into the forgotten, one by one, until the pieces are resuscitated creating a stronger whole which then imbues a nation with its indomitable life-force.

But please keep in mind that this is in no way to discredit those who are literally still the hearth and home. These are our women waking every morning to make sure that their child is up, well, and becoming an active and capable member of society; who never gets to "punch out" at 5 p.m., and who is on call throughout the evenings and throughout the years. I salute you.

And we mustn't forget those who may have stumbled along the way. These may be my sisters in recovery from addiction as we forgot that all we needed we already had inside. It includes my sisters who have sold their physical and thereby bankrupted their spiritual, who now work to reclaim their inner riches. It spans to my young and old sisters trapped in the system trying to break free, who only acted out due to being raised in a home with no hearth available. And it embraces my sisters who forgot their worth, ending up in abusive relationships and devaluing their souls as they watched it seep through the crevices of sidewalks that formed streets of "nevermind." We must support them all as they now desperately attempt to reclaim their spirit. For it is you, my sisters who relearn to crawl and stand and walk, who will now become the most valued to rebuild our society. The reason? Its illnesses can only be hummed and soothed by your melody of truth, trust, courage, and compassion. Because of this, your job is also most important.

In a book entitled Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media, Helen Baehr (author of the review) explains that in Tuchman’s introduction she describes the media’s treatment of women more specifically as a "national problem." She goes on to state that "Her plea to readers (and presumably to the American establishment) is: ‘How can we free women from the tyranny of media messages limiting their lives to hearth and home?"

And while I wholeheartedly agree that we need to change how we are represented in the media, I would like to say this: Maybe it is not the fact that "Hearth and Home" itself is limited, but our idea of it. After all, wasn’t it our sparks in each of the aforementioned ways that blazed the fire of a nation, which was then harnessed by the symbolic stones of our spiritual hearth. We are the Alpha and the Omega: whether in front of the picket-lines, or standing in front of the house making sure the bus safely picks up that child who someday may be on the front of those picket-lines.

Yes, some may try to limit, but that does not mean we have to. Yes, some may even forget, but that does not mean we have to. In fact, it is by breaking the glass ceilings within our own personal lives, as well as those outside of them, that we form the capacity for ALL to remember.

It is here that I would like to bring us back to the top and really embrace the final definition of Home given: "To proceed to or toward a source of radiated energy used as a guide." Yes - I believe that this creates the ocean, and the former definitions can be the rivers that flow into it.

So here is to us, our hearths, and our homes. Both internally and externally, as well as locally, nationally and globally. Let us take our brave steps each day, overflowing with confidence and pride that we are a "source of radiated energy" that is used to guide a people toward a more centered and greater self.