This exchange reminds me of a terrible, AWFUL cultural faux pas I made in Tanzania, for which, once I realized what I'd done, I went out of my way to make apologies. The ancient man who headed up the team squared off with me, looked me straight into my tear-filled eyes, held both my hands, and said, "Be Free. Be Free."

No more important words have ever, ever been said to me. And I recall them in all their immense importance to this day. There is nothing so important as such moments when we are allowed to actually SEE each other, acknowledge each other without the anchors of assumptions. This is goddess work. And by the time we are old enough to be goddesses in fact, society hates us for no longer being goddesses only in appearance, but not in substance.