A community of elephants

I want to tell you about a community of women that I have belonged to for 6 years.  We are like a herd of elephants.  A member of our community first shared the analogy of the female elephants a while ago, and it has resonated ever since.  This is how it went…

It's all about female elephants. See, 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 badasses. 

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, girls. When our sisters are vulnerable, when they are giving birth to new life, new ideas, new ministries, new spaces, when they are under attack, when they need their people 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. 

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 and give thanks. 

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. 

There is no community like a community of women.

This story of the female elephants has proven absolutely true, over and over again among the Women Revealed community.  I have been through some rough times – and I am going through some right now.  I may blog some of what I’ve learned in future posts. For now, just know that  6 years since my first weekend, it remains an incredible joy to see and be part of the Women Revealed community – I could not survive and thrive without it. 

Are you interested in finding out more about this community and how you can become part of it?  Look at our FAQs or contact us with questions.  Most of all, know that whatever you are facing, however alone you feel, there is a community of women who knows how to support you.