Looking for Balance - Initial Musings on the Masculine and Feminine in all of us

Did you know that in all of us there are masculine and feminine traits, regardless of assigned gender? I feel this is important to point out because perhaps it could be the key to balance in the future, both on an individual and societal level. The younger generations have already discarded gender as a constraint, allowing for expression of self to come through more fully & freely. What if we, at all age levels, could build upon that and allow for a society built on innate skills vs. expected gender roles?

What if that is the true “feminism”? Not to “allow” women to work while still expecting them to be home caretakers at the same time, but instead to empower men to tap into their feminine sides more. To achieve balance - at work and at home. In this admittingly utopian view, what if we allowed men to cry and women to rage? And to facilitate healing around why these emotions arise for both genders, instead of shame? For we all have both sides of us inside. And we’ve learned that repression is the true enemy - not the emotions themselves.

That acceptance and living authentically may be a way to find inner peace, even if it might possibly cost you people on the way. Even if you have to jump into a bonfire (a la Liz Gilbert and Martha Beck) on the way. Even if you have to rise like a phoenix, wouldn’t it be worth it to get to that side of joy?

And could the fire truly be worse than staying in stagnant energy? In a place where you feel you aren’t honoring all parts of your soul?

Perhaps the future is neither masculine or feminine, male or female, but balanced. What if it’s both? What if some women lead companies and some men stayed home to care? But also, at the same time, what if some men led companies and some women stayed home to care, or any of the millions of possibilities in-between for career-life balance? And what if there was no judgment on the decisions each individual person makes for their work and their ability to support themselves? For, what if, it was done with the understanding that each person was choosing based on their unique set of internal guidelines and emotions? Not on the expectations that society has placed on how they “should” be based on the gender they may have been born into?

Now, I acknowledge this message may not be able to be heard by everyone right now. And that’s ok. I believe that humans, like the rest of nature, can take the seeds of creation, and with enough water and sunlight allow them to grow into beautiful ideas in their hearts. I believe in sensitive men and powerful women, and most of all, I believe balance - in one’s own soul - is possible and achievable for all.