Danielle Felippe, from Brazil, shares her story with courage and heart:
The age when I received my 1st cycle and became a woman.
Before this day arrived, I was a free girl, always happy, creative and full of dreams, who loved to paint, write stories, swim, ride horses, climb trees, pretend I was saving the planet!
I already had devotion and spirituality as one of my strongest qualities.
I imagined that when I “became a real woman” – I could change the world.
I dreamed of that day!
I wished I would get my cycle soon!
But when the day finally arrived, nothing happened.
I did not get any congratulations, no hugs, no explanation, no acknowledgment, nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Until I discovered the power of the menstrual blood, the beauty of the female cyclicity, the preciousness of my fertility – being a woman meant nothing. It was a feeling of emptiness, mixed with melancholy, menstrual cramps, then the desperation of endometriosis, the frustration of infertility…
I spent years in a dormant state, then feeling angry at my body, at the pimples, the hairs, the stomach, the breasts… Eating compulsively, embarrassed for staining school chairs with blood, angry for the women in my family being submissive, and until recently – feeling overwhelmed by the fear that I could never be a mother…
In the past, being a woman was not beautiful or easy for me.
Being a woman in today’s world often means suffering, sacrifice, defiance, weakness, PMS, moods, gossip, competition, shapes, plastic surgery, bulimia, anorexia, consumption, abuse, aggression.
Well, I had a long path until I realized that it all began in that month of August in 1993. And that the impact of the arrival of my 1st Moon (menstruation) would determine everything, or at least a great part, of what I would experience as a woman in the following years, and for the rest of my life. This includes the relationship with my body, my blood, my emotions, my relationships with other women and men, and my sexuality…
It was during a Red Tent Activation workshop in Chile, under the tutoring of DeAnna L’am of Red Tents in every neighborhood, that I met again my inner teenager. It was emotional, healing, empowering…
I offered my inner teenage a ritual, a ceremony of rebirth,
and I rescued her!
I restored her hopes and dreams
and her Faith in herself!
Together, let’s embrace and offer guidance to the girls in our lives!
Gift yourself, or a girl, or another woman, with the book Dançando com a Lua, by author and womb visionary DeAnna L’am.
We can make a difference in the world!
Beginning with information, self-care, self-love, meeting our inner girl, teenager and woman.
Danielle Felippe, Brazil
Click HERE to learn more about Danielle
Read DeAnna’s First Period Story HERE
Read Rosy’s First Period Story HERE
Share your own story!
