Mothers & Daughters
She lay on the floor, “mama, I feel small.”
“Sometimes, I feel small too,” replied mama.
Perplexed, daughter looked at mother, “what makes you feel small?”
For in the eyes of a child a mama is always so big.
“Well, there’s good types of small, and then there are types of small that don’t feel good. I feel small when I stand next to trees and mountains and oceans, and this is a beautiful type of small… But sometimes people can make you feel small, and that’s the type of small we must stand up to.”
Her daughter is four, and bright eyed she thought about the words of her mother, and then turned and said, “okay mama, next time, we will talk about what makes you feel big.”
My friends, this is the story my sweet neighbor told me, as I I handed her a shot over the fence, to mourn today’s monumental decision.
And today, I feel very small.
But make no mistake, my feelings of small will dissipate in a way my anger will not.
Today, I will sit in my feelings of small.
I will take my martini extra dirty.
I will talk to my people about my feelings.
I will sleep in my pain.
I will wake in my power.
I will remind myself that gentle too can be the giant we need.
But make no mistake, tomorrow I will say my prayers, I will remind myself that gentleness is not synonymous with ‘soft,’ and I will get to work.
For we know no fury like a tender heart hell bent on change.
Today we will mourn what it means to feel small.
But my daughters, tomorrow we will talk of what makes us feel big.
And we will get to work.
Your Partner in Policy,
Taylor Patrice
Sweet reader, I wasn’t going to write to you. I’m hiding. I’m reflecting. I’m traveling. I’m changing, yet again. But today is a hard day. For you. For me. For mothers. For daughters. For husbands and wives. For husbands and husbands. For wives and wives. But inspiration is a curious thing that will draw us back out, when light is needed most. And if in this uncertain time what you need most is to know you are not alone, which most of us do, then alone I will not leave you.
When I started Policy Out Loud, it was nothing but a gut feeling. I didn’t have a plan, I had just placed a pattern. It had not yet taken on it’s fullest expression, and it still hasn’t. All I knew was that I could see “problem solving” decisions that were in fact, escalating problems.
I wanted to call this out. To call it by name. Because these choices are not merely patterned observations. Not merely statistics.
They are very real names, and faces, and heartbeats.
Here is what I can tell you.
The platform was made for this moment.
The moment when a monumental decision will serve to increase exactly what it was designed to decrease, and decrease exactly what it was designed to increase.
When the decision will not achieve the intended outcome.
It’s a platform that owes no allegiance to either side of the aisle. It’s dedicated entirely to talking about cause and effect.
It is gentle.
It is research driven.
It is unsensational.
But make no mistake, sweet reader, it is still very much a battle cry.
It is Policy Out Loud.
And it was made for this moment.
And so long as there is a daughter out there asking questions about small and big, it’s also for all the moments that follow this very one.
All my love from the road,
Your girl.