International Women's Day falls in the middle of the Lenten season this year.

Here is my reflection on celebrating and grieving the heroic stories of sisters around the world.

I sat across from a woman who spoke in a dialect I couldn’t understand. But I could recognize the timbre of her voice, and the tears that flowed down the etched lines on her skin.

Her hands never stopped moving while she knitted and told her story of fleeing violence.

I’ve heard her story before.

In Oaxaca, Mexico, she is a woman trying to find safety amongst the smugglers.
In a Greek refugee camp, she is a survivor paying hundreds for a vest that will not float in the sea.
In Ecuador, she is a girl raped by an uncle and punished for his actions.
In Botswana, she is a young mother fleeing an abusive husband and abandoned by her family.
In Nashville, she is a teen who takes shelter with a drug dealer while hiding from her stepfather.
In North Carolina, she is a woman who chooses to leave her pimp and is shot three times.

On International Women’s Day this year it is my hope that we honor women who have told the same story in a hundred different languages: how they were used as commodities, abused, ignored, and silenced.

While the stories of violence, sexual assault, poverty and trauma, are alarmingly similar, the individual experiences in each one matter.

I believe one of the easiest but most powerful ways we can support each one is to bear witness.

This is how we love one another as we tackle injustice, challenge marketplaces, and offer spaces of freedom. In bearing witness, we can learn to love the world one person and one story at a time.

Learning to love this way takes our whole lives.

Let's celebrate International Women's Day by responding to insidious injustice with unstoppable love and hope.

After my new friend from Ukraine set her knitting down, through an interpreter I asked, what more can any one person do?

She offered me a disarming smile and began to sing. Soon, 10 more refugee women joined along, heads leaning back, arms held up in defiance.

No matter the language spoken, everyone in the room knew this song and we raised our arms in solidarity.

This was love, the best we can do.

Raise your hand and sing along. We all know the words. We have heard it before.

As we think about International Women's Day, I hope you can attend a Thistle Farms celebration I am hosting next month.

$25 • Free Tote with Ticket

Stories of Resilience • Shopping with Purpose • Snacks with International Flavor • Mocktails and Mingling

Pearl Mbewe Maake kaNcube will be co-hosting. If you are in the Nashville area, this will be a beautiful way to celebrate women and sisterhood.

Please join me.

RSVP Today

Can't attend? Want to celebrate women now?

Our Thistle Signet Ring is a treasured piece of jewelry for me.

Not only is it a symbol for the survivors at Thistle Farms, but wearing it is a reminder of all the women across the world who are seeking justice and healing.

The rings are made by survivors at Resera—women who are overcoming extraordinary circumstances including homelessness, domestic violence, incarceration, and forced relocation.

I love that they use 100% recycled metals and create everything in their Nashville studio, offering jewelry that is better for people and the planet.

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I've done many interesting things to raise money for justice enterprises—but this week was a first!

It was my distinct honor to dress up as Tammy Faye Bakker last week to support the 15th Annual Greatest Show Ever.

Every year this event is filled with impersonators representing artists who are now singing from the pearly gates. It provides the major funding for two organizations I love: Escuela Anne Stevens in Ecuador and Holy Cross Hospice in Botswana.

Don't you love it when you get the chance to have fun and still work for love and justice in the world?

It is because of Emily Dickinson that I had to learn what the word "enigmatic" means.

Her poetry, which makes her one of the most famous poets of the 19th century, is defined as enigmatic, indicating mystery and complexity.

The poem below pulls me in and asks me to consider if I can imagine all that I long for but cannot see.

This poem feels like the voice of a prophet, looking dimly into the future, but walking toward it with determination and hope.

Emily Dickinson "I never saw a moor" poem

PEACE AND LOVE,