Sisterhood, Plaits, Trains & Tenderness.
Our red blood and softness the power of life everlasting, ever unfolding...
Jen put my hair in plaits. She was so gentle that I didn't realise she was done until she signalled for the elastic bands she'd given me that were on my lap. Slight memories surface of being told never to use elastic bands in your hair. I dismiss these without a second thought. This moment is pure sweetness.
She works at the ‘Choo Choo’ café. One of the many so named café bars that line Train Street in Hanoi. So named because of the fact that there are apparently 5 trains a day (Monday to Friday, 7 on a weekend) that pass through this street. This very narrow street.
It's famous for this. You sit at the side of said street and the train whizzes by super fast, mere centimetres from your flip flopped toes. I cheered when it did. The thrill I felt makes me wonder whether those trainspotter folk feel the same way each time a Virgin train passes them by. If so, I get it!
It's International Women's Day and I've been touched so many times today. From the young woman in the Blackbird café across from our hotel with the lovely coffee and cinnamon buns who said happy Women's day to me this morning and gave me a sweet flower-shaped biscuit with my coffee; to Jen, another young sweet woman who works at said Choo Choo place raising her hand in a high-five to me as we took our places on the small plastic stools awaiting the train to pass by.
The receptionist at our hotel told me that she trained to be an architect but it wasn't a good job for a woman in Vietnam what with the still steadfast tradition of care duties that women still have towards their family. She smiles at me as she tells me this.
The women are tough here. Same as in Thailand. Sweetness and fierceness same same.
Today I've been aware of every woman I've passed by. A silent 'yes sister!' solidarity from my heart to theirs.
Even this evening, having ended our day in our now usual (if you can call it so) spot on the balcony at Hanoi House supping cocktails watching the world of motorbike dancing chaos below, paying for our drinks, I was given a red shot glass of some liquor with a ‘this is a gift for you for International Women’s Day’ by the woman behind the bar.
It makes me proud of us. It makes me feel tender for all the ways that we are still held fast by his-tory and the binds to our wings. It makes me feel a connectedness to each and every one of you women who are reading this, our red blood linked for all time.
Our red blood and softness the power of life everlasting, ever unfolding.
Happy International Women’s Day. You, dearest sisters, are everything.
Never forget your power.
It lies in your softness. In your flesh. In your folds. in your wombs, and bellies and breasts. It lies in your voice and your heart and your dreams. It lies in your care and your fierce strength that is stronger in sisterhood.
May you be touched by this recognition as you go about your day. the mirror of one woman to the next.
I’m writing this from a stoop by my hotel, wearing that kimono. Feeling gentle and graced.
I see you sister.
Aho X
Hello sweet thing. Thank you so much for your time and attention. In a world with a thousand and one modes of distraction, the fact that you’ve read my words means the whole goddamn world to me. If you enjoyed this then do please consider that a like, a comment, or/and a share means that more wondrous beings, like yourself, get to read this too and that makes this wordsmith very happy indeed. You may also want to subscribe for free. I’m intending to write each day of my travelling adventures, with musings on living a creative life of freedom, trust, magic, grace, soul and eros. It would be a pleasure to have you by my side, riding along for the pure hell of it all!!