Our Pride is Swelling

"Pride of Botswana" - Photo: Cecilia Dinio Durkin
Botswana, 2005

While we were on a game drive in Botswana, we happened upon a lion and lioness resting underneath a thorn tree. As I snapped their pictures, a cub appeared and then another. I took my focus off the lion under the tree and saw that a distance away, over exposed desert sand, from a bare mound, the rest of the lion pride waited. 

As our truck idled, one lion cub and another cautiously made their way to the shady brush. The second lioness made her way over to complete the Pride and the picture. You can see from this shot that the entire group posed, almost perfectly for us. Of course, there has to be that ONE...But it's almost better this way. With the one cub slightly askew, you as the viewers believe this was taken in the wild. I like it like this. 

On June 20th, this photo will be one of the pics I will be exhibiting as part Poughkeepsie's Open Studio Tour. I had sold my many and our family's numerous photos at my store, Women's Work, for years, but this is the first time I will be going out with only my photographs and a promise of insight into my writing projects. Me, free of adornments. 

No Ostrich eggehell jewelry. No Shea Butter Balms. No Marula Oils. No Cambodian, South African, Ghanaian, Guatemalan women to hide behind. Just me. 

And you know what? I can't believe where I have come and where I am going. 

Not only have I been able to take what life has to offer me and make it a positive change in my life, helped it guide me to the next step, but I see daily how like these lions, happenstance is real and something to acknowledge and embrace. 

In retrospect, the coming together of these lions were remarkable. And I caught it in "print" so to speak. I was grateful for the two and overwhelmed when all 6 came into the picture! 

I have been grateful for each step in this journey, particularly the opportunity to work with the San Bushmen. I am humbled by that honor. But to take that experience and add to it the shop and the women from around the world I was able to work with, wow! 

Now, new connections are forming to start to complete the circle. A Center for Women's Work is right around the bend. Cautiously and carefully, all of the pieces waited to make the move, but finally, the rest of the Pride is together. We're hoping that in a short year, we'll be able to bring the women in the City of Poughkeepsie together with the global Women's Work community to make one big family.

My Pride swells. 

Please stay "tuned" for more. A big announcement will "ROAR" through this blog, our FB page and other social media outlets. I promise, we'll let you in on the big news soon! Really. It's worth the wait and I'm not "lion"! (teeheehee)