The Practical Generosity of Women by Alicia Denney

Women’s march, January 2017, austin Texas

Near 90F degrees in January?! Seriously? Alrighty then…let’s do this. Women’s March, 2017. Crowd size approximately 10,000. Hats on, signs up, ready to move but there has not been much moving yet. One of our group commented that it was like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube to get that many thousands of people through the small gates of the Texas Capitol and onto Congress Avenue. 

It is so crowded, getting ridiculously hotter by the minute, and very, very friendly. Strangers making conversation with each other. People reading the best signs out loud and laughing. Sharing the shade of a sign held high. We start to live out the remarkable, common miracle of a gathering of women -- the hotter it gets, the more the wind is dying down and people are starting to waver in these conditions – oranges and cool water appear out of nowhere, sunscreen, lip balm, more water is shared. 

The Practical Generosity of Women in its full glory as the sun beats down and a few folks around us start to get overheated and have to stop. Suddenly, and without many words, signs turn into fans, more water and snacks appear. More than is needed, actually. Blood sugar gets raised, cool bandanas get draped over necks and wrists. It is the practical, thoughtful Generosity of Women that can create actual miracles. The Sacred in Action.

…tonight the reports are coming in from all over the world. Millions and millions of people on the move today declaring peaceful resistance, and I got to be part of it. We got to be part of it. Something good and very, very big happened in the world today, fueled by the practical generosity and strength of women and the men who love us. 

Excerpt from The Women’s March on ATX by Alicia Denney (January 21, 2017 – Austin, TX)

************

Fast forward to June, 2025. My story from 2017 still holds up because it’s been true for millennia. Wherever women gather, there is an unspoken agreement that we will do all we can to make the group succeed. I really don’t think we’re even aware it happens, much less speak of it. But I propose that the entire world depends on the constant presence of our planning and providing.

I want to re-frame the old Bible story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes to explain how big a deal this is, but not as a Christian-specific story. It’s Universal to all women, from all time:

A large crowd of about 5000 men (they didn’t count the women and kids because, well, patriarchy), so probably more like 10,000 people out on a mountainside to hear the great teacher do his thing. Getting all those people a spot to sit and get arranged took a long time. And then the teacher got going and had a lot of world-changing stuff to say. The staff started getting nervous that folks were getting hungry and might leave or get angry.

So, the masculine versions of this story say that a little boy shared his lunch of five barley loaves and two fish, the teacher took and blessed it, gave it to the staff to distribute to the crowd, and then the food miraculously multiplied so that there were baskets and baskets of leftovers after all 10,000 had their fill. These stories give full credit to the teacher’s divine power and ability to provide for everyone’s needs; the miracle was his doing. Ah, but the teacher was up to something and it wasn’t what it appeared.

I’m not arguing with the idea that the teacher facilitated a miracle on that mountain, but I think it was a different miracle than the one captured in the books.

After considering what I know to be true about the practical generosity of women in my own life, I think something else happened on that mountain that is no less a miracle than the teacher making food appear out of thin air. I think the teacher knew and understood about women and our ability to make plenty out of nothing – and he counted on it. He knew women would be there and Jesus was known for hanging out with them and having lots of female friends. He knew they had all thought ahead and planned for eventualities, like…lunch (as we do). Just exactly like the water and bandanas and oranges in the crowd at the Texas Capitol grounds thousands of years later! 

I think the teacher counted on the women to have packed enough for their own families plus a little extra, and that little extra is what filled the baskets when they passed by. The staff and the men were astonished, but the women were just doing what women do. The miracle that day was within the crowd even before they got there. Too bad the writers of the stories didn’t value women the way the teacher did. Too bad, indeed.

Women have always carried things. Carried water, crops, baskets, kids. We see it in art and photographs from all the way back and everywhere. Women still do these things in some places, and in others carry backpacks and purses and load up the minivans and car consoles. Someone always has Advil, a tissue, a snack, something to use as a band-aid, hand sanitizer, an extra water bottle. Go look in your purse and prove me wrong. Odds are you carry at least a few things others can use, especially as you get older. 

I want you to realize and remember something – we are miracle-makers. Straight-up gifts to humanity just by being us and carrying our bags, kids, siblings, grandchildren. Our plans and the emotional labor of society. It doesn’t matter whether or not we have kids, what race we are, culture, country, politics, location; we’ve got this incredible ability within us. 

A great teacher understood this, but I must say we were providing this miracle long before he showed up and long after he departed. It lives on and on and on. 

When women come together and do our thing, we change the outcomes and are the stuff of legend. I hope that every single time you look in your bags you remember that you are a miracle-maker. Sacred Being. 

May we all be well. 

*********************************************

Alicia Denney is a woman with enough hats to wear that she needs a hat-rack. She gets bored easily so she pursues her interests in attempts to keep herself out of trouble — somatic psychotherapy, writing, networking, music, high-tech, cats, finding friends all over the world. Challenging times prompt her to dive in and give pep-talks that build confidence and resilience.