Inanna was a striking girl. Even when she was young, she was sultry.
Inviting.
Different from her two sisters with dark brown hair falling to her shoulders framing her oval face and beautiful bone structure. Her light blue eyes and olive skin setting her apart from her fairer sisters.
Both had light hair and green eyes, their temperament matched their fairer complexions and Inanna’s matched hers.
She was feisty, and from a very young age expressed herself through her spoken word.
Inanna didn’t let anyone push her around: She held firm her beliefs and fought for her rights.
Should anyone try and persuade her otherwise, they would get a defiant young lady – firm, powerful and unwavering.
Not everyone deemed these characteristics charming and her father looked upon her with disdain.
She was made to feel that her strong-willed nature was inappropriate, and when she did speak out, she found she was being told to hold her tongue.
She didn’t fit the mould and her father found this intolerable.
Her sisters were no trouble at all. Happy to don a pretty dress, and sit with their mother in the afternoon sun learning how to knit, darn and crochet.
Inanna had other ideas.
She had a wild and carefree spirit – untameable – with a thirst for excitement and adventure.
While her sisters were learning to become wonderful mothers, wives and home-makers, Inanna would be in the neighbouring village with the local medicine woman healing, mixing tinctures and learning about natural herbal remedies.
From a young age she showed flair in this field. She would bring home every injured animal she found on the forest floor and nurse them back to health, releasing them when she saw they could fend for themselves. Their home became a menagerie at times.
Inanna and her mother had a very special bond – they had a knowing that didn’t need to be shared through words, it could be exchanged through one glance – the wisdom crystal clear between the two of them.
Her mother saw in her what many others did not, and at every opportunity encouraged Inanna to be spontaneous, wild and carefree. She saw her unpredictable and untamed spirit every time she looked in her eyes.
Her beauty, coupled with her open heart and open mind would hold her in good stead. She had an unwavering sense of justice and would do anything in her power to defend the meek and the mild.
Yes, she was powerful.
Yes, she was strong.
She knew Inanna would encounter trouble during her life for being this way, but her mother also knew she could hold her own and that she was here to pave the way for the sisterhood to rise.
There was definitely something about her. Something that set her apart. All those who came into contact with her could feel it.
The path was already set, the wheels were in motion. The ride would at times be wild and unimaginable.
To Inanna her life was going to be one, big adventure.
She dreamed of travelling far and wide: healing and teaching all the way.
Her father had other ideas.
Her path would be of his choosing, not hers: as a woman she would make all the wrong decisions.
Her father was desperate to fit her in a mould of what he thought young women should be like. Inanna, pushed the boundaries at every opportunity to show him not all women were alike.
It was ok for her to be assertive and powerful – it was ok for her to have opinions and views and it was ok for her to share them and not suppress them.
This caused many a heated argument, and Inanna would spend many nights crying herself to sleep after a heavy hand set her wild views straight.