It was in the middle of a program planning conversation with Macala Rose, creator, and guide of our pilot program, Mental Well-Being and Mindfulness, that the term “radical permission” came up.
I started thinking, what would the world look like if we lived with radical permission? What would it mean if we held radical permission of self and others inside a community of practice? A community where we’ve built enough trust to hold each other accountable. And I’m not talking about permission to buy expensive things, go on fancy trips, or get your nails done. Society has given strange permissions around consumerism that aren’t at all helpful to any of us.
What does it mean to be on the landscape and be accountable to yourself, your family, and your neighbors?What if your radical permission rubs folks the wrong way? It will. What if other peoples’ radical permission of self rubs YOU the wrong way? It will. What if radical permission doesn’t sit well in your rural, traditional community? It won’t.
What does it feel like to be fully aligned, congruent, standing in your truth, and in service to the land, the animals, and the surrounding community, no matter where you find yourself in the world?
Women in Ranching is gathering in person (here we come, Texas and Montana), and we welcome you to join us and to ask these questions of yourself. Let this community be a place where you practice varying degrees of showing up in your fullness until one day, maybe without your awareness, you show up fully, in your dignity and your own skin.
What would a community of folks living like that look and feel like? What kind of songs would they sing? How would they walk and dance and play and work? How would they hold themselves? How would you feel when you looked them (or yourself) in the eyes? How deep into their collective history would they be willing to look? What would they change about their behavior and language to ensure freedom for their children and future grandchildren?
What does any of this have to do with ranching or women? EVERYTHING.
Excerpt: In the past, when I was asked about my background and where I’m from, I always led with “I grew up on the ranch my great-grandfather homesteaded.” I used to lean into that fact and the assumptions that went with it– that I had some extra grit, a good work ethic, and enjoyed living in remote places.
I began introductions this way my whole life until something did not feel right. A weird feeling I couldn’t shake started to creep in, something I couldn’t put my finger on and didn’t really want to look into. That kind of feeling wasn’t supposed to be there. The ranch, its critters, family legacy, and badland features were historically the center point of my happiness, identity, and home. It was a dissonance that I could not make sense of, and it frankly scared me to pieces. If that inkling were to lead me to understand or uncover inconvenient truths that -god forbid- lead me away from The Family place, I’d have to rebuild how I make income, where my home is, what my identity is, what my life revolves around…
Kate Rasmussen lives in Spearfish, South Dakota and works as a program specialist for the World Wildlife Fund Sustainable Ranching Initiative. Before her work with WWF, Kate was a full time livestock manager and freelance writer. She spends her free time painting, hiking, and building moderndingo.com (site coming soon!) a website curating interactive dog toys and other creative ways to tire out a high energy canine pal. For inquiries or to just connect, you can reach her at kate33ras@gmail.com.
In 2022, Cheri became the board secretary for Women in Ranching. Her work at the Humble Ranch to build a nonprofit team within her community that supports children and adults with disabilities, as well as her efforts to conserve the Ranch for wildlife and open space in an area teeming with growth, have all been in service to the community.
Cheri cares deeply for thoughtful and ethical care of the land in tandem with fostering the human capacity to be in relationship with one another. Now, she's working hard with her husband to bring the next generation back home to the Ranch, including a new granddaughter, and she is making space for the next generation's vision on their landscape.
Women in Ranching is grateful to have Cheri's talent, vision, collaborative spirit, and knowledge as assets through organizational launch and growth. The Women in Ranching board is a dream team, and Cheri is integral to our capacity to grow well.
"I have such a deep connection and love for the land, and here comes Women in Ranching, an organization that wants to support this connection to land, animals, and each other," says Cheri. "When I was invited on as Board Secretary, I was beyond all in. Women have been such an important part of the land for centuries and have never been given this space or been held in this way."
