Fear and the Women's RTR

When I tell people I'm thinking about living on wheels, the range of reaction is wide.  Fear, disbelief, ridicule, support.  My loved ones want to know, "is it safe?" It's my question, too.  It wasn't the only issue at The Women's RTR last week, but it was a big one that was addressed that in a lengthy panel discussion and throughout the gathering.  There was a consistent emphasis on trusting intuition and common sense as well as smart safety strategies.  A self-defense session was offered by a black belt in martial arts, as well as a session in survival by a former soldier, among the myriad of other three day offerings.  I was particularly struck by two different talks about living with anxiety and fear.  A former security guard talked about not living afraid, about fear as a state of mind.  She listed the dangerous situations that she's negotiated in her career.  The self-defense teacher was the opposite - she'd lived with anxiety and fear of being attacked until she was 46 and a stalking incident sent her to the dojo and to Model Mugging.   Over and over the facilitators emphasized that awareness is key.  Know where you are. Prepare to take care of yourself. Expect to take care of yourself. If your gut tells you to leave, leave!  Don't second guess yourself! Make your intuition your best friend, your guide.  So, what's different for a female nomad than a woman in the city?  From the voices I heard at the Women's RTR, it's about trusting that sixth sense called intuition.  Very few women are free of fear.  The #Me, Too outpour has made it clear that sexual assault or abuse is widespread. The hideous truth is that it's mostly little girls that are brutalized.  Little girls are assaulted by men that they know, at or close to home - fathers, step-fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, cousins.  Women are assaulted by boyfriends, husbands, professors, colleagues, bosses, dates. Little girls are taught to trust where trust is self-betrayal and grow into women who are ridiculed for "female intuition".  It's called "woo woo", "new age", "not rational".  It can't save you if you're in a situation with no choice, or a child or jail or a thousand situations of no-choice, but sometimes that fragile, solid thing called intuition can save your life. "You don't have to be afraid," the former security guard said.  I want to believe her not only for myself, but for my daughters, for my granddaughters and all of us, men and women.