She had told her daughter that often when she was too young to understand why. Later, her mother told her she didn't want to bring a girl into the world because girls suffer greatly, carry all the burdens and were vulnerable in the world. She had also treated her daughter as if she never wanted a girl and her daughter had internalized that. The feeling of being unwanted by her mother for being a girl was one that had never left her. She spent her whole life somehow making up for that by being in charge, being powerful, overly capable, hard... She also spent her whole life looking for substitute mothers. One's who made her feel cared for... valued... wanted... Women with which she could soften ...
She found a version in her grade school English teacher, a version in her high school sweetheart's mother, a version in her therapist, a version in some friendships throughout her life, a version in her mother in law, a version in many books ...
She found versions within herself through a decade long process of learning to re-parent the little girl full of trauma that needed a loving mother who cherished and valued her, one who would show her how to be a loving woman... a loving mother ... versions within herself when doing the work to heal others and showing up in roles of mother and guide...
And finally, most profoundly, she found the courage to find herself as mother, to a precious girl, being transformed every moment by the pure miracle that is the pregnant body, the life that comes forth and the little girl that came to bless her life with more joy, wonder and respect than she had words for, every moment of her life."
All of human life is made in the bodies of women, brought into the physical world through the bodies of women, nurtured by the bodies and souls of women, guided by the souls and hearts of women.
Let us respect, love and govern ourselves as women as the miracles that we are. That is our birthright. Let us also treat one another as such. As friends and equals, as helpers, guides, leaders, teammates ... the holders of the world ... For the world needs us now, more than ever.
Let us want and care for and nurture the girls within us, the girls in our lives so that we and they can reflect that and be the women that make the world.
In celebration of International Women's Day.
