I Feel Like a Woman!

Happy International Womens Day 2012!!

The opportunity to honour ourselves as women... and to celebrate the  amazing accomplishments of women and how far we have come in the world. Internationally, there are still so many women living in circumstances so far from what we consider commonplace here in Canada. Love to my Earth sisters everywhere!!

I hold high regard for many women throughout history and in the present day. Women I love dearly and women who possess some or many traits I hope to emulate. Oh, how some beauties have paved the way for us girls today. (what, I like to refer to myself as a girl) Just a few who have inspired me at one time or another (or always)... who are not the usual bunch...

• Helen Keller ( I fell in love with her story as a young girl, researched her and thought her to be simply amazing) only to grow up and see just how many inspirational and thought provoking messages she put forth... to think of what she overcame and how a deaf, blind, mute... could see and understand this world and communicate about it so eloquently... I could fill a quote journal with just HER!!
• Maggie Trudeau. I really related to her party girl lifestyle, although it was a couple decades after the fact that I read her story and learned of the ruckus she stirred up in Ottawa. This is just what makes her endearing to me. But... as a woman who bravely fronted antistigma campaigns with her mental illness... bravo, beauty, if I could spend a day with one Canadian woman, I think it would be you!! I am personally impacted by your courage. It has helped me to face stigma and I try to do so with a fraction of your grace.
• Eleanor Roosevelt. I hold you in my heart. Your campaign for human rights. The position you upheld as a strong and capable woman. I have been moved by your wisdom, I am grateful that women like you lived ahead of me.

Only a drop in the bucket. I have a long list.

Most importantly, women who came before me to make me who I am today.

• Mom. I get it. I know what you want for me. I see what you have done to help get me there. You took a life that could have had such different outcomes, a very young Mom, lacking education and limited with the means to turn out okay... and you did it. You turned us all out okay! You gave everything you could and brought each of us a most amazing gift... a tight family with strong values in tact. I am so proud to be your daughter, and I know I am a great Mother myself because of your teachings. You are quite like a reflection to me, I know you see it too and I love you as anyone loves their favourite heroine.
• Nanny. Your love made me feel special. Doesn't every girl just want to feel that way! Truly loved and the pride you expressed to me just made me want to make you more proud. I carry you with me, you are not far at all, I know exactly what you would say in about any situation that arises. Even though I knew you wanted me to go somewhere in my life... I always felt that in your heart just being who I am was enough.
• Mary R. I think about you often. Would it be possible for me to be at this place in my career without those early nudges from you?? A strong quiet and wise teacher. You challenged me. You ticked me off, and I thank you for guiding me to become a helper.

I am grateful to have my four men who accept me and all of my womanly ways. I am as lucky to have them as they are to have me! I am complex and soft. I am beautiful and flawed. I am feminine and fierce. I am intelligent and inspired. I am independent and vulnerable. I am a woman of the world today, who is able to make choices about my life and my body and my family. I am a woman who is able to exercise my rights and voice my thoughts and feelings. I can create life. I can love wholly. I can be a force to be reckoned with. I can cry. I can work. I can play. I can be who I want to be as a woman today. How great is that.