Let me Tell you About Some Women I Know…
Every day we hear about amazing people in the news, doing amazing things and making an amazing difference to the world. And it makes us look at our lives and think ‘Is it too late to do something special? What a shame I never got to be as amazing as these people’.
Well, ladies, every single one of us IS special.
Don’t believe me? Then let me tell you a bit about the women in my life… women who are just like the women in your life.
I come from a long generation of females. From my maternal grandparent’s side there are 16 direct descendants – of whom 12 are women. That’s a lot of strong and powerful women in one room on Christmas Day! My Grandmother, the founder of our family’s strength, showed us that when life buries you it’s not a bad thing – because each and every one of us is a seed that has the ability to push on up and grow into a spectacular tree. A family tree where every branch gets thicker and stronger with age, and every day it produces a shining green leaf that glows bright in the morning sun; a fresh, new bud of hope. And that tree continues to create her own little seeds, which plant themselves at the feet of their founder and grow alongside her to provide shelter and food for all those beneath.
Now let me tell you a bit about the women in my life. Because really, they aren’t all that special. To me they are… of course… but they are no different to you, that lady in front of you in the Post Office queue or your neighbour. But they are still wondrous in their own right, because us women have that rare ability to carry the world on our shoulders and make it look like a handbag.
– There are two sisters, who are also mothers and loving grandmothers, and are suffering from MS. You wouldn’t know it though, because each day they get up, get dressed and get on with it. Because they still have a job to go to, a family to look after and a home to run. Because they still have their pride and their memories of being able to rush about all day and dance all night, back in the days before they had to give away their high heels. These women have weeks of excruciating pain; nights where they can’t control their limbs, their body fails them and their head feels like it will split in two. But it’s an invisible illness and one with no cure. So they don’t complain, they just get on with it.
– There is the successful business woman who’s had to endure years of marital difficulties and divorce. Problems that could have torn her children away from her, and brought them back running. Years of walking into work with her head held high and her smile unwavering, building her business and building up her strength until she proved she was more than what he thought she was. She proved she could achieve what she wanted her children to achieve in their future. But she never complains, she just gets on with it.
– There is the mother of four that never wanted four. Every day is a battle to get back to who she was and fight the woman she is scared of becoming. Every day is a monotonous treadmill of doing what she has to do before she gets to do what she wants to do. Whoever she is now. But she never complains, she just gets on with it.
– There is the new mother who never tells anyone that her birth was tougher than she expected. Who hasn’t let her small child change her, and who has found the strength within her to prove to the world that she knows what she is doing… even though no one knows what they are doing. She’s learning as she goes along, like we all do. But she never complains, she just gets on with it.
– There is the young girl who was told she wasn’t qualified for the job she wanted, but she proved them wrong and beat every other candidate. Every day is about working that bit harder, giving her all to her career, building a new relationship, struggling to save for her first home and never ever saying no to her family, my family, who rely on her juggling abilities to help them with theirs. But she never complains, she just gets on with it.
These aren’t special women. They are just like you and me, making the world go round and keeping everyone from falling off.
And my friends…
– There is the friend whose husband cheated on her when their baby was small but she took him back and trusted it wouldn’t happen again, because she was right; the friend who’s boyfriend beat her until she found the strength to go; the friend who lost her baby and never talks about it – and the friend who lost her baby and spends her life educating the world about baby loss; the friend raising her sister’s children as her own, forsaking her chance of starting her own family; the grandmother who’s banned from seeing the grandchildren she raised because of her abusive son-in-law; the friend who’s father taught her that men couldn’t be trusted; the friend battling against mental illness while raising her two beautiful sons; the friend who has invested her life savings into her new business which she runs from home with her toddler, while still making sure her husband’s lunch and dinner is on the table each day; and the friend that was told she had cancer but carried on regardless until cancer gave up and left her alone. But not one of these women, not one, ever complains about it. They just get on with it.
These women, these normal women, haven’t appeared in the news or received a medal for strength, honour or bravery. But yet these women are saving lives with every breath they take. They are teaching our daughters and our future babies that life can’t bury you, it can only nourish you and make you grow into something wonderful that will shelter and feed and last a lifetime.
So tell me, is there power in a woman? Yes. More than you will ever know.
