Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
A woman is like a tea bag – you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
Yesterday was International Women’s Day and in our house we hardly noticed. I saw something go across the TV screen that we won’t reach equality for three hundred years. I wonder what that means. The problem with equality is, what is equality? Are we not equal until my son-in-law can breastfeed his baby, or are we equal when no mothers breastfeed their babies?
Women become mothers; for most, this is the biggest purpose in their lives. Motherhood will be their biggest legacy no matter what else they accomplish and women can accomplish a lot as well as be mothers. For most women sacrificing motherhood for other achievements is probably a mistake.
There has been no greater joy, commitment, and challenge than motherhood. It takes everything we have to give, and sometimes it seems like more than we have to bring a child into the world and raise them to adulthood. At this vantage point with my daughter having her own baby and watching the demands of an infant and now eleven-month-old grandchild takes up her day I wonder if I ever had that amount of patience. She is reveling in the blessing of being a mom.
In our modern world, she could choose when to become a mom as much as anyone can because the miracle of life is still left up to things beyond our control, and not every woman that wants to become a mother becomes one. She and her husband have been blessed with a beautiful little boy and their life is not the same as it was before he came into their lives. But it is my daughter’s life that has been totally transformed to meet the needs of first an infant and now a little boy that can climb a flight of stairs while we turn our heads.
Women are accomplishing great things, and we should be accomplishing these things, but we need to be careful we aren’t sacrificing something bigger for something smaller. There is disagreement on whether we are being paid equally for the same work because in some cases women especially mothers don’t have the same amount of time to dedicate to a career. They have a bigger calling in life, and most women that have husbands don’t have to work as hard because they aren’t carrying the whole load.
Husbands look after the mothers of their children as a way of looking after their children. I can’t imagine looking after children without a husband and even now with our grandson sharing the experience is part of the joy.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Maya Angelou
When I was young I saw a cute little quote, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” I laughed at it; I wasn’t one that wanted to get married “too young.” Building a family is where the joy in life lies; it is where the meaning lies, and where the legacy lies. It might not be the life that is the most prestigious, and glamorous or pay us the most money but as time goes by it is what will give us more and more joy especially when we become grandparents and great-grandparents. I expect to enjoy the achievements of our grandchildren as much or even more than the achievements of our children.
It is a fabulous time to be a woman. We’ve never had more choices in our lives, but we’ve also never been pulled in so many directions, and we’ve always had to live with the consequences of our choices, which hasn’t changed.
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. Alice Walke
I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others. Amelia Earhart
The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand
Thank you for reading this post I hope you enjoyed it and will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
