Since I'm a woman, and I have several women in my life who I love so, so much, and have many, many more who I really like, I feel it's important that I at least acknowledge International Woman's Day.
Women, we're wonderful. We have so many amazing qualities. We're the care takers of the world. Women like Mother Theresa stand amongst us. Women who nurse the poor and the dying without even a second thought. We have this amazing ability to grow little humans inside our bodies. And then we have even greater strength to push them out. We can love them with everything in our being, more than anything in the world. We can sacrifice things important to us for the ones we love, and not lose any sleep over it.
Women, we're brilliant. We can multitask like nobody's business. We can do 5 things at once while also thinking of 5 other things that we need to do. We can decorate cupcakes and set tables and braid hair and paint our finger nails with tiny little brushes. We can design our wardrobes. We can take little brushes and draw perfectly straight to outline our eyes and lips. We can spend an hour doing our hair. We can run a multimillion dollar company (not me, but some women) and raise children too. We can commute in four inch stilettos.
We're graceful and sensual and (oh, come on...we are. How many men do you know could be described as *graceful*) passionate.
We can change our minds in a second. Four times over. We can talk about our periods and our uterus' and that bump on our boob without embarrassment. We can relive our birth stories 50 times over. We can laugh through our tears. We can tell the same story to the same person five times and not remember. We can lose our keys inside our purse. We can get lost on the way home.
We can hold a grudge for years. We can remember things someone did like 10 years ago and bring it up like it was yesterday. And then act all surprised when no one else remembers it, like it wasn't important. *Eye roll* Of course it was important. Oh wait...never mind. We do not do this. Ever.
We can change the subject really, really fast.
I'm proud to be a woman. I'm so glad that I'm a woman in Canada, because the opportunities that I have are far beyond that of many other countries. I have an education. I can vote. I have a management position. I'm a single mother and I'm not shunned or written off by society. I can walk down the street without fear of walking down the *wrong* street or sitting in the *wrong* bus and *asking* to be raped and killed. There are women around the world who dream of these things I think of consider the norm. They're not luxuries to me. They are just the way things are. It breaks my heart that baby girls are still left by the side of the road to die, simply because they're girls. It breaks my heart that a little girl was shot on a school bus, simply because she wanted an education. It breaks my heart that women need to be covered up with only their eyes showing, so they don't tempt men. It breaks my heart that women are raped and then blamed for bringing it on.
Women, we have come so far, but we have so, so far to go.
We have to remember that as women, we need to be each other's advocate. We need to stand up for each other instead of tear each other down. We need to give women credit where credit is due. We need to assist making each other stronger and successful in whatever we dream possible.
And really, we shouldn't need a day to remind us of this. Every day should be International Woman's Day, just like if you're in love, every day should be Valentines Day (blah, blah, blah).
Think of how much more we could accomplish if we worked together.
Go give a woman you love a hug :)
