Happy International Women’s Day!
This post is a bit of a love letter to the women (past & present) that have shaped my life and continue to do so. Basically, if you are a woman in my life in any way at all, this ones for you.
I grew up with A LOT of women around me; and I do mean A LOT of women. From my mother to my three sisters, to my Nan and Aunties, teachers, friends and their female families, social workers, foster parents… So many women! It really is no wonder at all that I am a ‘girly girl’ and believe so strongly in the sisterhood.
From a young age, I have watched these women choose whether to give life or not. I’ve watched them grieve, celebrate, nurture and defend. I’ve watched them be fun, be fierce, work, raise children and run a house while their partners look on in wonder. And this was all just in my younger years.
Growing into a teenager and then an adult didn’t dampen this wonder I held for the women around me. It ignited it! I grew from a young child into a young adult when we were so much more behind with sexism than we are now – the 90’s mostly – but I didn’t see it. I saw women running the world even then. Maybe the Spice Girls had lots to do with it?!? Probably, actually!
Now that I am 30 and have a very clear view of the challenges women have faced and still face, I am even more in awe of the women around me (and even myself as a woman!).
I am watching my a few of my friends start families at the moment and have been lucky enough to be directly involved in helping to look after the offspring of current and former friends. It’s a beautiful thing to watch and be a part of. However, I have also been there as a shoulder to cry on when difficult choices have had to be made, or worse, nature took the choice away.
I’ve held hands and wiped tears of the beautiful women who don’t feel enough because they are not yet mothers.
I feel the need to remind you all that we are nurturers at core. We women ARE mother earth in so many ways. We are the matriarchs of the planet and we are only getting stronger.
The strength that we have is individual but also collective, we are all linked and over recent years I have really felt it. I am lucky enough to have little ‘Tribes’ all over the place – my home town friends, my goddess friends, my sleepover sisters, my ‘I worked with you and now you are stuck with me’ family, my favourite Yorkshire girls and my actual family.
I always thought that it was somehow wrong to have so many groups of friends and even more wrong that they were mostly women. It scared me that I would end up with women pitted against each other because of all the different views and beliefs. Boy was I wrong about that!
Having these pockets of women all over – women I have met and women who I support and support back from afar- makes my life so much more full. All that ‘girls compete, women empower’ stuff is great and that but how about good old ‘girl power’. Soooo much more accurate and inclusive!
I don’t really believe that women want to compete with each other. I believe that the world wants us to though.
The power we have together as nurturers of the planet is so strong. We are the game changers and I think the world is seeing it.
To summarise –
Women in my life, past present and future, I love you. I see you. I am you.
Thank you to the warriors who raised me, to the wild women who have paved the way for me, the angels that carry me and the friends who have always and will always have my back… and my heart.
May you all see yourselves and your fellow women and feel the pride I do today.
May we continue to get stronger. Not to over rule men but to work side by side in our feminine and masculine energies to make our planet better.
May we never forget who we are and who helped to shape us.
Becky xxx
Self Preservation to Self Love 