Tales of Courage in Everyday Lives

Women tell such fascinating stories, their lives filled with the ups and downs of the human experience.  Yet, each one is wrapped up like a lovely package in pretty clothes and well groomed hair, their heart easily visible in their eyes for any who take the time to look.  These women go through life with this magic cloak of normalcy surrounding them, shielding us mere mortals from seeing their troubled childhood, the scars of an abusive spouse, a traumatic experience, a devastating loss.  They look like you and me.  In most cases, they are you and me.

People always talk about how resilient children are, and they do bounce along over life's struggles pretty easily.  But, women, to me, win the prize in this category.  The courage and perseverance I see everyday of women who have overcome the tremendous struggles life has placed on their doorstep, and the subsequent strength they exhibit so thoughtlessly, as they go on to lead ‘regular, everyday lives’, leaves me speechless.  

I have spoken with women who have been sexually, physically and emotionally abused, women who were abandoned, who have experience numerous deaths of loved ones in short periods of time.  Recently, I have heard all kinds of stories that make my heart ache, and still I listen.  These are not the everyday ‘whinings‘ we all share and hear.  These are the real stories, the ones that come from a child’s heart, a teenagers body, a wife and mother’s loneliness.  The stories that I’m hearing have rarely, or never been told in these raw terms.  And, I am honored and humbled to be ‘the listener’.

Although these women feel like an ‘everyday Sally’, they are in fact heroes, each and every one.  They have looked fear, danger and dispair in the eye and said ‘You can’t have me’.  Whether that threat came in the form of an alcoholic mother, an abusive father, a self destructive child,  3 deaths in 6 months, or countless other life experiences,  none of them caved.  They all had that amazing resilience to continue on we only attribute to children.  

I salute the women of my circle, of my community and beyond.  You are brave beyond words.  You are wonderful beyond your own imaginings.  I am talking to You...Yes, you!  You inspire me and make me immensely proud to call myself “Woman”.