The Sisterhood of Women

Today I have my darling daughter on my mind and as always in my heart.  She is evolving into an extraordinary woman; not that I have ever seen her as ordinary in anyway.  She doesn't see the changes in herself but did any of us?  When we got out of high school our parents had high hopes and expectations for us.  We were simply scared children acting like grownups.  We might have bragged about what we were going to do but we didn't know how the hell we were going to accomplish those great deeds.  Secretly we wanted to do so much more than what our parents wanted from us.  We were going to be super stars, first woman president, entrepreneurs and CEO of our own business.  Some of us were successful, but most were afraid to even say this out loud for fear of being ridiculed let alone pursue these great careers.  Most had failed in the past and had felt the hot dragon's breath breathing down our necks telling us over and over again that we weren't good enough.  As time went by some learned as did Eleanor Roosevelt, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent".  We made mistakes, we stumbled and got up again, stronger for the experience.

So it is with my daughter.  My sweet beautiful little girl who never thought she was quite good enough, pretty enough, or smart enough.  Now she is approaching middle age going through a divorce with two children, a part-time job and a husband who balks at every request for assistance.  But adversity is a funny thing.  For some it helps them develop self confidence and an inner strength they did not know they possessed while others give up and crawl under a rock never to be heard from again.  My baby is slowly growing and turning into the woman she was meant to be.  She has earned new respect from the people she works with and the mother's of her daughters' friends.  She is finding herself and in doing that she is becoming her own best friend.  My little girl is learning to trust herself and turning her cant's into cans.

She still has an important lesson to learn.  Perhaps she has learned this lesson and has not conveyed this information to me, but I have discovered I am fortunate to be a woman.  I was so busy making a living and taking care of my family I did not learn this lesson until the last few years.  There is a sisterhood among women.  We will stand by one another through thick and thin.  In one book I read, this connection was described as an invisible golden string that was attached to all women's hearts.  When women have other women friends the string becomes taunt between them.  If one woman stumbles, the heart string becomes tight and supports the woman so that she does not fall.  Friends support each other without condition or without any expectation of gain.  Women have a natural God given talent for this.  Friends come through with flying colors to surround you with joy and sharing their strengths.  The secret of my joyful life is my girlfriends.