I would love to go back to the beginning of time. The time in the original garden. A time when God was still trying to figure things out. I would love to know what his true intentions were for women before things got so messed up. If things had gone differently, slightly more left or more right in that decision making garden, what then? As it turns out, outside that garden, things are mighty tough.
I know so many women in so much pain and turmoil. They have conflictions layered upon conflictions. I know women in my inner circle of friends who if you bend them even a centimeter more they will become unhinged and break. These are women just like me who never miss a day of work, a PTA meeting, a garden party. These women appear thick-skinned, all-knowing, confident, and active. They volunteer to bring Gatorade to soccer games. Women just like me who show up early and stay late whenever called upon.
If we draw a ring around just the next ten women I engage with over the next 24 hours and you capture just a fraction of our stories, it would look a little like this; convicted felon, rape survivor, bankruptcy, divorce, debilitating health issue, depression, lonely, afraid, domestic abuse, infidelity, drug abuse. You would also see; Gucci, Prada, entrepreneur, life coach, Sunday school teacher, world traveler, soccer mom, teacher, nurse. You would capture all this in one small ring on any given day.
Yet we still shave our legs, plant lilies in the spring. We kiss boo boos, set dinner tables, correct homework. We have sex on Thursdays, hold hands in the movies. We drive across town to check on each other, comfort, cry, sooth, reassure.
Outside of that garden we have each other. We can keep sister secrets while things turn around, fix themselves, calm down, become bearable. We put lipstick on the pig.
We cry, we pray, we hold each other up. Outside of that garden we find comfort in knowing we are never alone. And maybe just maybe that is what God had intended all along. We are all one combined story looking for peace.
I know so many women in so much pain and turmoil. They have conflictions layered upon conflictions. I know women in my inner circle of friends who if you bend them even a centimeter more they will become unhinged and break. These are women just like me who never miss a day of work, a PTA meeting, a garden party. These women appear thick-skinned, all-knowing, confident, and active. They volunteer to bring Gatorade to soccer games. Women just like me who show up early and stay late whenever called upon.
If we draw a ring around just the next ten women I engage with over the next 24 hours and you capture just a fraction of our stories, it would look a little like this; convicted felon, rape survivor, bankruptcy, divorce, debilitating health issue, depression, lonely, afraid, domestic abuse, infidelity, drug abuse. You would also see; Gucci, Prada, entrepreneur, life coach, Sunday school teacher, world traveler, soccer mom, teacher, nurse. You would capture all this in one small ring on any given day.
Yet we still shave our legs, plant lilies in the spring. We kiss boo boos, set dinner tables, correct homework. We have sex on Thursdays, hold hands in the movies. We drive across town to check on each other, comfort, cry, sooth, reassure.
Outside of that garden we have each other. We can keep sister secrets while things turn around, fix themselves, calm down, become bearable. We put lipstick on the pig.
We cry, we pray, we hold each other up. Outside of that garden we find comfort in knowing we are never alone. And maybe just maybe that is what God had intended all along. We are all one combined story looking for peace.
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