I know I am not the only woman who feels as if she has been climbing up the damn hill her entire life to get what she deserves. It’s International Women’s Day and how great that they gave us one flipping day to say how wonderful we are. I will take this day and run with it until it fills up every day of the year.
There’s no doubt that we are all exhausted from fighting for the right to be equal, for the right to decide what to do with our own bodies, for the right to get paid what we deserve, to sit at the head of the table, to demand equality in all arenas of our lives…and on and on.
Sometimes, on days like this, I take a bit of a pause and remember everything I had to do to get what the guy sitting next to me got without asking. I think about all those rather heavy and bearded men who pass laws that restrict access to health care rights, voting rights, living and breathing rights, and I know there is no way I will ever stop pushing forward.
Obviously, I’m a bit pissed off on this special day, but I am also riddled with hope. There are so many women like me who have worked to create sons and daughters who understand how important equality is and always will be and who have taken up the tired and well-worn weapons we have used for decades. My heart flips in circles when I see my own daughter fighting for abused women and the daughters of my friends working hard for justice on all levels. Their hearts and hands are the future and what a gift they are to all of us.
I will always be the Queen of Happy Endings and I will always celebrate this day with gratitude but there is no time to pause. When we take two steps forward and three steps back there’s always a way to move faster. We got this.
Take a breath. Raise a glass to this day and then hoist up those bra straps again and run like hell.
