I wish I had realized earlier that our worldwide tribe of women is not bound by age or beauty or success and that heroines are often the woman we just walked by without noticing.
I wish I had recognized my sister in every woman I've ever met and not just the ones I called friends.
In your face I see myself. The woman I've been, the woman I am and the woman I will be. In your strength and your weakness I see courageous examples of being human.
This is for you, for me, for us.
And for the little girls who are watching our every move.
***
For the women who have lost children, raised children or never had them.
For the ones with three kids or two jobs or both,
putting out heart and soul and pulling in minimum wage.
For the women with no one to mother them because their mamas were pulled from this earth too early,
and the ones whose mothers never showed up.
For the ones changing the world by raising tolerant, conscious, open-minded sons and daughters,
and the ones changing the world by raising community instead of children,
who mother tribes instead of families.
For the ones who can't put food on the table but keep feeding little hearts each night,
and the women who become empowered leaders instead of power-hungry tyrants.
For the women who stand at kitchen sinks all day and sit behind desks all day and stay up all night nursing sick babies or grandparents or their own demons,
who care for everyone else first and often forget their hearts,
but when they remember them rock the world with its love.
For the women doing their best in their own corner of the world,
with the cards they've been given and the lot they've drawn.
Your best is good enough.
These are the women who are heros because they are human,
and becoming more so with every tear they wipe and every heartbreak they survive.
This woman is you. It's me. It's your mother. Your sister. Your daughter. Your wife. Your grandmother. Your neighbor. Your friend.
This woman is equal parts strength and vulnerability.
We learned how to be women by watching her walk through the world,
and we become more human by walking beside her.