Welcome to my little corner of the world!
When trying to come up with a title for this blog, a dear friend of mine encouraged me to reflect on some of my favorite quotes. Immediately, I recalled St. Edith Stein, a genius of a woman with a heart of gold who claimed the truth for us when she said:
“The world doesn’t need what women have; it needs what women are.”
But what does it really mean for us to be women?
This question has actually become a sort of theme of my life. I took an “Intro to Women’s Studies Class” my first year of college that set me on the path to pursue the answer to this question. More than anything, I desired to find Truth amidst the chaos of voices and arguments of syntax.
This class held up womanhood as a sort of relative idea, malleable to anyone who desired to answer the question. When objective Truth is divorced from the conversation, chaos takes over. Discussions are endless because everything is based on mere opinion.
Deep down, I just knew that there must be some purpose and plan to my existing specifically as a woman and not as a man. I desired an answer that did not engender resentment but instead inspired me to live my life in a way that only I can live, as a uniquely individual woman.
As I continued researching and conversing with others, I began to realize that there must be some kind of order to things. I began to see that equality does not necessitate sameness and that I do not need to compete with a man for power to prove my worth as a woman.
I began to grow and see more clearly that to answer the question of authentic womanhood on the same platform as authentic manhood would be to miss the mark. It isn’t that manhood is unimportant or that discussing a man’s call is unimportant. Man is just as important as woman, and men deserve truth and freedom from being boxed in just as much as women do.
Our human call is one thing, an important foundation that unites all of us; our uniquely feminine call is another, inviting us even deeper to come to know who we are as women. I think it’s okay for womanhood to have its own unique place to wrestle with these questions that arise.
The purpose of this blog is to offer you an invitation. My invitation for you is that you journey with me on this path of self-discovery. We each are on our own unique journeys, so this is not about comparison.
I don’t want this blog to be about me.
I want this blog to be about us, about who we are as women.
My posts will have a consistent theme, one in which we discover together the different aspects necessary in answering this question. I won’t be answering this specific question every time per se, but instead I hope to offer different little pieces for reflection and encouragement.
Thousands of different facets make up the whole of the gem. Together, we can receive some of these facets and gems to be discovered in our being created as women.
Remember that this answer we seek is not founded upon our jobs or how we wear our makeup or do our hair. I’m not talking about the number on the scale or the measurement for that dress you’re ordering.
I’m talking about something deeper, the kind of realities that don’t change or pass away with time or age or relationship status. I’m talking about finding answers that give us a firm foundation, answers that go even deeper than our fickle emotions and desires, beautiful though that those may be. I’m talking about providing a platform for women to share with other women what matters to them, what is happening in their lives, how they feel called to offer themselves as gifts to the world!
My sister, what does it mean for us to be women?
This answer is less of an idea and more the reality of your ordinary, everyday life. It doesn’t matter without the lives of real women. You, my sister, are counted in this number.
Your story matters.
I’m going to invite women I know and love to share their hearts with you. Remember that I want to highlight the great gift and beauty of our being women. This isn’t a place for you to feel like you just have another role to fill or mold to squeeze into. This is a place for you to be prompted on your own journey, especially your journey of self-discovery. I encourage you to read these words and let them inspire you. Allow them to sink deep within, and then see where your heart moves.
My three goals for this (however this blog develops) are as follows:
1-to empower you with knowledge
2-to encourage you on your own unique journey
3-to challenge you to courageously offer the gift of yourself to those entrusted to your care
Knowledge is a gift, a tool, a resource. As you grow in the knowledge of how you were created as a woman, this knowledge will take root within your own heart and connect to your unique, lived experience. It’s less about a theory; it’s more about a journey. For the places where you might have confusion, Truth can help free you. For the places where you might feel broken, Hope can help console you. For the places where you feel nothing but darkness, Love can find a way in and bring light to you.
Sister, I invite you to read and learn and be open to the truth of your goodness as a woman. I’m not sure what this will become, but I feel called to offer it anyway. I’ll be offering you knowledge about the philosophy and theology of womanhood. I’ll share with you about the beauty of your biology, specifically your fertility. I’ll probably include some stories about my travels, the reflections/lessons I have gleaned from spending time alone in foreign countries. Maybe I’ll make a video or two? Maybe I’ll have a podcast? Maybe this will be my only post?! Who knows?! I’m just taking one step at a time. But of this truth, I am sure:
You, my sister, are a gift.
You, my sister, matter greatly.
Let us be the kind of women that change a culture by being exactly who we are, ordinary women with dreams and desires, struggles and sins. Let us not give up on ourselves or those we love. Let us come to know more deeply the gift of who we are and whose we are so that we might become the women we desire to be.