Every woman’s journey

Women, this journey through life requires great bravery from you and not just because you survived childbirth and handled dramatic changes in hormones throughout your life. You have balanced body weight and beauty expectations, with all of society’s unrealistic demands. You have worn many hats: mother, housewife, wife, employee, daughter, and friend. You have raised kids, sacrificed for them only to make the sacrifice again when you let them go. You have navigated menopause with weight gain, sleeplessness, hot flashes, and anxiety. You have held a hand and watched a loved one pass into eternity. You will be expected to be brave for all of these reasons, but also because thirteen percent of you will develop breast cancer in your lifetime; that means one out of eight will be diagnosed at some point. Heart disease will be the leading cause of death for women. Sixty percent of those living with osteoarthritis will be women and eighty percent of individuals with autoimmune diseases, the third most common category of disease in the United States after cancer and heart disease, will be women.

But take heart women, you are strong, you are amazing, and you will find a way to support others and be supported. As the Snohomish legend says, you will “lift up the sky” and you are not alone, as it says in Psalm 121, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”

Brave as Thistles is not just my story of bravery, it’s every woman’s journey as we reach down into the depths of ourselves and pull out that fierce inner Viking and reach up to heaven for divine help. This is every woman’s story, Happy National Women’s History Month and may you journey as brave as thistles, tender and lovely, yet able to withstand any wind and weather.