Hey all,
I’ve had a bit of a week, you may have guessed from my last post but as I come to the end of my working week and reflect on bits and pieces that have gone on it made me think about how amazing us women are.
Don’t get me wrong men are fantastic too but so many of my female friends have been through so much this year I feel like it needs some recognition.
Yesterday a very dear friend confided in me that she was at the end of her tether, she is one of the most amazing women I know, a real inspiration to all of her friends as a friend, mother and all round wonderful person but currently she is doing too much and is making herself tired and poorly because she is not putting herself first.
We had a chat, she moaned, I listened and we laughed. She felt better having had a venting space and I felt better knowing that I had helped. Today I put a card on her desk which I felt summed up her week.
Women are so often guilty of putting themselves under so much pressure that they end up feeling like they are letting others around them down and that really isn’t the case.
Two very close friends have had hysterectomies in the last year and have been terribly poorly leading up to the major operations and have still worked, ran a home, been amazing mothers and kept smiling.
Another best friend is bringing up four children on her own, the children are all clever and well behaved, she always looks immaculate and her home is not only beautiful but clean and tidy. I can’t manage that with only two children in tow!
My mum amazes me daily, I honestly don’t know how she managed when I was growing up with a husband who worked away, my older sister having severe learning disabilities and a pretentious me in tow and yet I recall her being patient, fun and still level headed at the end of a long day.
My sister is amazing too, her name is Emma, she is five years older than me. She has grown up with severe learning and physical disabilities, she has watched her younger sister meet boys, go out to nightclubs, get married and have children . All things she would desperately want for her own future but knows she will likely never have (not the nightclub bit, she goes out more than me nowadays!) she is an amazing Auntie, she is fun loving, caring and the boys adore her. I hope that she realises.
Someone called me handsome this week And I got incredibly offended, what woman wants to be called handsome?! Beautiful, pretty, attractive maybe but handsome?! I think I may have shown my distaste a bit too much which prompted the need to inform me of what a handsome woman is, the definition is:
A woman with the kind of refined beauty and attractiveness that requires poise, dignity, and strength of mind and character, things that often come with age; not merely sex-appeal. Usually applied to a woman who is also very well-groomed.
This phrase is very dated and rarely used in today’s English. Those who don’t understand the term could almost be insulted by the word “handsome” being applied to a woman, mistakenly thinking you’re saying she is masculine.
“What a handsome woman she has become; she carries herself so well”.
This you can imagine made me smile massively and I saw the compliment as it was intended, that in turn made me think…. How many handsome women do you know? I’m very lucky to know lots!
tiredfromwhitstable 