I found this on a friend’s blog and thought it worthy of being passed on. Her name is Julie Cook; the link to her full post is at the bottom of this. She is an excellent and powerful writer.

I am proud of being a woman, and a southern woman at that, because it means that I have a strength that some men do not. No matter our point of origin, the strength of a woman is found in the heart of a fiercely protective mother, yet one who knows that letting go is simply part of life.
Think Mary

I am proud of being a woman who can appear perhaps a bit simple, unassumingly sweet but who can be complicated, deeply profound and hell on wheels when necessary.
Think Mother Teresa

A woman who loves and appreciates men—men who are masculine…and whose mothers imparted upon them a sense of decency and compassion because I know real men can and do cry. Just as I know real men can stand alongside a woman while defending their nation…all the while never blinking an eye…
Think Joan of Arc

I like what it means to be a woman—to be nurturing while strong, sentimental while determined, and tender while tenacious…
Think Clare of Assisi

This isn’t intended to be a complicated or political discourse on women’s rights, gender equality, or the importance of the solidarity of women…for I have neither time nor strength for that never-ending debate…This is merely the observation of women by a woman…a southern woman. A woman who has more in life to worry over than protesting and marching. A woman who has been busy being a wife, mother, daughter and caretaker. A woman who was so busy working that she never selfishly thought that demonstrating or picketing was ever a priority during the forging, caring, teaching and living of life. No….here is no real place for the militancy of feminism when a woman is busy living her life…as she cares and works for all those around her…it’s what women do—fiercely and tenaciously caring, raising, nurturing, honoring and protecting…Here’s to women–Those women who are strong of body, spirit and soul…those who understand the true importance of what God has entrusted upon them….that of living a life of a woman…

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. ~1 Corinthians 10:13

grits and magnolias