What Women Know

Our circle of women grows

with the passage of time.

Each union,

each birth,

each loss,

and each death

brings us closer together,

and strengthens our bond.
We are women;

we know these things.

To be loved, and to belong;

is there anything greater?

We lift one another

with voices and hands,

joining forces with heaven

to strengthen the weak,

to steady the faint, and

to celebrate the strong.

My circle began with the woman

who gave me life, and her mother

who gave her life, and her sister

who grew to love me, too.

The mother of my father, 

and his sister, and her daughter;

all women of my tribe,

who made me welcome here.

As sisters joined hands with mine,

the family grew to include us all.

The girls of long ago

helped me see the world 

through their eyes,

and even after the 

passage of time, still remain

constant in my life.

I have been mothered by

another, who gave me the gift

of her love, and gave to me

a sister-friend when

she became a mother herself.

My own daughter, and the

wife who joined my son bring joy 

and laughter wherever they go.

As brothers took wives

who bore them their daughters,

our sisterhood grew,

each girl a perfect gift

to those who love her most.

The women in my circle are strong and vibrant.

They stand tall in the face of adversity, 

and show me the way when I feel lost.

In my trials, I have learned that

they will not leave me; they will sustain me.

Caring, loving, embracing;

their actions, louder than words,

remind me of my worth.

A woman is strength.

A woman is courage.

A woman is love.

Women united 

know no limits

to the good they can do.

These things we know

because we are women.

From the heart of my circle,

I feel gratitude for the grace

offered me when I 

somehow felt

that I was less.

Women whose faces 

I know only from photographs

lift me from afar.

Their understanding of who I am,

and what I need, touches me

in ways I cannot explain.

We are united by our common experience

of traveling this world as women and friends.

There are things we know because we are women.

Women know of loss.

Women know of love.

Women know of fear.

Women know of courage.

As women, we remember

these things when

those around us begin to forget.

We are strong.

We are amazing.

We are loved.

We belong.

We are women; 

we must remember these things

so when others begin to forget,

we can remind them of what women know.

For the beautiful women in my life,

thank you, all of you.

The pictures here represent a larger

body of women I wish to honor today.

If you are reading this,

you have touched my life,

and for that, I am grateful.

Never forget your worth to the world.

You are priceless to your family and friends.

You have value beyond comprehension.

I love you.