Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, too, it seems a fitting time to celebrate the incredible women in our lives.

Here I am on holiday a few days ago, sitting with two very important women in my life: my mother, who has taught me so much about self-sacrifice, gentility, and unconditional love through her own example. My auntie, with a smile so wide it could open doors, never ceases to impress me with the impeccable application of her wit and social intelligence.

Throughout their lives, these women have done their best to navigate a man's world. They have taught me how to revel in the companionship and support of other women and helped shape the kind of woman I'd like (and also like not!) to be.

My mothers and I have now parted ways and left for our respective continents, but I shall be thinking of them this weekend.

Thinking of women everywhere and our collective challenges, I’d love to share a lovely poem I came across called Imagine A Woman. Though written almost thirty years ago, to me, it reads as if the author could have penned it yesterday.

Imagine A Woman - Patricia Lynn Reilly (1995)

I

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.


A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.


Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.


A woman who listens to her needs and desires.


Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past’s influence on the present.


A woman who has walked through her past.


Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.

A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.


Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.

Imagine a woman who names her own gods.

A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.


Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.


A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.


Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honors the body of the Goddess in her changing body.

A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.


Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.


A woman who sits in circles of women.


Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

II

Imagine a woman who is interested in her own life.

A woman who embraces her life as teacher, healer, and challenge.


Who is grateful for the ordinary moments of beauty and grace.



Imagine a woman who participates in her own life.


A woman who meets each challenge with creativity.


Who takes action on her own behalf with clarity and strength.
 


Imagine a woman who has crafted a fully-formed solitude.


A woman who is available to herself.


Who chooses friends and lovers with the capacity to respect her solitude.
 


Imagine a woman who acknowledges the full range of human emotion.


A woman who expresses her feelings clearly and directly.


Who allows them to pass through her as naturally as the breath.
 


Imagine a woman who tells the truth.


A woman who trusts her experience of the world and expresses it.


Who refuses to defer to the perceptions, thoughts, and responses of others.
 


Imagine a woman who follows her creative impulses.


A woman who produces original creations.


Who refuses to color inside someone else’s lines.


Imagine a woman who has relinquished the desire for intellectual approval.


A woman who makes a powerful statement with every action she takes.


Who asserts to herself the right to reorder the world.


Imagine a woman who has grown in knowledge and love of herself.


A woman who has vowed faithfulness to her own life.


Who remains loyal to herself. Regardless.



Imagine yourself as this woman.

Let's practise.