Women Teach Me about the World, Part 3: In Lieu of Part 3

Why part 3 of a series honoring the women (and their wisdom) in my life for Women's History Month turned instead into an "in lieu of" post

I circled part three of this series for more than a week, trying to land on a topic. So many more women deserve the space and time, including my dear sister, my lovely friends, and the countless authors and teachers who have lit the path of writing and living for me. But I couldn’t land anywhere, couldn’t condense anything well enough for this space. For a while, I thought about leaning toward poetry. I considered that perhaps a different form would help me tell you about all the things I carry with me from them but the lists of memories and stories, the wisdom and learnings, refused to settle down on the page.

I had forgotten that it is, after all, futile to attempt to encapsulate any given woman into a single page. Each one has far too much vibrancy and dullness swirling together to be summarized in so short a piece. What I am trying to say is that what started as a desire to heap honor on the heads of the women I love arrived at part three and fell flat every time.

This morning, after making one last attempt that, once again, fell flat, I decided to let it rest. The telling will simply have to wait.

So I’ll say only this: I owe so much to the women in my life. Although I do not express my gratitude for (or to) them nearly enough, their humanity burns on like a beacon, guiding and teaching me.

For now, I am putting all these treasures of women back up on the shelves of my interior life where they line up like polished stones. They glitter in the sun and hold weight in the winter. On heavy days, I turn them over in my hands, remembering. On days that whip up with terror, I fill my pockets with them so that wherever I go, their wisdom and memory tether back down to the earth.

For that, I’m eternally grateful.