All week I've been in a celebratory mood. When March 8th came and went—International Women's Day, my thought then was, why not celebrate women every day? Maybe we all do; we just don't shout it from the rooftops because, as we know, women have grace, are nurturers, and make the world a better place every single day.
When Hubby Bill and I ran into a mother/daughter duo on the 3.5-mile Crofton Parkway, we were delighted to see L and her daughter Grace in town on her spring break from her New York medical school. Grace and her parents live in the house we rented the first year we lived in Crofton (it was a rental and then sold to this family several years later). Grace and L were a huge help in dog watching/walking when we still had our pups, Lucky and Loo-c-Loo, for several years. They were our lifesavers, and our dogs loved them maybe just as much as us!
While Bill was catching up with L, I was catching up with Grace, first after a big hug. It was so great to see her and how she has blossomed into a beautiful young lady, taking the world by storm in her medical and academic pursuits. It got us thinking of a lot of the girls that grew up in the "H" section of Crofton that are between the ages of 25-35. Along with Grace pursuing medicine, another girl is in optometry school, and another is a physician at Duke University Hospital. There is one Veterinarian, a couple of teachers, a speech pathologist, a couple of girls that have graduated from the US Academies (Army/Navy), a Hollywood actress, a few teachers, a couple of businesswomen (one being Olivia), and an incredible and talented artist that travels the world teaching the classics (she is a fabulous painter and I have two of her still-life paintings).
That is something to celebrate for sure!
In other countries, some women live with difficult hardships that are hard to fathom. I hope they are celebrated by their families, as in my first photo below that I took in Ethiopia in 2018 of a woman carrying a huge load of wood down a mountain. That is back-breaking work, no doubt, just to have firewood available to cook meals for her and her loved ones.
If you are a woman reading my post today, thank you! But my hope is that you feel loved and valued in your personal or professional life. Aretha Franklin knew it best - it all comes down to R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
bSoleille!
Terri
The other two photos are from Unsplash: the girls with the caps were taken by Satria Perkasa, and the last one of the ladies from the 1930s is from the Library of Congress.
