females unite

i am just gonna put it out there. life is better with a few good girlfriends to accompany you.

ever since i moved to colorado eight years ago, i have taken a real interest in nature. i love being out in the wilderness, getting in touch with the way things used to be. simplicity. i try to imagine what i would do if the open sky were my only means of shelter. the feminist in me gets really riled up and bellows hymns of "you can do it"-survival. that same feminist voice is met by the sweet nurturing voice that hums "caution and reserve". where am i in the isolation that these voices leave me in?

in my mountaineering endeavors thus far i have only found company with my husband and his extreme guy friends. while i love spending these moments with the mister, he is all about getting to the top. "push harder,keep going" i do not find peace in this.

i want to pick the indian paintbrush, smell the pine cones roasting in the hot sun, sit on boulders and enjoy the panoramic views. these differences, at times made me feel discouraged and anxious about future mountaineering adventures. until one day i went rock climbing with a female. in rock climbing trips in the past with the male gender i didn't respond to the "push harder-make it to the top" commentary. i would find myself exhausted and rarely ever making it to the top. rock climbing with a female was a whole new ballgame. i had my best day climbing when i was with kindred spirit-female. i even made it past a difficult overhang. her commentary met my soul and motivated both the feminist and sweet nurturing voice that i believe all of us females struggle with in discerning which voice will be louder for the day.

we females meet each others isolation, confusion, anxiety. we together sing songs of moderation. and in that moderation where our individual pendulum- swinging voices of isolation, we find that we can do it after all. it is indeed every females fear that maybe she cannot do it-whatever the task may be. but when we come together in community with other women and meet these fears head on--we often find that we really can accomplish much. and when we cannot, there is no shame among like community, only the sweet nurturing voices that comforts us and then motivates us onto to further great accomplishments.

today i encourage you to call on your female sisters and offer to walk along side them in there tasks. because together we really can do it!

thank you to all of my sisters who are walking along-side me.