Feeling like a Woman

Sometimes I wonder about the concept of "feeling like a woman," and how that has been changed or even constructed by our mass media advertising.

Personally, I feel most like a woman when I am doing things that woman have done for generations- hanging laundry, pulling weeds, snuggling babies, serving others in thier basic needs of food and clothing and a listening ear.

However, our modern adverting would have you believe that feeling like a woman is a product of make- up and designer bras, or it is when your hair and nails are done.

I am plain by nature, would probably fit into the Amish communities quiet nicely, except for love of pink. I find that worrying how I look to be a rather shallow and short sighted pursuit (short sighted because in 2 minutes a kid is going to barf on me, or leak a diaper on me, or wipe his bloody nose on my shoulder), but I don't see how what we are wearing for perfume or how long we spent looking in the mirror in the morning, has anything to do with being a woman.

A woman's work is service. We get our best kicks out of serving others. And quite often it is tedium service, the day in, day out of changing diapers, hanging laundry and making dinner. It is cleaning the house yet one more time, bandaging yet one more boo-boo.

I feel like a woman when I can remain calm in the storm, when I can look beyond the tedium tasks of the day with my skirt blowing in the breeze, the sweat dribbling down my face and the garden freshly weeded, even when there is still dinner to cook.