BEING FEMALE

Year’s ago I wrote a catchy little country song entitled, “What Is A Woman?” I was going through a lot of transition at the time, including divorce. I was questioning who I was and, having gotten married as a “girl” still in high school, I was trying to figure out what it now meant to be a woman.

Like my song notes, as females we play many roles. We are mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts. We are nurses, managers, engineers, waitresses. We nurture, organize, teach, create.

And oh, how we create! As we are physically able to create a whole other body, our female bodies have an extra source of creative energy. This creativity shows up in the “glow” of a pregnant woman, for example. But we don’t have to be pregnant to tap into and use this source. We turn on and use this energy at different creative times – maybe while cooking, designing new flower beds, reorganizing files, or making a quilt.

We are creative creatures, and we are also healers. Most of us care for a lot of other people in our lives – our children, husbands, friends, co-workers, bosses, clients, and even our own parents (especially if you’re a baby boomer). Finding the balance between caring for ourselves and caring for others can sometimes be tricky. How many of us feel guilty when we take an hour for ourselves? We are trained at an early age to put others first. This can be fine some of the time - fine until we find ourselves at the “burn-out” stage, that is.

There are many ways we can care for, create for, and “heal” ourselves. It’s important to take time to go for a walk, read a good book, meditate, go shopping with a girlfriend, take a nap, or do something your really enjoy doing. So, try a little experiment – create something just for you at least once a week!

Ó 2005 Jill Miller