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Inspire Yourself We were given the topic "Inspirational Women" but all I could think of were the women in my life, those I admire and those I love. We all inspire someone, somewhere. Why don't we give ourselves more credit? Why do we get inspired by other women? Is it really due to their achievements
or is there more to it? Do we see ourselves in their struggle and do we envy
their success as we compare ourselves to them? I do, but then I think there is
really no reason I can't be making more successes in my own life, doing the
things that matter to me. What holds some of us back? Why do we choose to go
shopping, see something on TV or just never start all these great ideas and
plans we have? Is it learned helplessness or do we just have so little faith in ourselves? Really, there isn't any reason we can't all be inspirational
women. Maybe we already are, to someone.
Those inspirational women you read or think about mostly wouldn't think of themselves that way. If you could go back in time as ask Amelia Earhart, Nellie McClung, Helen Keller, Boadicca, and Nellie Bly what made them inspirational I bet they would wonder too. Women tend to question our own achievements and see them as less than they really are. We compare ourselves to other women and see how much more we could be doing and then everything we have done seems smaller and less important. We cheat ourselves. Men don't do that. They think every least thing they do is great and should be made note of. We call them cocky. Why aren't we more like that? You don’t need a cock to believe in yourself and your abilities. Trust yourself, when no one is there for you, you are.
I admire women who are part of my everyday life yet I don't think any of them
would feel they belong on a list of inspirational women to be admired. I find my
Grandmother and her sisters inspiring: Violet Scherle, Alice McRoberts, and the
others, all deceased now. I find women I have contacted and worked with on the
web inspiring: Deanna, Jade Walker, Bev Walton-Porter, Debbie Ohi for instance.
Think of the early women doctors, the old midwives and herbalists who fought
battles to do with family, career and a woman's place in our world. I admire my
Mother for being a Mom with four kids and a less than pleasant husband. As
I grow older I understand her life and things she must have felt.
I admire women writers like: Shirley Jackson, LM Montgomery, Anne Morrow
Lindbergh, Victoria Holt and Anne Stuart for their imagination and craft with
words. I admire women pioneers like Susanna Moody and her sister Catherine Parr
Traille. I admire women like Helen Keller and Kat at Sex Kitten who are fighting
with health problems and winning. I admire my own sister, Sarah, for starting up
her own business and keeping it going even though it's very scary to have big
debts, small children and an insecure income. I find Angela Comelli, a friend
from high school inspiring cause she was beautiful (she literally turned heads
as she walked down the street), very intelligent, witty and a lovely, kind
person and she thought I was all those things too.
I think the women I find most inspiring are those who achieve their dreams
while being single, working parents. Women who struggle to keep going after huge
setbacks like a divorce, a death or whatever else comes along in life. I think
we should all take some time to admire each other, for we have all faced trouble
we thought we couldn't survive and yet here we are, still working on keeping
things together and creating our dreams too.
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