Powered by: iZoca

Great story!

Has anyone else had a moment when you felt you had to stand up for yourself as a woman, as an individual? Now that women are known by their own names, what struggles do we still have with asserting our own identities?

I felt like marriage did little to impact my identity... it was just an extension of a long relationship that was growing toward eventually starting a family.

It was motherhood though, that turned me inside-out and upside-down; a sometimes screaming, forceful change (like colic at 3am) and sometimes a subtle whisper... (Did that person mean to imply something awful about me as a mother?)

Today, I think many of us are fortunate to have the ability to carve out our lives as we see best for ourselves and our families. But as Kristin points out in Remodeling Motherhood, sometimes there are invisible forces at work, so far below our consciousness that we cannot really customize all the colors and textures of what our lives could be -- we might have just a few templates to choose from. Lack of work that fits, husbands' crazy hours, kids with special needs, a tax code that penalizs women for working, lack of good quality, affordable child care, medical issues... the list could go on and on.

Nonetheless, it is a wonderful thing to be a woman in 2010, and I believe it will get even better. I'm so glad to share these days of my life with all of you!