“Make a difference, think globally and act locally!! Make every day International Women’s Day. Do your bit to ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding.” – IWD website. What women have influenced you? Have inspired you?
Saturday, March 8 celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD), a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. Annually on this day, thousands of events are held throughout the world - from political rallies, business conferences and government activities to women’s craft markets, theater performances, and fashion parades - all to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. Even Google shows it’s appreciation through it’s lettering on March 8!
Started at the turn of the century as a political event, IWD is now an official holiday in many countries throughout the world. In some celebrations, the day has become an occasion for people to express appreciation with flowers and small gifts to the women around them, including mothers, sisters, friends, teachers, wives, colleagues.
Locally, I am reminded of this day from Frances Nagashima, director of Yak, who is a stellar example of a woman who is making a difference as she mentors teenage girls with tools of strength and confidence through the transition into womanhood. Our community is full of women role models stepping up and contributing locally, nationally, and globally to the world around them and connecting to share with one another their passion, energy and commitment.
When I think of International Women’s Day, one group of women I’d like to show appreciation for are the volunteers who, each Fall and Spring, help coach Girls on the Run, a character-building program that uses the power of running to teach confidence, strength, inner beauty, and healthy living to 3rd-5th grade girls. These girls and volunteer women who mentor them are some of the very essence of International Women’s Day and the reason for each of us to remember and show appreciation to the many women making a difference both in our own lives and in the lives of the world around us.
Share your own stories about women who touch your life and have made – or are making - a difference…
My mother most definitely played a life shaping role in my life, showing me how honesty, kindness and integrity in your actions and words are invaluable. But I’m reminded often how another female in our family played a life shaping role in my life simply by her persistent presence and interest in my character. My aunt Patricia Lorimer, was and is an influence at crucial life junctures, who’s unwavering assumption that her niece would achieve no less than collegiate, career and family success helped me actually achieve those things. She continues today to be an influence in my life by identifying and encouraging in my children talents that are so clearly evident to her but easily overlooked by daily doting parents. She retired from a career as college counselor in the Eugene, OR public and private schools, a profession that undoubtedly led not only my own but also many other young men and women onto successful and rewarding careers.
Happy Int. Women’s Day gals! Thanks for highlighting this wonderful celebration.
My mother has been the most influential woman in my life, but my Grandmothers also touched my life profoundly. I didn’t see my Grandmas that often, but they were big influences on my life.
My Grandma Leman made us give her a kiss when we met up (I didn’t care for that back then, but now I’m glad she made us get close). She always had time to give us some help finding fun things to do - like catch fireflies. (Are there places where there are lots of fireflies anymore?)
Most of what she directed us toward were outdoor activities - she would point us in a fun looking direction and let us Leman kids, and our many cousins, run with the activity – I don’t recall much adult supervision once we got started. We were free to roam, pick some fruit off the apple and pear trees (watch out for worms), look for arrowheads out next to the lane, and just play outside in the small Illinois town where most of our extended family lived.
Good, simple things to do were abundant. Getting us outdoors gave some relief to the parents of us kids - giving them time to gather and catch up about their lives - some of us lived far away.
Coming indoors when it got too dark to play, Grandma would bring down the cookie jar - always loaded with big homemade sugar cookies. Grandma liked to serve ice cream too - always huge servings that she claimed were not very big, they just looked big. As she said, “Oh, it looks like a big serving, but its hollow inside.” She also claimed that even if one was “full,” there was always room for ice cream, a mantra I carry with me today.
I liked coming inside and sidling up into the circle of the adults and hearing them discuss everything from politics to the price of soybeans. I so enjoyed hearing all the wisdom of those adults and how they shared their thoughts with each other.
My Mom’s Mom, Grandma “Bluejay” was also a delight. She was a slightly built woman who seemed to have the strength of a giant, and a heart to match. One of five children, she had to quit school at the age of fourteen to care for a sick aunt - leaving school was a great disappointment to her as she had dreams of becoming a school teacher. She later married and of that loving union bore 18 children. She always said that having a large family wasn’t as difficult as it seemed it could be. She said she had “cookers, cleaners, laundry workers and farm hands”…even the little ones had jobs of emptying waste baskets and such other smaller tasks to carry out.
Grandfather B. died at the age of 53, so Grandma had all those kids to raise on the farm – during the depression! Wow, what a tower of strength.
Grandma B liked to pass along words of wisdom by offering up quotes, bible verses, or other words of wisdom. My Mom must have been very influenced by these, as she carried on that tradition – always at the ready with some sage advice in a format that was easy to remember (maybe it was the hearing of these truisms over and over again that made them so memorable to me). We heard the Golden Rule and we saw it practiced daily.
At Grandma B.s 100th birthday someone asked her what advice she would give to others on living a long life. Her response was, “Work hard, do what’s right, and just let God help you in whatever you do!”
Grandmas Rule!