On Tuesday, March 8, 2016 (International Women's Day) the women in the Tuesday Morning Writing Circle created this collective list:
I am the woman who loves when softball season is fast approaching so I'm forced to get down on the floor to do my stretches
I am the woman who can take 10 minutes to decide which pen to carry in my pocket on any given day
I am the woman who could have been a Kansas farmer except for the fact that wheat and dust and ragweed and hay all make me sneeze up a storm
I am the woman who always has a crossword puzzle tucked away in my back pocket so I'm never bored
I am the woman who, more often than not, doesn't care what other people will think
I am the woman who got arrested for speaking out
I am the woman who wants to have children
I am the woman who chose today as just exactly where to be, not yesterday, not tomorrow
I am the woman who needs to be me
I am the woman who went away to another country to find a new life, and discovered that my life right here is the best there is for me right now
I am the woman who has learned to cherish the present because it is just that — a present
I am the woman who appreciates the friends I have now, since I kept friends at a distance until very recently
I am the woman who has been trying to lose the same 20 pounds for the last 20 years
I am the woman who wants to hold on tightly to my adult children as though they were still small
I am the woman who talks too much
I am the woman who has been told all my life that I am "too sensitive"
I am the woman who has mixed feelings about "growing up"
I am the woman who tries every day to have at least one spiritual moment
I am the woman who doesn't really like food
I am the woman who is only really myself when I'm near the grey waters of Lake Ontario
I am the woman who rode her bicycle across the United States
I am the woman who handles the money and is adaptable and flexible beyond measure
I am the woman who looks for the silver lining
I am the woman who has wandered the U. S., living in a motor home
I am the woman who collects rolling pins, but rarely makes pies these days
I am the woman who sits in a sunny spot on the porch and dreams the day away
I am the woman who thinks she got lucky and got the best girl in the world
I am the woman who loves glue guns and baubles
I am the woman who longs for stability while pushing against it
I am the woman who wishes I could have been a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine back in the '70s
I am the woman who has never found the perfect bra
I am the woman who could eat watermelon and peaches all day long
I am the woman who went wild in my youth and paid for it, but survived
I am the woman who left "normal" behind a long time ago, but I keep moving forward
I am the woman who looks for the good in everyone and doesn't judge others
I am the woman who understands what it means to love someone unconditionally
I am the woman who loves my cats (one passed last August, but I still think I have 2 cats anyway) more than anyone else in the world
I am the woman who is the spinster companion to my mother but who also (finally) said "no" to her
I am the woman who didn't learn to cry until recently and now I cry all the time, about lots of things
I am the woman who hasn't ever had a long-term partner but I like to think that if Eddie, Benedict, Christian, or Mariusz came a-calling, maybe I could get me one
I am the woman who will never buy from Lands' End again — unless — until — they apologize to Gloria Steinem and every like-minded woman
I am the woman who keeps reinventing myself so that life always holds interest for me
I am the woman who calls myself a filmmaker
I am the woman who calls myself a feminist
I am the woman who loves solitude
I am the woman who used to collect china cat statues
I am the woman who starts looking at my garden in March, hoping to see signs of life
I am the woman who treasures my books, which surround me in my study, like close friends visiting every day
I am the woman who loves to wander alone in foreign cities
I am the woman who keeps all sorts of mementos of my life and wonders who will use them to assemble the puzzle of who I was
I am the woman who believes in snail mail and loves to write letters
I am the woman who has waited 5 long years to be able to wear my hair in a braid down my back
I am the woman who worries that I will run out of good ideas
I am the woman who feels ashamed every time I lose my temper
I am the woman who looks and sounds more like my mother with each passing year
I am the woman who reads the last few pages of a novel first
I am the woman who loves you
With gratitude to all the contributors:
Gabrielle Vehar
Leah Grady Sayvetz
Leslie Howe
Linda Keeler
Margaret Dennis
Marty Blue Waters
Nancy Osborn
Paula Culver
Sara Robbins
Sue Perlgut
Zee Zahava
