(You know what else is challenging? Not having reliable internet for over a MONTH. But I'm trying to get over that, and proceed as if nothing happened. Which it did, for a MONTH. Thanks a lot Telkom.)
Anyhoo. Girls. Challenging.
Yesterday evening for example. I accidentally smashed an empty peanut butter jar all over the floor, and it took me 3 times longer to clear it up due to the inordinate amount of distracting glitter twinkling and shining all over the place.
Girls.
But I loved this article I just read off Facebook today. The forgotten years of girlhood. 10 to 14 the author reckons. Years in which girls should be sorting out some of the fundamentals of their personalities, while probably being at their most easily distractable ever.
It was the line about 'learning to be women' which really struck me. As the author says, there are so many inappropriate ways for girls to learn about womanhood - glossies, most TV programmes, their peers who by definition will be floundering just like them - that it's really important to consciously introduce more balanced influences.
Enter the Aunties.
My womanhood was, is, so strongly influenced by my mother, her friends, and a life time's observation of the the relationships and dynamics between them. These aunties - strong, creative, funny, intelligent, sometimes vulnerable women - taught me so much.
Which is why I was so happy when, after my birthday tea in May, an afternoon with some of my closest girlfriends, Friday declared that 'I love your friends Mum. I wish they were my friends too.' And even happier when I could say, 'But they are sweetie, I think they'd all call themselves your friend', and she beamed with delight.
I love my friends. I'm so grateful to them for all the ways they've supported and spoiled and saved me over the years. And now I'm grateful to them for something else. For being strong, creative, funny, intelligent, sometimes vulnerable women in my daughter's lives too.
Chicks rule!
Gorgeous!
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