Can you see her??

There has always been a stigma attached to being a single mother, and it took me a long time to overcome that. Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t still have moments where I doubt myself or worry that my children or me are somehow seen as less than because of our circumstances. I was asked one day how I do it. How do I manage to work full time and raise two children alone? My answer was I don’t think about it. If I think about it then I would be overwhelmed and fearful and most likely would not be able to do what I to do every day. But then I thought about it and actually I do sometimes have to be able to celebrate myself, I have been my children’s first teacher and I know that I have taught them things they could potentially have missed out on in a different house with a different mother. I have to be unashamedly willing to acknowledge what I have achieved and what I will continue to achieve as a woman.

It can be seen as something great and something not everyone can accomplish, but is it really? When we look at history or even the animal kingdom is it not always the female that does this.

Throughout history, men would go off to hunt, work or to war and it would be the women who raised the children, took care of the house and in some cases worked too.

During slavery the family structure was destroyed and it was the women who raised the children, worked and ran the house.

In the animal kingdom, the Lioness for example, raises the babies and teaches them all they need to know before setting them free into the world to live their lives.

In ancient black cultures, (Egyptian and African), women were not degraded, abused, sexualised, demonised, and treated as second or even third class citizens. In fact women were revered and often held positions of power and ruled over nations. Why??? Because ultimately women are the basis for this earth. Now that does not mean that I am ridiculing men, by no means. I understand the concept of ying and yang, how differences separate us, yet complement each another. Without one there, is no other.

When did it become the norm within society that women are somehow inferior? Who decided that women should be deemed less important than men? We talk about “modern day” as if the past was somehow uncivilised and we have now evolved, but if we explore our past, I mean really explore it, then we will see women throughout history having achieved greatness. This could be then mean that we are actually less civilised now then our ancestors Women should be seen as the important catalyst within our world. Men alone cannot produce off-spring, we are very much needed and we are more than sexualised beings that are to be kept in our place and not permitted to thrive because we are inferior.

This degradation has not only lead to us having to fight for our rightful place within society against men, but we also see other women as competition too. She is sexier than us, has better hair than us, has a better job than us, is slimmer than us, but who forged the scale by which we compare beauty, intelligence and sexiness?

Again, let’s look at a pack of Lions, the Lion may be the head of the house and the Lioness understands her role and plays it well, however the Lion also knows without her by his side his chances of survival and that of his pack are drastically reduced.

Women are stronger than they are given credit for. In ancient Egypt women ruled as Goddesses, so if women in the past were worshipped and their strength, character and power were acknowledged and celebrated then surely we can acknowledge and celebrate it now.

I am not comparing myself to an Egyptian Goddesses, but as a woman I am powerful and I am great and we need to acknowledge that and not be ashamed to admit that we are amazing and we have our roles and we should play them to the best of our abilities. So, if you are reading this, acknowledge your inner Goddess and let her shine, because if we can’t recognise her within ourselves, how do we ever hope for others to see her.