The Weight of the World

"Carry yourself with a queenly grace. Carry the memory of an unforgettable moment. Carry a bag of food to someone who needs it. Carry a child as much as you can, as close as you can, yet stop the moment it begins to hurt or you begin to feel resentful. Carry a sign in a picket line to show you support the women whose jobs are on that line. Carry on a conversation only as long as you want; then end it. Offer to carry a sack for a woman who's carrying her unborn child. Carry a song in your heart. Stop carrying forty-seven suitcases of emotional baggage. Carry things to their natural conclusion. Allow someone else - another woman, perhaps - to carry you over an emotional threshold. Carry a bouquet of flowers into the kitchen on Tuesday. Or on every Tuesday. Carry the light of your own soul and let it shine, shine, shine."

I found this quote in the Words of Wisdom for Women book written by Rachel Snyder. It is a moving and beautiful message for us gals everywhere, tapping into the ever-so famous phrase: "To carry the weight of the world." While the physical examples given in this piece are just as valid as the emotional, I do see a certain kind of relation between my own life situations and the acceptance of letting go of "what I cannot change".

The past couple of months have brought up so much of this acceptance piece, one that is so hard to master, but carefully learned within the years of greatest growth. I constantly try to figure out the reason for why a certain occurrence came about - why that person judged me, why that person turned their back to me, and the list goes on and on. I will admit: I am lacking a bit of grace in my daily life. I have a loud mouth, and it's not so lady-like, but I will state the trait that does possess great grace: resilience.

I do my part in community service and volunteering for non-profits, schools, and libraries, raising my voice when activism calls to me. I have a soft spot for children, and consider myself very "maternal" in the way I treat human beings. I fight against ageism and the right for young people to have a solid voice without judgment.

I carry the message of love, compassion, and what I believe to be correct - a very simple thing to achieve. I compromise with my closest girl-friends, and help them through their trials, as they help me through my own. I understand who I am, what I am worthy of, and what I should stand for. I do carry the light of my soul for all to see, and hopefully accept. Sure, I'm not perfect, but when people do not accept my soul, I have a hard time carrying things to their assigned destination (with time), or understanding that I do not have to carry the emotional baggage and conflicting pain of others.

I want to "save" the ones around me, no matter how big or small their situation is. This leads me to a different, but equally helpful quote from the same poetry book: "Why plow through life when you can take in as much as you can? You can't always save a moment in time, but you can savor it." There is so much GOOD in life; so much to be savored. Negativity should keep none of us down when the negativity stems from something bigger than ourselves and what we cannot control.

If anyone, anywhere, puts you in an emotional state in which they have tricked you into believing that they hold the right to control your future, feelings, being, or dreams: fight by fighting for your right to be happy and live successfully in bliss. Climb when the mountain seems too high. Defy those disbelievers with the guilt of their unachieved dreams, lost in the dust of their crumbling valley. "Ignore them and do whatever you damn well please! Defy convention and wear what you want, love who you want. Turn a deaf ear to the culture and the busybody down the block. Just say NO. Go up against the odds, defy the naysayers and the dream destroyers and prove them wrong. Tell conventional wisdom to take a flying leap into an unconventional location where the sun never shines. Break rules that repress your freedom of expression and become more fully human in the process. Be willing to be ostracized for your defiance. Lose everything you ever thought was important and revel in all that you gain."