I like being a girl

I sit in distracted thought at the moment. Trying to find direction to my random processing. A part of my brain is working today that I don’t think has been active in a little while.

I have this friend. Our time usually is spent hiking through the woods along the river talking about God and life. She’s my ‘philosophical’ friend. I’m always inspired and challenged when I hear from her (or when I’m in the states, after our hikes). I’m reminded how big the world is. How much vision matters. How amazing it can be to dwell on God. I start thinking more abstractly after we talk (or I read her blog ☺ ). And she reminds me to live my life big. And to dream big and to invest myself in big visions.

Lately I’ve been thinking about value. Sunday was “Women’s Day” here at church. It was a very cultural experience in a way I didn’t quite expect. It was approached through womanhood as a married woman. I never realized how different even the definition of a woman could change in culture. At home, we are taught about womanhood and femininity as a single. We’re taught to invest our gifts as a woman and use the attributes God gave us no matter where we are in life. We may even be chastised for wasting our gifts by our community (in a good way) if we are wasting our gifts as ‘life-giver’ and ‘helper-completer’ (to use the terms of the five aspects study). While the west usually takes feminism way to far, I’m thankful that my culture assigns me value as an individual, with or without a wedding ring. I really like being a girl. I like the gifts that I have, the qualities God's given me, and the glory of his purpose. I've never considered that I have less worth as an individual. Never even crossed my mind. It upsets me that other women face this battle. Its something I've seen a lot here, but it really struck me on Sunday.

In other news, Annika and I booked our ‘holiday’ trip to Kerala. SO excited for this. It’ll be a short trip, but it’s gonna be beautiful. 5 days to dwell on God’s marvelous creation.