‍As human beings, we are so easily pulled between one extreme or another, and we are so quick to make value-statements by which we exalt ourselves and judge others. (I’m just as much at fault here as anyone else. It’s easy to do.) In my personal experience, most women need to be told to go slow and be soft. We’ve spent much of the younger parts of our lives being frantic and hard. We’ve destroyed our adrenal glands, our nervous systems, and our menstrual cycles so we can go all the time and prove that we can do it all (just like a man). Slow and soft living is the only way to heal our minds and bodies and the only way to break the addiction to chronic stress and franticness.

What is all this but Merry Durability and Cheering Strength? Isn’t that being sturdy? Isn’t that doing hard things with a smile on our face? Isn’t that being the round, worn, safe place for our people? Being a woman, wife, mother, homemaker requires more grit than our aprons, ruffles, and nurturing of little things imply. This grit takes time to grow, but I want to grow it. I want to be sturdy so I can be a helper. I know that I’m dependent on my husband, family, friends, and church, but I want to be as sturdy in that dependence as I possibly can, so that when war comes, my man can answer the call. But also, so that when plants die, drought comes, chickens get sick, a friend needs a meal, or my own health declines, I can carry on happily. I want this for me, and I want it for all of you in your homes.