"When a woman has owned her passionate nature, allowing love to flood her heart, her thoughts grow wild and fierce and beautiful. Her juices flow. Her heart expands. She has thrown off crutch and compromise. She has glimpsed the enchanted kingdom, the vast and magical realms of the Goddess within her. Here all things are transformed.........when a woman rises up in glory, her energy is magnetic and her sense of possibility contagious. We have all seen glorious women, full of integrity and joy, aware of it, proud of it, overflowing with love. They shine."

Powerful images woven by a modern-day philosopher/goddess, Marianne Williamson.

I laughed when I read her words.
Just the other day I wrote to a beloved exhorting him to be patient and compassionate while I healed from an unexpected state of sickness and weakness to my natural state......of shining.

Who talks like that? How many women recognize their own glow? I didn't, until my late 30's. When the face looking back at me from the mirror started to look less and less like a disappointed housewife and more like a mysterious, sensual, powerful being....I realized transformation doesn't begin in the womb and end at puberty. I believe, if a woman is open to it, uncovering her own glory can happen now. Today. Why are you waiting? What are you waiting for? Permission? Are you going to sit down beside your partner and ask, "Honey? I'm going to start shining today. Is that ok?"

Marianne continues, "Women are not powerless. we just pretend we are. We do this in large part because we are afraid of the punishment inflicted on us when we dare to be who we really are.......In the wild we scream. We scream when we hurt, we scream when we give birth, we scream when we come, and that's just the way it is. Now what kind of man can handle our passion.....? A princess attracts a prince and a queen attracts a king. Women who whine attract men who whine. Women full of the lioness heart attract men who are full of the lion."

I read this perfect little book of Williamson's and laughed 'til the tears came down my cheeks. I was tickled to read the words that I live by, written by another shining woman. I cannot compete with her wisdom; only do I want to share the idea that "A Woman's Worth" is entirely in her own hands and well within her capacity to uphold.

I know women who shrink, who hold back, who settle and who cannot tell you the last time she knew joy. I feel for you. I really do. But I also want to kick your ass. Go to the mirror and look at the Goddess looking back at you. She wants you to shine.