On The Threshold of Womanhood
I am so mindful of what so many girls feel the eve of Valentines Day. I spent years of my emerging womanhood being obsessed with the desire to be found attractive by someone. The longing was deep within me. Will I be known, noticed, appproved of, loved?
Song of Songs 1:9
My dearest one, let me tell you how I see you— you are so thrilling to me. To gaze upon you is like looking at one of Pharaoh’s finest horses— a strong, regal steed pulling his royal chariot. 10 I'm making jewelry for you, gold and silver jewelry
that will mark and accent your beauty. 11 We will enhance your beauty, encircling you with our golden reins of love. You will be marked with our redeeming grace.
The man – “Oh, my dear friend! You're so beautiful! And your eyes so beautiful—like doves!”
The woman – “I'm just a wildflower picked from the plains of Sharon, a lotus blossom from the valley pools”
The Man – “A lotus blossoming in a swamp of weeds— that's my dear friend among the girls in the village”.
The dialogue is classic of so much of our womanhood, deflecting compliemnts instead of letting them ring true right to our core. Why cannot we just say 'thank you' when someone speaks well of us and our bodies and our being?
The Lover of our Soul, loves you with a wild, unrestrained love and passion. He loves who you are.
I read this beautiful blessing over those young girls entering the threshold of womanhood the other day. It is where my emerging third teenager is at right now. What a painfully formative time of her life this is:
It is like awakening into a morning
Were everything is touched with change
Now your body has a mind of its own
As it curves and fills into womanhood
The lightness of being a girl is leaving
And your thoughts too are taking you
To places never known before.
Becoming a woman you feel the moon
Tug at your blood, and you begin to sense
The mysteries of your new body.
May you enter beautifully into the feminine,
Learning to trust the world of feeling you inherit,
Finding ease and elegance in all you are.
May your respect for your beauty
Become visible in your dignity
And how you hold yourself in the world.
May the expectation in others eyes
Never decide how you are to be;
Learn to trust the advice of your heart.
May you feel life as an irresistible invitation
To discover and develop your talents
Each day bringing something new to birth.
John ODonohue
Imagine if someone had spoken that blessing over me as a girl so uncomfortable in her own skin.... how would it have changed how i RECEIVED love?
When we think about all the ways we will seek affection and admiration tomorrow, please remember how deeply loved you are to the very core of your feminine soul. Let's remind one another and the girls in our world of this.