A Strong Woman

A strong woman is usually tired of being strong, it has made her tired. A strong woman yearns for a safe place to collapse, unlike what she is used to on her own.

She longs to be seen and admired for anything but her strength. Too often she is not chosen. She is strong because it is the only way she could survive. The only way she could be safe in this world.

She knows she can do it on her own, but that doesn’t mean she wants to. In connection with a man she had to turn off her sensitivity because it made her seem weak.

She had to fight an internal battle and fight for everything she deserved. Everything that is her birthright and should never have been taken away from her.

She is strong and persistent because, above all else, she honors life. She can’t let herself crumble because she has become the backbone and heart of humanity, but where is the rib cage that holds and protects her?

Although he’s in the front, what is he doing to protect her? She needs you to create space and a safe bed for her sweetness, her depth and even her fragility.

Sometimes, very sometimes, she needs YOU to be strong. To take charge so she can rest for a while. To hold her heart. To wipe her tears. To be able to show her vulnerability.

Because that’s what she needs more than being strong; she longs to merge into the safety of someone who truly understands what kind of power she has. Someone who can keep her in the full spectrum of her strength. Because the strongest women are also the softest. The most tender. The deepest. The most vulnerable, she just never has a chance to be.

If you take away her security, you take away her dimension. You reduce her to her survival mechanisms and trauma reactions and yet she fights for her own heart. She fights for the right to be feminine, while being criticized for being too masculine (while she also had to master that essence).

She’s not just fighting for her own heart, she’s fighting for everyone else’s right to be gentle. To be vulnerable. To be sensitive, because she knows. The true gift of her hard-earned strength is the reclamation of the heart of humanity.

-Anita Bonita Applebaum-