If you're driving on Keystone Ave. in Reno and you're stopped at the corner of 2nd and Keystone, you might see this in the window of a little gem of a store called The Nest. Yes, this is me, but no, it's not just me. This is every woman who has ever breathed. Every girl who has jumped rope, cuddled a teddy bear, gotten a C on a spelling test, started her period too early; every woman who has held her newborn child, hugged her friends, cried her eyes out in the shower over a heartbreak, listened to countless accolades and criticisms and titles about her roles and her womanhood and tried on every hat anyone has ever handed her.
This is me and her and us. And she’s so strong and resilient and giving and gorgeous. And she bears the weight of her world, your world, the world on shoulders too narrow for the load. And she may slump a bit and stammer and fall to her knees. But it’s almost a given that she will stand again, maybe not alone, but she will stand again. She will rise and straighten and plod forward in and out of weeks and through decades. And her feet will ache and her face will leather and wrinkle.
But her smile. Oh, her smile.