If Women Ran the World, Sh*t Would Get Done. Shelly Rachanow
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A Wonderful, Amazing, Stupendous, Inspiring, Butt-Kicking Real-Life Story
As a teenager, Judee sang in clubs and dreamed of the touring life. Somehow she ended up a single mom raising two girls. Times weren't always easy, and money was tight. When nine-year-old Julie asked for piano lessons, Judee had to say no. She never forgot the sadness on her daughter's face.
Years later, long after Judee and Julie became the owners of a thriving custom optical manufacturing business, they were wining and dining at a black-tie benefit just a few weeks before Julie's thirtieth birthday. As they browsed the items up for auction, Judee saw Julie eyeing a beautiful Schafer and Sons piano with the same wistful, pleading expression that had begged for lessons long ago. But now, Judee could do something about it.
Judee's hand was first in the air when bidding started on the piano, and she would not be deterred. This gift would fulfill Julie's long-held dream. Her daughter would have that piano! Unfettered by rules of decorum and a room full of bluebloods, Judee stood up and announced to her competitor, “You can bid as high as you want, but this is a present for my daughter's thirtieth birthday. She's going to have that piano and I'm not going to stop bidding until it's hers!”
That very piano now sits in Julie's living room, and she plays it beautifully and often. Though she's shy about playing in front of other people, she always makes an exception for her mom.
If Women Ran the World . . . Women would know that whatever we can do in any given moment is enough. As a result, guilt, beating ourselves up, and the phrase “I should” would cease to exist.
A Butt-Kicking Inspiration
In the 1860s and 1870s, when Anna Jarvis was a little girl, she often heard her mother wish that there was a day commemorating all mothers for their wonderful deeds of service to their families. Years later, after her mother died in 1905, she vowed to fulfill her mother's wish.
The following year, Anna Jarvis gathered with friends on the first anniversary of her mother's death to honor and celebrate all the wonderful things her mother had done.By the second anniversary of her mother's death, she had convinced her mother's coworkers at the Andrews Church to form a Mother's Day Memorial Committee. Church leaders also passed a resolution favoring the founding of Mother's Day and held a memorial service for Anna's mother.
Anna Jarvis's efforts didn't stop there. She wrote to leaders in business and politics on all levels, and promoted her idea for a National Mother's Day every chance she had. By the third anniversary of her mother's death, she had garnered enough support that full programs were held at two Andrews Churches to honor all mothers.
Through Anna Jarvis's continued efforts, Mother's Day was observed in forty-five states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico in 1909 and the Governor of West Virginia issued the first Mother's Day proclamation in 1910. Then in 1914, just nine years after her mother's death, a joint resolution was passed by the United States House and Senate naming the second Sunday in May Mother's Day. At a time when women had not yet earned the right to vote, Anna Jarvis convinced leaders at the highest level to vote for a day that honors mothers everywhere. She fulfilled her mother's wish that all mothers are forever celebrated for the wonderful things they do.
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The Wonderful, Amazing, Stupendous, Inspiring, Butt-Kicking Things I've Done for My Family
Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like nothing you did was enough? Even though you made it to your son's soccer game, cooked a tasty dinner that included everyone's favorite vegetable (all five of them), and went to three different stores in three different zip codes before finding the “must have” shoes of the century for your teenager, all you remember is that you were late to your daughter's ballet class, forgot that your son now hates broccoli, and learned from your teenager that the color shoes you bought are “so yesterday.” All you can imagine is a breaking news headline flashing on your TV screen (next to an old yearbook picture you hoped to never see again): “Arrest this woman! She did not do enough today!”
When you're having a day like that, pull out your Wonderful, Amazing, Stupendous, Inspiring, Butt-Kicking Things I've Done For My Family list so you can remember all the fabulous things you have done instead of berating yourself for all the things you should have done. Applaud yourself for the time you surprised your partner with a fabulous just-because night out (or in). Take a bow for inviting all the kids in your son's grade at his new school to a party so they would think he was cool before the first day.
You are one amazing woman. You kick butt for your family every day. Let your list be the cure any time you catch a case of not enough-itis. Instead of imagining the Not Enough Police at your door, you'll see the Get Sh*t Done Prize Patrol instead.
You are one amazing woman. You kick butt for your family every day.
Butt-Kicking Things I've Done for My Family
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