Celebrating Women (Part 2)

This column would like to continue to dedicate a space to honor women in celebration of National Women’s Month. This time we remember the women who are often unknown to the general public but who have had to withstand and overcome so many challenges of life. Always the first of these ordinary women who have marked our lives in extraordinary ways are our mothers. The poet William Ross Wallace couldn’t have said it better in his poem: the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. The influence of mothers upon their children can never be measured, and this influence shapes the world we live in. So it is too, with the many women in our personal lives: our grandmothers, our teachers, our caregivers.

Ordinary women during the time of the pandemic have shown extraordinary strength and courage in what they have had to face: women who lost their jobs and kept moving forward to support their households, women in the health care industry who kept our families and communities safe from COVID 19, women in domestic work who have tried to keep their mental health amid hardships, all women who have carried extra burdens because of the global crisis brought about by the pandemic.Not only do they deserve our respect, but our support and our recognition of the contributions they have made in this unprecedented times.

And lastly, salute to women who inspire other women- and I must say men as well, in the strength of their convictions. Senator Leila de Lima whom we failed to mention last time, is one such woman. She continues to be a “prisoner of conscience”, having stood up to her convictions and paid a high price for it.

SALUTE TO ALL WOMEN OUT THERE, IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE.

TRIVIA:

Belated birthday greetings to Rev. Fr. Alfonso S. Grageda whose birthday was March 10. Belated birthday greetings too, for Rev Fr. Gerome Pelagio, Secretary to the Archbishop, who celebrated his birthday on March 14.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK:

“THE GREATEST LESSON A WOMAN SHOULD LEARN IS THAT SHE ALREADY HAS EVERYTHING SHE NEEDS WITHIN HERSELF” - RUPI KAUR

FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE:

“WOMAN BEHOLD YOUR SON, SON BEHOLD YOUR MOTHER” - JOHN 19:26-27