“A woman who doesn’t care for herself first is a woman who eventually becomes bitter, jaded, and bored by life. When a woman feels loved and radiant, everyone who enters her home feels the same. But the key is that she has to be willing to give it to herself first, and she will instinctively pour (what lives inside her) into everyone else.”

“You are all so weak, they say. I look at the weakness around me, waking each morning and fixing her children’s breakfasts mastectomy bra weave heels head scarf protest banner; swallowing birth control HRT folic acid Zoloft immunosuppressant fish oil, taking one last test, straightening her wig, strapping her baby to her back, before making her way to the office the hospital the fields the store the corner. Day after day, she works for less money for no money. She cannot work at all. She never stops working. Each day, she rises after a night spent feeding her baby caring for her ailing father worrying about money, her family, the future, dreaming of peace of men with cold eyes, loud guns, strong bodies. And I say, Let’s see how you like a world without weakness women.”