Sorority

Look around you. Not at the world, at the women. The one at work who is quietly drowning. The one down the road whose husband is fading. The one who laughs loudest and goes home to silence. You know them. You may be one of them. This is what I want you to understand. None of you were meant to carry it alone. That is a modern invention, and a cruel one. The old way was simpler. When one woman was in the storm, the others stood round her. Not to fix it. Storms are not fixed. To stand, so she knew which way was up. It costs less than you think. A message that says nothing but I'm here. A meal on a doorstep. Sitting with someone and letting the silence be shared instead of endured. That is the whole craft of it. Presence, not answers. And when the storm is yours, let them stand round you. Say the words out loud: I am not managing. Watch what happens. The ones worth keeping will come. They were waiting to be asked. They always are. We do not survive adversity because we are strong. We survive it because we take turns being strong. That is the arrangement. It has held for as long as there have been women, and it holds now, tonight, wherever you are reading this. So. Who is in the storm near you? And who have you not yet told about yours? Both questions matter. Answer one of them before you sleep.