So mom and I went to get things started at Macy’s on Saturday morning. I didn’t realize how right people were about the scanning gun! I went crazy with it… especially in the Martha Stewart section. She’s not the wisest of women, or even close to being the most ethical or honest; but she is the master of design and known as the domestic goddess. I’m not really sure but over the past year, my thoughts of being a woman have changed dramatically. Before last year, I went through a two-year phase where all I wanted to do was graduate, be a businesswoman and get married around 28-years-old. I know this isn’t considered the era of “women’s rights” but let’s be honest – women are still fighting for their independence. They are fighting for equality in the workplace and in America all around. I didn’t fight for a membership in the Augusta National Golf Club nor have I stood on the streets with signs claiming my right to vote. I wasn’t exactly striving to be a domestic goddess either. Things have changed over the past year though.
When at Macy’s, I ran into one of my best friends from childhood (Emmy) and her mom. Emmy is going to be one of my bridesmaids [I mean, we made a promise when we were 6-years-old]. I showed her the pot I was getting so I could try it out and she said, “Wow, Whit! You’re so domestic!!” To be honest, I started backtracking. I tried to justify why I was getting this beautiful red pot. I felt like I lost that ambition, that independence that I had claimed during my season of singleness. What happened to me over the past year??
I am a woman. I embarked womanhood. There’s no fighting it. Not that I’ve ever wanted to, but sometimes as a woman, I feel helpless. We aren’t built to be stronger than men physically, and I kind of hated that for a while. So I tried to be stronger than men emotionally. I built a concrete wall around my heart because that’s the only way I felt I could be stronger.
During a conversation between my roommate, one of my best friends at Auburn (a girl that I always thought was more independent than me), and myself, we started talking about marriage. The best friend said, “You know, I could be a nutritionist but in reality, I just want to be a mom.” But isn't that truly how every woman feels? If we break down our walls and dig to even the deepest trenches in our soul, we will find that it is what we are molded to be. The nurturer and domestic people we are will one day break through our core. Our independence won’t necessarily be taken from us, but we will see that all we really want to be is a mother, a wife. We want to care for people, because that drive was instilled in us at birth. Some just choose to deny that.
So world of bloggers, specifically women, how do you feel about being domestic? Are you in that season of life or do you believe that being domestic is just for a housewife or stay-at-home mom? Do you feel that becoming “domestic” shears you of your independence? Or are you proud to be domestic – a strong woman who can sew, cook, clean, and still have a life outside of the walls of her home?
