on letting the last bits of girlhood go.

A friend of mine recently told me the story of how she unexpectedly shed the last lingering bits of her girlhood and fully entered womanhood. It involved setting a fierce and clear boundary with someone who was, for lack of a better phrase, in her face. She set the boundary and suddenly and completely felt a full embodiment of her adult woman self, feeling the last pieces of her girlhood slip away. She felt the empowerment of the transition in that moment, and I was totally struck by her story.

I want that moment, I thought. And to get it, I'll have to get angry. I just know this in my bones. I don't do anger, and I can tell it's holding me back.

Anyway, the whole conversation made me realize all the ways I, too, am holding onto my girlhood.   In many ways I have embraced my womanhood - the part of me that is fierce, confident, and capable - but in many ways I have not.

I struggle sometimes, a lot of times, with taking up space. It's my soul work to complete, I know, and something tells me that once I do it, once I fully embrace the full range of who I am, that I will finally let the last pieces of my girlhood go.

I'm turning 40 next month. Perhaps that will be my birthday wish - to shed the layers of girlhood that are holding me back from reaching my full womanhood self. I think that would be amazing.

Life. I adore it.