Lightning in a Mason Jar

by Catherine Mann

To all the women who’ve lived in the shadows

Changing my identity and leaving behind everything familiar should have been difficult. Traumatic, even. Except it wasn’t. Because from birth, we women aren’t tethered to our names.

“Her husband’s a doctor.” “Her baby d-i-e-d.” “She’s barren.” As if a woman’s entire worth, her sum total sense of self, were tied into her ring finger and uterus. A Mrs. or a mom.

Some people had to come to the realization that their parents were imperfect humans who were doing life for the first time too.