Thanks To The Women On My Journey. . .

Some of the wonderful women
on my journey

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I'd like to share with you one of my all time favorite poems and thank every women who had an effect on my life, in both positive ways and in negative. . .

. . .you have made me so much stronger.

To The Women On My Journey

Who showed me the ways to go and ways not to go,
Whose strength and compassion held up a torch of light  

and beckoned me to follow,
Whose weakness and ignorance darkened the path and
encouraged me to turn another way.


To the women on my journey
Who showed me how to live and how not to live,
Whose grace, success, and gratitude lifted me
into the fullness of surrender to God,
Whose bitterness, envy, and wasted gifts warned me
away from the emptiness of self-will.

To the women on my journey
Who showed me what I am and what I am not,
Whose love, encouragement, and confidence held me
tenderly and nudged me gently,
Whose judgment, disappointment, and lack of faith called
me to deeper levels of commitment and resolve.

To the women on my journey

who taught me love by means of both darkness and light,

To these women I say bless you and thank you

from the depths of my heart,

for I have been healed and set free

through your joy and through your sacrifice.

Rev. Melissa M. Bowers