NASW-CA’s Poetry Corner: Hymn of a Strong Woman

Written by Sabiny Pierrevil, MSW

People’s lives’ stories can be seen as road-maps that either reshape or destroy their own reality. In life, everyone goes through hardships, pains, and detriments for no one is immune. However, some use their painful experiences as stepping stones to build themselves up to become better, finding internal freedom and healing; others use them as thorns to bleed themselves down to resentment, and bitterness, caging themselves inside an emotional prison.

When they see her as a strong woman, they think that she does not need anything or anyone, she can bear everything and will overcome whatever happens. They think that she does not mind being listened to, cared for or pampered.

When they see her as a strong woman, they just look for her to help them carry their crosses. They talk to her, they talk about her, and they think she does not need to be heard because she has nothing to say but her silence and devotion to life say it all to those who can understand her language. Human wickedness tried to physically break her but her faith in her Creator was unbreakable. Human wickedness turns her tears into her pillow at night but her hope in her Creator renews her strength in the morning. She HOPES AGAIN.

She might be imperfect and wounded but her scars is where her Creator allow light to enter her and heals her. Her scars always tell a story that is being continuously written by her Creator. Human wickedness turns her into a powerhouse of emotions and tries to physically break her but little did they know she has been a well filled of her Creator’s grace to be redeem hope and life in her again.

Her heart might have been broken into several pieces and spread over all corners across the world but Her Creator has picked the pieces up to put it back in whole again. Human wickedness might have bled her soul several times but they forgot she is a champion who has gone through life’s greatest university of adversities and survives to graduate. Her soul has been bled by rejection, abandonment, humiliation, hunger, loneliness, abuse, and the like but her savior’s love heals it as He said that it was worth dying on a cross for her.

She cannot count how many times she has been forgotten, misunderstood, insulted, bullied, misused, and hated but her faith in Her Creator renew hope in herself and humanity. She has been invisible to so many but Her Savior instills His love for her in her husband and used it to prove her existence to herself and the world. Through her little baby boy, she was able to finally look at herself in a mirror in order to meet herself a new and never she desired to lose herself in the chaos of the world and in people’s loud noises.

A strong woman is not asked if she is tired, suffering or falling, if she has anxiety or fear. The important thing is that she is always there: a lighthouse in the fog or a rock in the middle of the sea. As always, she remains committed to transparency, justice, and right of everyone. She tries to show respect to those with different opinions because it is the only way to learn in life. They have relentlessly tried to break her but little did they know that some people in her past had broken her so badly that she has become unbreakable. They have tried to change her mind about herself, but her mind is her instrument, so she learns to be its master and not its slave.

The strong woman is going to forgive anything and use the stones thrown at her to build herself more as well as her dream. If she loses control, she becomes weak. If she loses her temper, she becomes hysterical. She relies on God’s guidance to keep herself together and believe somehow there are still some good people with wings and kind hearts.

When the strong woman disappears a minute, it is immediately noticeable, but when she is there, her presence is usual, misunderstood, belittled, and invisible. Her words come out but reverberate against the wall to return inside herself because her words are buried in others’ hatred of her. Her words come out of her heart to expose her soul but those who misunderstand her twisted her words from their mouths to expose their evil mind toward her, trying to silence her.

But you know what, they can never take her hope in God away. They plan her downfall but as long as God is on her side, they will never succeed. However, if they do, her Lord will ensure she falls on her back so she could look up and hope again and again and always, rather than falling on her stomach or face and despair.

What’s in her heart will always stay in her life, because what’s in her heart belongs to her soul. Empty to be full, full to be empty. All is fulfill, nothing is lost in herself. She willingly chooses to kneel in life because she is proudly clothed with humility and meekness. However, those who pursue her downfall for no reason will be forced to kneel in life because they pride themselves in arrogance.

Like a tornado, they come at her with claws to devour her body but her soul remains intake. Yet, she chooses to forgive always because hatred is too heavy for her heart to carry. They want to change her destiny but they forgot she was the one holding the pen so she chooses to ignore and continue writing her life’s story. She knows her flaws and imperfection and accept that she is being molded into the person she was meant to be. They tried to disguise her with a thorn but yet, she chooses to dress them in roses. They tried to make her see the world though their eyes but she only sees souls and not physical bodies.

SHE FULLY KNOWS THAT HER REPUTATION IS MADE BY PEOPLE BUT HER TRUE CHARACTER IS EXPOSED TO GOD. THUS, she worries not about what they choose to say for greater who is in her than who is in the world. She tries to look at herself in the mirror, she sees a stranger with a bleeding soul with broken heart, yet, she still manages to say to herself “It is well with you and you are going to make it.” So, she lets her tears wash her heavy soul and pushes through the challenges again. Oh indeed, with a soul light as a feature, her heart is fueled again for another round on the road called “He Life’s Journey.” Oh world! Oh pain! How heavy are you? Why do you choose to disguise in different people and continue to torment her? Sun, please, come out again for her life is so short and yet so many miles to travel until she reaches her final destiny! She is tired…Please, quench her thirsty self with hope again for she needs to get there…How she needs to get there and when she finally does, she will look in the mirror again and say to herself, “My traveling path was not easy but I still chooses to push through and I finally arrive.” Suddenly, she sees herself as light to guide someone else’s out of their darkest path.

The strength that is needed every day, to be that kind of woman, does not matter to anyone. When they had planned to destroy her and thought it was the end of her. However, Her Sweet Lord rose and showed them that she has just begun. When they try to block her life’s dream with a period but Her Sweet Lord said to them “period then go to the next line” for her story has no dead-ends, just beginnings.

She uses her life’s pains to grow in wisdom, strength, courage, and compassion for herself and others. She does not believe in resentment and bitterness but truly rejoices herself in betterment and love.

She has a healing aura that keeps attracting emotionally ill individuals who drain life or energy out of her but God, how she is so tired of meeting the same people in different bodies. God’s grace always prevails in her life for she was not created or called to follow her Creator but to help Him carry the cross.

All her life she has been climbing a mountain backward. People’s wickedness creates hellish situations in her life, causing her to constantly vacate in hell. She will never stop helping and understand because she will never let people change who her Creator calls her to be. She took a path to always forgive and try her best to do good to everyone, even those who hurt her. Her path is travelled by few and that’s how she knows she is exceptional.

She tries to always understand people who hurt her. She knows that only hurt people bleed on those who did not hurt them as they never took the time to find healing. She considers herself a VICTOR BUT NEVER A VICTIM for her step is ordered by Her Creator. She is only traveling temporarily on her earth but her permanent residence is with her Heavenly Father. She will fly again again and again…Hmmmm….She always does. 

Even as an elder, she continues to emanate beauty, wonder, strength, and wisdom. There is such a gentleness, wisdom, and complete understanding that can be evidenced in the knowing twinkle in her eyes. She seem to know just how one feels even when one does not quite yet understand or know what one is feeling.

While no one escapes the aging process by pretending older people do not exist, a strong woman carries aging with beauty, grace, and power. Although old externally, she remains young and fabulous internally. Although old externally, she remains cognizant of having still a soul, heart, mind, and dignity. She also knows she deserve respect, compassion, and empathy from the younger generation, despite of her whims and sometimes intermittent sullen attitudes.

Unfortunately, we all live in a time where people, especially young people, are too self-centered and self-absorbed to find beauty in others. In fact, the biggest problem is that in this fast paced world, as elderly tend to move too slowly, people become frustrated, angry, and very intolerant of them.

The world or life might bend a strong woman, even as she ages, but they can never break her as her soul and heart are made of steel and diamond.

Honor, recognize, respect and thank the strong women in your life, because they also need to be restrained, loved and feel that they can rest.

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