Tuesday, November 28, 2006

My Special Women

I have many amazing women in my life. These women are from different cultures, age groups, income levels, and ethnic backgrounds. Some of them are strict herbivores while others revel in their flesh eating ways. They are Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Apostolic (and many other variations of Christianity), Hindu, Jewish, undecided and simply "spiritual". They are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, as well as politically neutral. They are gay, straight, and a few are somewhere in between. All of them are mothers whether they have given birth, adopted or helped to raise the child of a daughter, sibling, cousin or friend. Many of them have done all or at least a combination of these things. They are all nurturers in on way or another.

These women are all special to me and all play a different role in my life. Some of them are friends with each other, some of them have never met, a couple of them may not even like each other but I love them all and they all love me. They seem to move in and out of my life as I need them and as they need me but we are always connected. I wish I could think of the perfect word to describe this gift. It's like a network, a circle, a spiral, an...I don't know. What I keep picturing is my limited memory of what an atom looks like. Protons and neutrons moving around the nucleus (do they move closer to and further away from the nucleus at different times as needed?) and connecting to other protons and neutrons in other atoms (their other friends that I may not be connected to). Am I making any sense? Keep in mind it's been a good decade and a half since I've taken any thing close to a science class.
I checked Thesaurus. com and came up with some synonyms that kinda, sorta fit.

Alliance
Association
Clan
Community
Crew
Family
Federation
Kin
League
Network
Interconnections
Netting
Nexus
People
Sisterhood
Structure (it feels more free flowing than this word allows for)
Tribe
Troop

None of these words describe it completely. What is it? I need the word. Do I have to make one up? There has to be a word out there...
Help, please!

p.s. Can you tell that I like my friends like I like my chocolate? Assorted, with lots of nuts!

2 comments:

JustALittleBit_Me said...

I like the spanish word "comadre" (sounds like co-madre). It's the word they use for any close woman who can be your sister, sister-in-law, aunt or friend, but has a much deeper meaning than even family ties. Comadres are the women who help you raise your kids, who you can call in the middle of the night, who will stand up for your principles (even if they don't agree with hers), who will tell you when your clothes don't match, who will slap you around when you need a reality check, who will slap your husband around when he is out of line, who will lend you their last dollar, et cetera et cetera.
Que dios te bendiga siempre, mi comadre!

Doulala said...

That is perfect! I figures that a culture other than my own has a word that describes exactly what I'm thinking of.