Live the Shieldmaiden Way

Many people have heard the quote ‘Well behaved women rarely make history’- but how much history have we lost because no one celebrated it? Recorded it? Remembered it?

How much of that history is centered on the intelligence, courage, strength, perseverance, and work of women?

While the history of men is well-known, how many of those men relied on the women in their lives?

In battle and in life, how many of those historical heroes depended upon a shieldmaiden? A woman warrior who stood by him, fought the same battles, and supported him when those battles were done?

Something about every great man…..

Shieldmaidens fought next to men on battlefields, as equals.

But women throughout all of history have also fought the everyday battles that life brings.

We have to protected our men, our homes, our discoveries, and our own voices.

For centuries, we have protected our children with a fierceness compared only to that of a mama bear.

We are warriors.

Protectors of life.

Shieldmaidens.

Women have a unique ability to fight, even against all odds. To battle not for hours or days, but for weeks, months, and years. To battle in darkness, and fear, and through horrible danger.

And then to pick up the pieces after the battle and mend. Heal. Rebuild.

To carry courage, magic, and immense sadness all at once.

And to do it all with a gentle, ever burning steadiness.

To fight like a girl.

And while our history books don’t remember the everyday sheildmaidens, women do.

They see the silent battles, the female heroes, the determined wives, the ever-patient mothers, the kind teachers, and the rarely recorded pioneers.

Shieldmaidens are women warriors.

Women who dry tears, heal wounds, teach children, record memories, blaze trails, and stand by their men both on the battlefield, and after the war.

They stand, not against men, nor behind them.

But next to them.

Carrying scars and unhealed wounds of their own.

And rising for the next fight despite the pain.