Redefining Independence

I am woman hear me ROAR!

I am not a stereotypical girly-girl.  I don't like the colour pink, I don't spend hours on my hair and make-up every morning, and I rarely talk on the phone for hours on end.  I grew up doing what needed to be done.  I have changed my own spark plugs, distributor cap and wires, and air filters; I have worked cleaning carpets, installing fireplaces, and doing every job on our family farm.  I love canoeing, hiking, and camping...and by camping I mean every kind, including in the bush with no toilets/running water of any kind.  I am just as happy in a wood shop as I am in my living room knitting.

I have always considered myself an independent woman.  I am more than happy to do the jobs no other girls want to do, because it's messy, or icky, or requires muscles.  I love the movie "Ever After", because the main character rescues herself...before the prince gets there...unlike in every other fairytale known to man.  I despise the terms "woman's work" and "a man's job"...you'd better believe that if I'm going to be out there mucking out stalls and fixing irrigation I would be thrilled to have help cooking and cleaning!
Recently though my views have changed a tiny bit.  Not on this whole theory of independence as a whole, but rather what it means to me...

When I moved to the Bigger City, and my roommate and I were looking around for a place to live we ended up finding an incredible basement suite for an amazing price in what became my Sleepy Town.  The selling point of this particular suite?  It has an honest to goodness wood burning fireplace!  I have loved every minute of having it...even those minutes where I had to open doors and windows because it got too smokey haha.  I may have even sat in my living room once or twice and just watched the fire burning...and thought about how wonderfully lucky we were to find this place!  I love chopping the kindling, building the fires, tending to them, adding wood, all of it!  And to begin with I didn't really share those responsibilities well.

At the beginning of February I had some people over for a Double Date night.  I was out for the afternoon, and we all came back together, so when we got here dinner needed to be finished...but it was cold, so the fire also needed to be started.  After a minute of contemplation over how I was going to do everything that needed to be done I admitted that these 2 extremely capable men could probably handle the fire...and so I handed that over to them while us girls went to finish dinner.  That night the boys took care of the fire.  I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it, but I was ok with it for the most part.

Since then there have been a few more nights of handing the fire over to the guys who happen to be around...and to be honest I haven't really thought too much about it.  Last night though one of those original 2 guys was here again, and from the minute he walked in the door the fire was his...without being asked.  This made me realize that I actually truly appreciated it!  It was nice not to have to get up in the middle of dinner to turn the wood, or add another log.  It was also nice not to have to verbally delegate the job.  It was nice just to sit back, and let someone else do what needed to be done!

This is where the beginning of this entry runs into the story...the me of before yesterday probably would have said something to the effect of "it's my fire, I can do it, you don't have to worry about it, sit and relax..."  Now though something has changed.  I've realized that being independent doesn't always have to mean doing everything yourself...sometimes it can mean realizing that you are capable of doing something yourself, but sitting back, and letting someone else get the blessings of giving service...and enjoying being on the receiving end of that service!

Who knew that a simple fire could teach so much?

<3 Z