Nevertheless, she persists.
/By now you have undoubtedly heard, seen, or read Mitch McConnell's famous words referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
He obviously meant those words to explain why Republican senators shut her down as she read from a letter written by Correta Scott King, wife of the late Martin Luther King Jr., on why Sessions shouldn't be confirmed as the Attorney General.
When I read McConnell's words, however, I heard them as a battle cry. A life verse. For some reason, my soul grabbed on those those words and cried, "YES."
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Women from the dawn of time have been warned, given an explanation, and have persisted nevertheless.
Ruth. Esther. Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary Magledene. That other Mary, Martha's sister. Those women who found an empty tomb and heard the good news and ran to tell the men, who didn't believe them. Joan of Arc. Elizabeth the I. Rosa Parks. Mother Theresa. Erin Brokovich. Elizabeth Gilbert. Glennon Doyle Melton.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
There are thousands. Millions. Billions of women persisting today and who have persisted from the very first moment women walked the earth. (And my list of names above is no way exhaustive of all the names I think should be up there. But it's 5:03am and these are the women who have come to mind at the moment.)
She was warned. She was given and explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
But while some women persist publically, while some women's work is on a national or even international stage (not even intentionally, but by the very nature of the work it gains an audience), most of us persist quietly, locally, in a small space. Sometimes our persistence is so local to be confined to the heart beating inside us.
On the surface, it would seem that my struggles - my persistence - involves surviving midwestern winters each year and solving the nightly mystery of "Where's Thomas," the train my toddler loves to hide in unthinkable places yet must have in his hands if he is to go to bed so help us all.
But as any mother - any woman - will tell you, the surface is but a fleeting glimpse at the realities underneath.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Sometimes I feel this statement could be made about me every night I try to feed my toddler something besides grapes and crackers for dinner.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Sometimes I feel this statement could be made about me every time we head off to daycare/work in the mornings.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Sometimes I feel this statement could be made about me every time my heart works up the courage to tell my head to speak up about something, to advocate for myself, only to be shot down.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Sometimes I feel this statement is being made my the voices inside my head, the voices that have been living there rent-free since I was eight years old, telling me what I can't do and why I can't do it and why no one wants me to do it or why no one cares. They never get to the "nevertheless..." part. That part is said by me every time I defy those voices and do the things anyway.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Being patient. Listening. Loving. Raising a child to be kind, self-aware, caring, and thoughtful. Staying married when it's hard. Working full-time while raising a child. Keeping the gosh darn house clean/livable. Cooking healthy food so we don't just stay alive but feel good. Running (okay, jogging), for the same reason.
Those are some of my daily things. No, they are not taking place on an international stage. Our sisters are everywhere fighting all the fights that need to be fought, but my role right now is here, at home and at work, in my town, with my people.
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
What are you being warned about? What have you been given an explanation for? What are you persisting through? What are you persisting for?
Mothers, sisters, friends - we persist. We persist in big, bold ways. We persist in quiet, revolutionary ways. We persist through hidden, insurmountable trials. We persist through major opposition.
This rallying cry, it is for you. Take it. Use it. Make it a mantra.
Persist.
