Be a tea bag with me!

One of the darkest times in my life was during my separation and divorce.  Amongst issues between the girls and their father of a personal nature, during this period in my life false claims were made about me, my Pastor wrote an inaccurate letter, there were lost friendships, lost court papers and financial concerns as I was trying to manage a house that just wouldn't sell. 

At some point along this journey I came across a quote ....

 "A woman is like a tea bag, you cannot tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water” 

 Looking back at that time, I would have never guessed in a million years that I would have been strong enough to discuss Defamation of Character with a Lawyer, contact my local MPP and Ontario Ombudsman as well as hold meetings with my Pastor and his team.  I would have probably told you that the thought of doing all that was nauseating.  Looking back I would have told you that you were crazy to think I could pack up our entire house in 4 days because of an extremely quick closing date and that the friendships lost obviously weren’t as special as I had thought.  And looking back I would have never predicted that I would be sharing all this with you.  With the help of my family and friends who stepped up when I needed them the most, I was a tea bag.

My daughter brought me back to that Quote the other tonight when, during the drive home from gymnastics, she spoke to us about being upset that a young girl in her class resorted to bullying her.  We spoke to her about how we would address this with the centre and encouraged her to address this with her teacher when and if it happened again and she said that she was not strong enough to do so.   She was scared to stand up for herself because she is petite and the other girl is taller.

And so it seems my role is to now teach my beautiful young lady that she is stronger then she knows!  Those little hands can do big things; the size of the person is nothing compared to the size of their heart and determination and that she has a voice!  Time to teach my baby girl that she is a tea bag.