I give thanks for women.

For women who have questioned
what others called natural.
For women who have refused
the narrow shapes prepared for them.
For women who have widened the world.

I give thanks
for courage that would not stay quiet,
for truth that would not stay hidden,
for lives that have said:
there is more room than this.

And because of that,
the world has started to open.

Because women have challenged
what was fixed into rule,
others have found breath.
Others have found space.

Even men
have been given more freedom
to step beyond the stiff costume handed to them,
to lay down the old performance,
to become more honest,
more tender,
more fully alive.

And still,
so much remains to be done.

There are old expectations
that cling on.
Old fears
that still police our lives.
Old patterns
that keep trying to tell us
who we are meant to be.

So I give thanks
for women whose strength
has not only changed their own lives,
but has helped make life safer
for others to be themselves.

And I pray for courage
to keep widening the world –
until nobody is trapped
by the roles they were handed,
and each of us
has more room to live
with truth,
with gentleness,
with freedom. Amen.