For us homemakers, gardens allow us to create beauty and rest around our structures as well as in. They let us practice hospitality by creating curb appeal that welcomes people into our dwellings. Who doesn’t love entering a home surrounded by growing things?

Ladies, we must realize we have been robbed of everything that defines us by the feminist movement. They’ve erased all that is good, all our natural gifts and graces, and left us with only the worst of ourselves to carry into the night.

With my fists slowly opening, I find myself saying yes! Use it! So what if it breaks, or wears out? Better that than not enjoying it at all!

This too is part of delighting in our homes with a heart of merry durability.

I get to be here for the long haul, not just the weekend. I get to pour myself out without frantic adrenaline, dog-eat-dog, stay relevant, exhausting passion. I get to pour slowly, learn, test, and take my time as an eternal being, not a one-shot life.

I’ve observed women who don’t go into widowhood, old age, or retirement with any response but to focus on themselves, as if their work is done now that they’re a widow, abandoning the next generation of women. I want to encourage women to re-forge the links between maid, matron, and crone, between grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter.