I Am Woman - Helen Reddy - 1972

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLV4BBmjnzM

I am woman, hear me roar
I was born in the early part of the 60's.  In 1972, the year this song was released I was 10.  Cutting my teeth on AM radio on a cool little transistor radio that I could wear on my wrist like a bracelet.  It had a psychedelic LOVE in the middle of it. I would walk around the block seeing the world beyond my street.  I would listen to Helen Reddy tell me I could do anything. I wasn't sure what that could mean but I knew I was thinking ..."the world is mine for the taking".  I could make a list as long as my arm of what I should have done early on.  I should have traveled, gone to med school, taken up a cause, fixed some broken piece of the world.  I didn't do any of those things.  I got married.  I learned to be a wife.  I learned to be a mother.  I learned to be a nurse. I learned to be divorced.  I learned to be myself.  So now at 50 ... I am ready to be who I am to be.  But I come to this place knowing that it took exactly the path my life has followed to have arrived at this destination. To land here as who I am. So I am happy to know that my path is what it needed to be.  I wished I would have known as that young girl that I could have counted on myself all along. I made some decisions I wished I didn't but in the end it is a peaceful place I find myself.
In numbers too big to ignore,And I know too much to go back an' pretend
I have lived to see over 18,000 sunsets.  I have spent 28 years parenting.  Decades married.  15 years, 2months, & 30 days orphaned. My numbers are too big to ignore.  I have learned some lessons, I have had a chance to see the goodness in them all. All these experiences add up to the here and now and I am happy.  I don't want the things I had at 30.  I am ready to live MY life.  I have no desire to be 20 again.  But I do desire to do the things on the path I didn't choose at 20.  But this time in my life I know what I can do. Don't get me wrong, I am not pretending to be 20, I am choosing to live with the freedom 20 might have held.  Now I can enjoy it.  I can savor it. I am not needing to rush ahead and start a family.  I did that.  I have two of the most amazing boys.  I am just craizy about who they are.  I love their friends.  I love their loves.  I love their children. I love that my ex helped me bring our children to this place.  I love that I can see him with someone else and be so happy for them both.  I can see myself with someone else and be happy too.    I don't need to go back, nor pretend.

'cause I've heard it all before & I've been down there on the floor, No one's ever gonna keep me down again.
Like every one with a few years of living I have had some tough days, dark nights, long cries, after short goodbyes. I've fallen enough to know how to pick myself up.  I know that no one, but mostly NOT me, will hold me down. I know I can ...now!

Oh yes I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
I guess that 10 year old self did not grasp that it would take some hard learned lessons before I would get to invincible  
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
I have paid a price but not in a negative sense.  I have lived those days, hours, minutes and seconds.  I have put in the time to learn the value of living.  I have given my attention to the things that matter.  So as I get to this place, just as I stand ready to soar, my life is in order. I have held those that needed holding.  I have loved those that asked me to love them, the best I could.  And even those I had to quit loving, I still loved all the lovely things that made them, them. I have gained the understanding of forgiveness.  Oh how I have gained.
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong (strong)
I can do anything.  I have learned that I can't literally everything.  But, I can be the link that joins two pieces together. The union that gets one step closer to the thing that needs to be done.  I am a part of something bigger than myself.  I am strong.
I am invincible (invincible)
I am invincible
I am woman
I am a woman.  A mother of sons. A sister of siblings. A wife (once removed). A girlfriend.  A nurse.  I am so blessed to be these things. I am woman.

You can bend but never break me, 'cause it only serves to make me more determined to achieve my final goal
It is because life has bent me.  It is because I have not been broken that I know I can count on myself. I can plan what I want to do, not what I think I can do. I went to Africa.  All by myself.  I knew no one.  I waited for a man to meet me and take me to an orphange.  The whole thing got craizy and I found myself a long way from home with no one at hand. I gathered myself and made another plan.  I took off to the coast and lived an amazing life (well a summer) like I was a global hopping superwoman and a little part craizy mother fucker.

and I come back even stronger, Not a novice any longer
'cause you've deepened the conviction in my soul
Africa taught me that I can do most any thing. I came back stronger.  I learned so many things.  I went from novice to learned on so many levels, but mostly inside myself.  It has taken me two years to get what meeting that challenge meant.  It has caused a shift in my soul, in my conviction,  in my hopes, in my dreams.

I am woman watch me grow, See me standing toe to toe, As I spread my lovin' arms across the land
I hope in this wonderful garden I have planted myself  that I will continue to grown and make myself ready to travel to other countries and live and work and be who I am.  I am thinking I am made for a true adventure. I hope to grow brave enough to be true to the adventure.
But I'm still an embryo, With a long long way to go, Until I make my brother understand
I am new at this faith in myself place.  I am not ready to fly away yet...but I am trying to make my way.  But my brother will never understand.  LOL He, like Superman, will never get it and they love me any way.

I am woman
I am woman.  I am a happy, peaceful, honorable, kind, forgiving, nuturing, woman.
I am invincible
I am invincible.  I am a constant, steadfast, stable, unbroken woman
I am strong
I am stong.  I am a solid, durable, determined, resilient woman
I am woman
I am woman.  I am.