A Pleasant Quote: Keeping the World Sweet and Beautiful

  A friend sent me this quote several years ago while we were caring for a rather rough (but also endearing...) young man whose single parent was in the hospital with cancer.  It speaks vividly to mothers of boys, but also gives a picture of true femininity for our daughters and ourselves.  Good women of nerve, courage, and patience who make the world a kinder, more beautiful place...yes, that it just what I pray for all of us and for the young women in our care!

"It is the sisters and wives and mothers, you know, Caddie, who keep the world sweet and beautiful. What a rough world it would be if there were only men and boys in it, doing things in their rough way! A woman's task is to teach them gentleness and courtesy and love and kindness. It's a big task, too, Caddie - harder than cutting trees or building mills or damming rivers. It takes nerve and courage and patience, but good women have those things. They have them just as much as the men who build bridges and carve roads through the wilderness. A woman's work is something fine and noble to grow up to, and it is just as important as a man's. But no man could ever do it so well. I don't want you to be the silly, affected person with fine clothes and manners, whom folks sometimes call a lady. No, that is not what I want for you, my little girl. I want you to be a woman with a wise and understanding heart, healthy in body and honest in mind."

~from Caddy Woodlawn