Ariel Lawhon

And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail, That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.
—RUDYARD KIPLING, “THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES”

A woman is never more vulnerable than while in labor. Nor is she ever stronger.

Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality.

This is what it means to age, I think. The days are long, but the years are short.

“Only a fool would be upset to find a vein of silver running through his beloved territory.”

I’ll note you in my book of memory…. Look to it well and say you are well warn’d.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Henry VI

Oh, how faint grows the heart of man when he plucks it—still beating—from his chest and lays it at the foot of a woman.

And then I cry. Mostly for Rebecca and the tiny, unwanted beating heart deep within her womb. But also for myself. And our daughters. And for every other woman who lives, suffers, and dies by the mercurial whims of men.

“The Song of Songs, which is Solo-mon’s,” he said. “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.”

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Measure for Measure