Support U - Women On Top

Sunday 8June08 1:16pm

My new favorite show is, Women on Top.
I caught one episode purely by accident, as is my norm. It's a half hour show that comes on Monday to Friday at 7am and gives a quick and dirty biography of a successful woman.

Most recently I watched the episode on Jeannette Walls (Interview w/ typos) , a gossip columnist whose parents were basically homeless her entire childhood. She pulls herself up for success but lives in constant paranoia that if everyone finds out about her she'll be ruined. It's funny how when we come from certain situations that we automatically feel that if others knew about us they'd abandon us.

My favorite nugget so far came from April Barton, hairstylist extraordinaire. She said, "the Universe was always siding with me and giving me perks to make it through." Her back story was of a gambling dad who married her very rich mother and lost all their money. He then ran off kidnapping April who didn't see her mother from the time she was 8 years old until she was 15 years old.

The Universe was always siding with me and giving me perks to make it through.

And it's true. For the longest time looking back on my childhood that quote rang true for me. Even though I didn't have that specific wording.

With all the violence, chaos and turmoil, there was always an adult who took me under his or her wing and spent quality time with me. A friend of my mother, Giselle, who would take me out for lunch at a restaurant in the Alexis Nihon Plaza in downtown Montreal. Real meals like chicken and ribs, not the shitty fast food 'meals'. I would talk about things that interested me and she would smile and listen, never once telling me that I shouldn't dream this or want that.

Another female friend who got me to come out of my shell and voice what upset me within my family home, the unfair treatment of me, She told me regularly that I was her favorite of the girls (me and my stepsisters). I needed to be some body's favorite because I felt like I was in the way.

The man who I was raised to call Uncle Milton, who would come into my bedroom at night and sit on the edge of my bed and tell me/ remind me that I didn't have to live the kind of life that my mother was living. I didn't have to attaract a man who beat me. This was usually while my step father was in the living room yelling at my mother and telling her why she was worthless. Milton who would start to cry when ever I got mad at him during my teenage years. Milton who smiled at me with awe when I started to fight my step father. Because he knew and I knew that part of the reason why I started to stand up for myself was because of those late nights that he told me that I didn't have to and wasn't going to be that abused woman.

Imagine a man going into a 10 year old girls bedroom at night. The first thought is sexual abuse. Isn't that so sad? Today he could never do that and it was part of what saved me.

There are other adults who saved me. Adults who told me in words and actions that I was a valuable worthwhile little girl who they'd happily have as their own daughter. Did I mention that none of them had children? They were adults who recognized that the light was going out in my eyes and they kept the tiny flame glowing.

That whole supportive universe thing keeps popping up for me. It seems to be the big message for me lately. When I take a moment to slow down even for a half second I can find a message to remind me that I'm meant to be here just as much as anyone else. I'm entitled to the space that I take up on earth just like that rich guy or that beautiful woman or my boss or my friends.

There are things in life that will beat me down and there are messages from the Universe to remind me to stand up straight. That's what April Barton's quote means to me.

EY

Another quote from April Barton, "Be who you are when you need to be, not when the public says it's okay."