What makes a powerful woman?

I have sooooooooooooo much to tell!!! So much, so much so much... and the main problem is time! Time to be able to sit down and tell you ALL about it! Despite there being a lot in my head that I want to tell you (weekend news specially = guy stories!) there is one thing that I must write right now as it stuck in my head this morning and I thought that I should share it wiyh my dear readers.

This morning I went to give Julia a class (yes, I do work, even on Hollidays...). Our class was from 8:00 am till 9:30 am  but I ended staying over in her hotel room until almost 11:00 am. (Little update for those that haven't read my old posts: Julia is an IBM consultant. She goes to SP twice a month which is where she actually lives and the rest of the time stays here in Fortaleza working).

Anyways, as all girls can attest to there is nothing like recounting last week's latest gossip and "guy tales" while the other one will listen  attentively, say "OMG" in all the right moments and nod her head in agreement half the time. Today wasn't different. I told her my "weekend stories" (which I will soon tell you all too! :D) and she told me hers.

Her story: a pretty sad one, though not completely unusual or unheard of (I might write it down in some other post). When I was almost leaving we hit on the subject of blogs and she told me the following story of a friend of hers that has a blog too. Here it goes as she told me in her own words:

"My friend has a blog too! Her story is crazy...she dated a guy for nine years and then married him for three. After divorcing with her husband she started studying, became a teacher, worked, made money and became a very creative, perceptive and well-informed woman. She is also very artistic and would do the craziest things at IBM. For example, I remember one year in particular, the first day of spring, she bought a huge bag of colourful "jujubas" (jelly candies) and glued them all around chopsticks forming a flower of sorts, wrote a little "card message" to go along with it and gave one to each of her workmates. On "Father's Day" she flirted the owner of a beer company and made him give her 70 cans of beer. She bought cute little mugs, added the traditional "card message" and voila! another special gift for all the fathers of IBM. The story goes on, and she meets an old friend of hers that much to her surprise is now paraplegic. In the most loving of acts, she starts helping him out and with this she falls in love with him. "I fell in love with a man that won't go out to clubs to drink, won't leave me home alone to play soccer on weekends, won't stay out after work with his friends...he'll always be here for me!" was what she'd tell all her friends with sparkles in her eyes.  Not long after they are married. True, he couldn't go out with his friends partying, he coudn't leave her alone at home to go play soccer, but he COULD cheat on her with their next door neighbour!!! This friend had to swallow a whole truckload of shit until she finally woke up and left him - with a little help of his foot on her ass!"

- FUCK! DANG! SON OF A *****!!! Was all that came out of my mouth. 

-Talk about it Christy!!!

-My God! If it isn't enough of us women having to deal with a hot man that walks, we still have to recieve the same treatment of an invalid! For Christ's sake! I GIVE UP! Well, tell me, what did she do then?

- In the end she came across the book "Eat, Pray, Love" from Elizabeth Gilbert. Do you know it?

-Never read it, but of course I have heard about it. It's on my reading list.

-Soo...after reading the book this friend of mine decided to do the same. She is still on the eating and praying part. Hasn't really found the one to do the loving thing yet - but now she is real happy. Going crazy with life and writing her blog as she goes about it. I will send you the link later. (I will post the link here as soon as I get it! :D) 

Coming back home this story stayed in my head. I mean, it's not completely unheard of and if you want to talk about sad love stories I am sure just looking it up on "Google" you'll find stories that will beat the one above 10-0 ...but that's not the point. The point is that in listening to this story all I could think of was how guys are assholes! But as I thought more and more about it my thoughts started changing: "Could it be that it's also our problem? Maybe we are doing something wrong and we are the stupid ones in the story. Who knows it's also our fault and we ask to be treated and mis-treated badly so many times by our wrong approach with men. Could it be that we are also to blame?" 

Looking back now, I remember that the few women that I met and saw that they had a good relationship with the opposite sex were powerful women. Not in the way of having a top cargo in a well-known company, or high purchasing power and so on...but they were women that with the power of a look will "order" a man to approach or withdraw; women that let the man think that they are the ones in control when actually they are being controlled; women that don't shudder at the sight of the guy's glamorous ex girlfriend/wife; women that can live and enjoy life without the guy having to be around next to them; that do what they very well please to do, while the man thinks just the opposite. Men pretend to like the "little princess" but the truth is that she's only a toy to show off to his friends. The powerful woman, he makes sure to secure her well for himself, because he knows that if he messes up, he'll easily and quickly loose her to another man.

What makes a powerful woman? 

• Powerful women know what they want! 
• Powerful women are intelligent, independent and individualistic.
• Powerful women are determined and have personality.
• Powerful women respect themselves, share their power and set clear limits.
• And with all this, powerful women can still seduce and charm whoever comes their way!!!

In the end, it doesn’t matter what your role in life is – that’s just the outer picture the world sees. It’s the possession and application on a daily basis of these qualities and traits that make a woman – no matter who she is or what she does for a living – into being truly powerful!