Are YOU a heroine?

I have a question for you, reader: are you a heroine?

Is a heroine (or hero) someone who accomplishes a great feat? Who conquers a great fault? Saves someone’s life?

I think that’s often how I think of “a heroine”. And yet, if I look at my own life, I don’t think of myself as someone who has had any really great victory.

Small victories, absolutely.

Sometimes I sit down to a blank piece of paper even when I’m afraid, uninspired, or tired.

(And of course other times I avoid blank pieces of paper like the plague. What might they reveal to me about who I really am?!)

I’ve faced faults in myself I tried to hide from for years.

I’ve cleaned the kitchen when all I wanted to do was plop on the couch. 

I taught my daughter how to read.

These are all accomplishments I am proud of, but they don’t feel like the victories heroine journeys are made of.

Who would read a book about my heroine journey?

But then I remember Beth March. Beth March, who speaks few words and moves slowly through life (indeed she seems to spend a great deal of her life sitting down).

Is Beth less of a heroine than Jo, who goes after what she wants with grit and force?

But I ask you, which is easier: accepting your fate to die young, or trying to prove your worth as a writer?

I think this is a big reason why Jo and Beth have such a deep bond in Little Women: Jo sees Beth for the heroine that she is.

Jo sees Beth’s quiet determination that doesn’t seek the approval of others, her resolve to accept what she cannot change, and she knows deep down that Beth is further along in her heroine journey than she is.

While Jo has a burning need to accomplish a great victory in her life, Beth seeks the quieter path of conquering the small daily battles right in front of her.

To Jo, a headstrong girl, this is baffling, and yet admirable.

Now, there is no one way to “heroine”. Jo and Beth are both heroines in their own right. While I’d argue that Beth is further along in her journey (she has conquered more personal battles than Jo), heroism is not a contest. 

Jo and Beth are both heroines.

The greatness of your deeds, the number of your virtues — those don’t determine your status as a heroine.

So what does?

No matter what kind of heroine you are, you are a heroine if you haven’t quit.

Pausing, resting, falling down, stomping your foot: these are all ways to stop for a moment. But unless you refuse to move from that sticking spot until the day you die … you are still a heroine.

Grief, despair, anger, blindness, ignorance, making a colossal mistake … these are all part of a heroine’s journey.

It’s what one does with those things (faces them or gives up) that determines whether or not she is a heroine.

So then, it’s not what you do that defines you as a heroine.

It’s really quite simple:

If you get up when you fall down, you are a heroine.

Whether you are more of a Jo or a Beth — whether you battle your anger and impatience on a daily basis or you must strive for contentment when the world seems to be falling around you –both types can learn a lot about heroism from the other.

The important thing is, you’ve answered the call of transformation, whatever that may require of you. You’ve chosen the heroine path and all you must do now is put one foot in front of the other. If you trip and fall, which you will do from time to time, get back up.

You can face whatever lies ahead with courage.

Whether you feel very heroic today or not, take heart, heroine: You have nothing to prove, you have only to keep going!

To quote Marmee, “Courage, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.”