Why 'The Fourth Clause'?

It's been a while since I had a regular blog. I have written four other blogs. Blogging has been an outlet for my creativity and voice, but my past blogs weren't quite me anymore. They were pieces of me. Some of the posts still resonated. But overall, I felt I'd changed too much to return to one of those blogs to write my current meanderings.

I feel like I am in my fourth chapter of life.

    Chapter 1: childhood and teenage years - the brain still forming

    Chapter 2: young adulthood - my 20s and 30s, single mom-hood, climbing the professional ladder

    Chapter 3: the 40s - travel, marriage, another child, entrepreneurship, a hot mess

    Chapter 4: the 50s - post-menopausal, new career trajectory, feminine energy, wild-woman

The word 'clause' really came about accidentally. I actually typed 'chapter' first, and it was taken. So was 'act'. So I went to my handy thesaurus... and explored different words. The word 'clause' is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: "a group of words containing a subject and predicate functioning as a member of a complex or compound sentence." 

That was it. Each chapter of my life is like a clause.... it has its own subject and predicate... subject: me... predicate: living in that phase of my life. And the whole sentence / life so far is complicated and complex.... and all the experiences combine to form what is now (compound).

Makes sense, right? 

So here I am... the fourth clause that adds to the richness of my life story. Although unique, it is not unlike many women's stories. I write because I love writing. But I also write to share things that may resonate with others. Women mostly. Maybe my words will help normalize or validate the thoughts and feelings women fear to share themselves. Maybe my words will provide some comic relief. Maybe my words will provide some universality and a reader may feel not so alone. Maybe no one will read.

I don't have anything profound to say. I look to the philosophers for that. I don't articulate as well as other writers. But I do have a voice. I fear using it... I fear publishing it.... and I won't always get it right. Sometimes it's a roar. Sometimes it's a whisper. I hope I have some readers. I hope they enjoy my meanderings at the least... and I hope they provoke thought and reflection and maybe encourage others to use their voice.

I am woman. Hear me roar! 

Tina 💜