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Today is International Women’s Day and if you lived in Brazil and you are a woman, you would be handed a flower in many random places like the grocery store, getting on a plane or at a street corner. Never underestimate the power of a flower. My favorite memory of International Women’s Day is eleven years ago, Mr. Owl and I, along with besties Rob and Pri, summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro under a full moon. Hard to beat that celebration and honestly I never want to do that again. No one, but no one, handed me a flower at the top. Disappointing.

This morning I was reading about the history of International Women’s Day which I had never read before. The creation of the holiday was linked with the US, Germany and Russsia, which may or may not surprise you. Check out my favorite mainstream news source of questionable veracity (after the Owl of course):

Spurred on by the universal female suffrage movement, IWD originated from labor movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century.^[5][6][7] The earliest version was purportedly a “Women’s Day” organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York City February 28, 1909. This inspired German delegates at the 1910 International Socialist Women’s Conference to propose “a special Women’s Day” be organized annually, albeit with no set date;^[8] the following year saw the first demonstrations and commemorations of International Women’s Day across Europe. After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917 (the beginning of the February Revolution), IWD was made a national holiday on March 8;^[9] it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and communist countries. The holiday was associated with far-left movements and governments until its adoption by the global feminist movement in the late 1960s. IWD became a mainstream global holiday following its adoption by the United Nations in 1977.^[10] -Wikipedia

Today is a day to celebrate women in history, the women in your life, and if you are one of said women, lift each other up. To the Grand Owl (my mom), the Vó Corujá (mother-in-law) and my stepdaughter Carolina, and all of the women in my life, I present you with a figurative flower, and a link to one of our collective favorite stories of all time, the Toucan in the Freezer.

Happy International Women’s Day!