My Heart On Your Sleeve

Image by: Will Milne

When you wear your heart on your sleeve, you are doing so much more than letting people know how you feel. You are opening yourself up and welcoming them into some of the most intimate and personal parts of your soul. When my heart is on your sleeve, I no longer have control over whether or not the sleeve is rolled up or left down – I cannot always protect myself from being vulnerable - and that is what I feel like it is to be a woman in our society.

We have had to fight for control over things that should already be in our power. Things like which career to pursue, how to wear our hair and what our ideal body is.

I should not have to explain to a man that I do not merely exist for his pleasure. I should not have to explain why my femininity is not a weakness.

When I think of womanhood, I think of how we were the apex of creation and how God always seeks to empower. How He elevates us. I love that when Jesus rose from the dead, it was the women who got to see him first. It was a woman who anointed him with oil for his burial and it was the woman at the well, who was the first to preach to the Gentiles. God places great value on women, even when the society around us does not and that is something worth holding onto. Despite a never-ending history of being treated like second-class citizens, we are finally beginning to find and use our voices –that excites me! Women everywhere are rising up and taking a stand. Slowly building courage and walking together hand-in-hand. I cannot wait for the day when we can choose who to be vulnerable with; choose what to do with any and every area of our lives, and not be pressurized into fitting into society’s tiny patriarchal boxes.

The day when we can finally wear our hearts on our own sleeves.

by Matshepo Malatji