"Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says: 'Oh Crap! She's up!'"

My friend, Stevie, sent me the above quote a couple of days ago. It’s come around before, and this time I decided to Google it and try to find its origin. Google gave me well over 25,000 results for the full quote. (There were three quarters of a million sites listed for those who just like to write “Oh crap!”) I wasn’t able to discover when it first appeared, or to whom it is credited, but I did find it on one blog dating back to November of 2006.

And who likes this quote? Women! Women bloggers love this quote. I found blogs by young career women and retirees, environmentalists, wives and moms, health care professionals—women from all walks of life and fields of interest. Of course, there were enumerable religious and faith-based sites that used the quote, no doubt because of the reference to the devil.

I want to be that woman!

While the more spiritually-oriented blogs refer to Satan when they use this quote, I think of the devil, in this instance, as a metaphor for life’s struggles and setbacks, ills and woes, troubles and sorrows. It represents our enemies and foes. Well, I want to be that woman who rattles the devil. I want to look trouble in the eye and kick it in the teeth. I want to be Xena: Warrior Princess when it comes to Life’s problems. That’s the kind of woman the devil worries about. And apparently a lot of other women feel the same way.

Next morning: I stalled here last night while I thought about where this post was going. Why do I find this quote so appealing? Is it because I feel powerless to slow down the aging process? Is it tied in with empty nest syndrome, as in “my work here is done.” Or it just may be the realization that there’s probably not time to change the world now. But, like the old hymn suggests, I can try to brighten my corner.

Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do,
Do not wait to shed your light afar,
To the many duties ever near you now be true,
Brighten the corner where you are. Ina D. Ogdon

To read about two incredible women, check out the sidebar.

Donna

For those who don't know the old Gospel hymns, and for those who do and want to take a stroll down Memory Lane, here's the entire "Brighten the Corner Where You Are."