Becca’s Byline

Becca is sim­ply one of the best writ­ers in the blo­gos­phere. At Becca’s Byline, “an Amer­i­can woman looks at life in gen­eral” from the van­tage point of “newly embark­ing on the sec­ond half of her cen­tury here on earth.” She is thought­ful, intro­spec­tive, frank, and usu­ally very grounded in the real­i­ties of her jour­ney. And her thought-provoking vignettes and essays are fre­quently devoted to top­ics to which read­ers of any age can relate, but par­tic­u­larly poignant to those of us at sim­i­lar stages in our own lives.

Becca, like so many Amer­i­cans, has had a chal­leng­ing year dur­ing which she has strug­gled with the deaths of close fam­ily mem­bers and the tasks that fol­low, as well as her husband’s loss of employ­ment. She has returned to the work­force full-time. And she’s not thrilled about it, but she is press­ing for­ward and, as is even­tu­ally always her way, find­ing bless­ings in the midst of unde­sir­able circumstances.

So on this Thanks­giv­ing Day when Amer­i­cans every­where stop, pause, and spend a few hours con­tem­plat­ing all that is right in their lives, it is appro­pri­ate to honor Becca with the Post of the Day Award for Women at Work.

It is com­mon­place to hear women who are stay-at-home wives and moth­ers com­plain that their labor is under­val­ued by soci­ety, in gen­eral, and, some­times, their spouse, chil­dren or other fam­ily mem­bers. In the cur­rent eco­nomic cli­mate, the abil­ity to be a stay-at-home part­ner is increas­ingly becom­ing a lux­ury in the wake of pay cuts, fur­loughs, stag­nant wage rates, and ris­ing prices. Many cou­ples are find­ing that no mat­ter how fru­gal they are, it is impos­si­ble for one adult mem­ber of the house­hold to eschew employ­ment alto­gether. Still oth­ers, like Becca, have found them­selves exchang­ing roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties with their partner.

Lis­ten­ing to her younger female cowork­ers describe their strug­gles caused Becca to develop a new appre­ci­a­tion for her hus­band who worked “so suc­cess­fully and so hard all those years ago when I was a young mother, so that I could stay home with our son and not have to worry about day­care and preschool.” Now it is Becca who “goes bustling out the door every morn­ing while my hus­band stays home drink­ing cof­fee and read­ing e-mail,” some­times feel­ing resent­ful and tear­ful as she nav­i­gates dead­lines, supe­ri­ors’ moods, and the unre­lent­ing demands upon her time and energy.

But Becca is mak­ing her way — as she always does — in her new lifestyle, adapt­ing and per­se­ver­ing. In that sense, she is a quin­tes­sen­tial Amer­i­can woman. She’s doing is gra­ciously, shar­ing her insights with us along the way. And that makes her uniquely Becca.

Con­grat­u­la­tions, Becca, on the Post of the Day Award. I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to share your jour­ney with you at Becca’s Byline.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Becca’s Byline, Post of the Day Award, The Ris­ing Blogger

You should also check out:

• You Are a Fly on My Wall
• Writing in Faith
• We’re At Dad’s That Week
• Vent … a Series of Takes
• Tricia’s Musings