Your Annual Reminder: You Do Not Have to Be a Giving Tree

As women, we are not obligated to bleed ourselves dry in order to please and serve others. What’s more, it’s positively good to resist this mandate.

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You probably know the story: the giving tree loves the boy. And so she gives him everything: her leaves, her fruit, her shelter. He takes her apples and goes to sell them in the city. Then he comes back, rich, and wants a house to live in. She gives him her branches with which to build a fine one. Then he wants a boat. She offers the boy her trunk for that purpose. He goes off in his boat and sails around the world and has adventures. He comes back tired. He curls up on the amputated stump he has made of her. That is where he lays his head to rest. And that is where the story leaves them.