A Debt to Pay Gladly

The frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind.*

It is so cold today.
I am inside wearing a heavy sweater as I type.

I sip hot coffee and enjoy dark chocolate as I start my day.

I recall stories of Marie Curie working in her cold garret in Paris eating cheese and chocolate.
I won’t discover the secrets of radium or win the Nobel Prize.

Yet, I can honor her and other great women who paved the way for me and others to become educated and build a life relatively free from societal limitations.

I do this by exercising my talents.
I do this by opening the doors for others, especially women, who have not shared my advantages.

…in 1921, President Harding of the United States, on behalf of the women of America, presented her with one gram of radium in recognition of her service to science.”    **

*Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English Poet

**www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/biographical/