Janelle looked carefully into the mirror. She was psyching herself up for the biggest moment of her career. She rarely gave much attention to her makeup, in fact she often wore none at all, so it was hard for her to tell if it really looked right. She was inspecting herself closely and practicing gentle smiles and deep breaths.

“Mommy. Why are you making faces in the mirror?”

Janelle laughed and scooped up one of her two favorite people in the whole world. Jayden and Alice were the reason she had gotten into diplomacy. As a single mom, her opportunities for travel were somewhat limited. Being a diplomat enabled her to take him to a lot of different countries and teach him about a wide variety of cultures. The money was good, and she got an almost embarrassing number of days off.

Of course it wasn't that way in the beginning. She had started out working in an embassy, and she actually worked quite a bit, but when a neighborhood rivalry had gotten out of hand and started to involve US citizens, she just happened to be brought in to assist in trying to ease the tensions. As it turned out, she had a gift, and they started shipping her all over to assist in conflict resolution.

Honestly, she would have preferred to be a stay at home mom, but the situation with her ex had gotten beyond unbearable, and once they had split he had seemingly given up on fatherhood. As it turns out motherhood and diplomacy require similar skill sets. The transition was pretty smooth for her. Men in military and political power seemed essentially to be large and well armed children.

The problem as far as she could tell was that most diplomats seemed to go at it the wrong way. They always tried to find a way to give everyone what they wanted while at the same time semi secretly choosing one side or the other. Janelle tried always to remember her father’s words. The difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter is who wins.

Janelle always tried to see both sides, just like when there was a fight between her children. She knew she needed to look at the history, as well as who had the power and the money. She spoke to everyone with patience, understanding, and compassion. Just like she did with her kids, she tried to help them identify their emotions. It's a delicate balance to do this without sounding condescending, but she had mastered it. Slowly but surely she was able to humanize each to the other side. Slowly she got them to see how the other felt. She did the best she could to refrain from judgement of past actions.

Her piece de resistance was her meetings with the women. A large part of the problem has always been that men are in charge. Throwing bombs at one another seems a perfectly reasonable solution to problems for men. Women, having watched their sons die for thousands of years in dumb conflict after dumb conflict, are much less likely to jump straight to violence. In fact, Janelle had discovered that every region embroiled in conflict had groups of women meeting together to foster peace. Unfortunately, they rarely had the resources to have the kind of impact they wanted to have. Janelle found them, met with them, and gave them as much as she could in the way of funding and resources to share the message with other women and of course with children.

She was being fought every step of the way, so she tried to stay as quiet as she could. The powers that be benefitted from eternal conflicts and so-called terrorist organizations. She had now created seemingly lasting peace agreements between no less than ten sets of warring factions. They were starting to notice her, and today would undoubtedly seal the deal. This conflict had been raging for decades. She had been meeting with the women for weeks to train them in peaceful conflict resolution and how to manage their homes from that perspective, as well as how to teach it to their children. She had already been to three meetings with military and political leaders, and while these were much slower, they had made significant headway.

Thus far she had focused on helping those on the more powerful side see the point of view of the less powerful and how that feeling of powerlessness and loss had contributed to violent response. At the same time she was sure to refrain from judgement and assure them she believed they were doing what they thought best. She communicated with both sides that they could have their needs met without violence if only they would give up the incessant drive to take more than they needed. She had done all she could to help them see both sides had similar needs and desires. In fact she had spent a fair amount of time just having them talk about their families and childhoods.

Today she would shift tactics. Today she would scold them. It was a tactic she almost never used with her own children, but she had started with them early. These were grown ups, mostly men, and sometimes shit gets a little messy.

She put Jayden and Alice on the bathroom counter and they all made faces at each other. Then she hugged them tight, and they all went to wake up Janelle’s sister who was essentially their nanny. She had clearly been out late partying, but she loved her niece and nephew and also loved all the traveling and unique adventures of this life. Janelle always kept the children a safe distance from whatever conflict she was mediating, so she headed to the airport for a quick flight to the site of negotiations. She needed only her purse, her flash drive, and her big heart.

She stepped from the plane and received semi-civil greetings from those who would transport her. In general they disapproved of a woman in such a high level position. They were also usually pretty set in the ways of war and revenge. Women who supported war were much more tolerable. A woman coming in actually trying to genuinely negotiate lasting peace was an affront to them. She was a strong woman, though, and not to be intimidated. She met their coldness each time with a uniquely feminine combination of warmth and resolution.

She stepped from the car and into the first of five security checks. She put the flash drive, the key to her success, where every woman puts her most treasured objects - in her bra. She didn't trust it in the hands of security. There were hundreds of people around the security check at the door, including a gaggle of “journalists.” It is a little known fact that a group of journalists are called a gaggle. Of course so few of them actually deserve the title. Whatever they do, it doesn't seem to be journalism. There were also protestors and protestors protesting the protestors. Quietly to the side she saw a familiar group of women. She smiled and felt a wave of peace and relief wash over her. She threw them a peace sign, and then she felt something entirely different. She felt it before she heard it. A painful rip in her side followed shortly by a deafening pop. The women quickly surrounded and fell on her amidst the chaos. She saw the horror in their eyes. She pulled one close to her face, “You must hide my sister and my children. Don't trust it to any government official. The location is in my wallet. Please go to them and hide them.” She could hear the wailing sirens as she faded into unconsciousness.

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Stay tuned for part 2 to find out what happens to Janelle, her family, and the peace negotiations. This is the first in a series of stories about fictional feminine heroines. I want to show women using feminine qualities in heroic ways. I have long been concerned that most female heroes, like Wonder Woman or Black Widow, are still using the same old masculine tricks of violent conflict resolution. I want to give our girls heroines who use compassion, communication, cooperation, and gentleness to make the world a better place.

Much love, y’all!

As always, all pics are mine or pixabay unless otherwise noted.

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