Last week, I had the privilege of being part of the 56^th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, at the UN headquarters in New York City. Thousands of women and girls (and some men and boys) gathered to explore the obstacles to achieving full human rights for women and girls, particularly those in rural areas of the world. The day before the formal opening of the Commission, thousands of people representing Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) met to begin networking with one another. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Leymah Gbowee, shared her experience of breaking through the barriers to peace in her home country of Liberia. Her courage in gathering women of different religious faiths to stand with her, and demand peace and justice for their people set the tone for a week of sharing stories: successes and failures in the pursuit of justice for women and girls throughout the world. This morning, women and girls, and some courageous men and boys, assembled at the corner of East 42^nd Street and First Avenue to march under the banner of Global Women for Equality, Development and Peace. I experienced feelings of regret that I was not able to join them, and then I noticed something surprising in my garden. Hundreds of snow drops had worked their way through ice, snow and layers of leaves to hold their heads high in the morning sun! My mother, a strong advocate for women’s rights, planted them more than forty years ago. Since then they have multiplied, finding their way across the garden, beyond where they were originally planted.  This morning, they appeared triumphant in their determination to break through to their early blooming and announce their triumph over what otherwise would appear to be insurmountable for so small and apparently delicate a plant!  I cried and then laughed as I thought of the hundreds of women and girls marching in New York City today and across the world, in remembrance of International Women’s Day. Their  commitment and determination to triumph over what may seem to be insurmountable obstacles to bring about justice for women everywhere, evident as they raised their faces to the morning sun.