I’m a farmgirl. And just like any other farmgirl, I love everything that goes along with that title.

I love chickens, tractors, horses, springtime babies, fresh-cut hayfields, big red barns—the list goes on and on.

But there’s one farm icon—hands down—that has always been my very favorite.

Windmills.

I am drawn to those towering, rusty structures like little boys are to tractors.

I adore those sentinels that keep watch over their farms and keep the all-important water flowing. I always have, and I always will.

I can tell you where darn near every windmill is in my whole county–after all, aren’t huge windmills perfect landmarks?

And lately, I have loved seeing more and more windmills popping up everywhere I look. On Pinterest. At the craft store. At the antique store, at the hardware store, pretty much everywhere. . . which makes me realize that I’m clearly not the only woman in the world with an affinity for aeromotors!

I have given it a lot of thought, often during the countless hours I’ve spent seeking out my own perfect antique windmill, scanning newspaper classifieds and Craigslist columns to no avail. I may not have found my own perfect (attainable) antique windmill yet, but I think I have figured out why we females all like them so darn much! (And no—it’s not because Joanna Gaines sneaks them into her farmhouse decor now and again. But hey, can you blame her?)

Nope. Women love windmills because we are just like them.

Windmills represent us. Beautifully.

We are sentinels, too; standing silent watch at our nursery doors while our little ones struggle for precious sleep, or at the front door while our not-so-little ones race to make it home before curfew. We stand strong, around the clock, just like they do. Because our workday doesn’t end when the sun goes down, either.

We stand by our husbands, our partners, through the strongest storms of our marriages, and keep our own wells from going dry.

We stand tall and strong, no matter how fiercely the winds are blowing our way. We absorb those winds, the forces of nature we can’t control, and we turn them into goodness.

We turn adversity into growth, and struggles into successes. We turn hard work into reward. We turn and we turn and we turn, so our families can thrive.

We pump (and sometimes literally pump) ourselves into keeping our children, our families, and our relationships healthy. We may slow down at times, when things are calm, but we never quit.

Women are just like windmills. Beautiful and sturdy, steadfast and striking—just what every landscape needs.

I hope that the next time you see a windmill, mama, you will take the chance to tell yourself what a good job you are doing.

And I know exactly what you’ll do next.

You’ll keep right on turning.