The invisible power that holds the world together
I like to think of myself as pretty tough. I can stay in ice-cold water for minutes. I’ve run a half marathon in the Norwegian mountains. I started my own business from scratch. I push my body, I challenge my mind.
But the most hardcore thing I have ever done? Care for my baby.
With my oldest, I slept in ten-minute intervals. I walked with her through the night while the world was silent and dark. She was screaming non-stop. I was a zombie for months - exhausted beyond words. And yet, I kept going. I bent and broke every limit I thought I had. I never got time for myself because my daughter only slept on top of me. Day and night, her little body pressed against mine. I was her ground, her sky, her rhythm, her home.
At the time, I didn’t realize how extraordinary that was. All I could hear was the world around me, asking when I’d be “back to work,” back to being “productive.”
No one told me that this was everything. That I was already a superwoman. That I was living in a space where love, patience, and pure endurance blurred into something fierce and beautiful.
Today, I know. I see it clearly. I was - and still am - hardcore in the most profound way. And I deserved all the love and compassion I could imagine. I just didn’t know how to give it to myself back then.
This is the invisible power that holds the world together.
Let’s honor every woman who surrenders to her greatest superpowers.
Let’s define new ways to measure strength. Ways that reflect the courage it takes to love relentlessly, to give endlessly, to hold it all together when no one is watching.
Let’s celebrate the softest moments - the quiet, unwavering devotion of loving our children, of loving ourselves.
For women. For men. For everyone.
Because this is what being hardcore truly looks like.
Karina Hvidsten | Founder @Gemz
