“I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.” – Jane Goodall
What I like best about being in my 50s and being a woman, is that I feel that I have actually and finally reached that stage of true, grateful, supportive, empathetic, enthusiastic, appreciative appreciation of other women. Today, I was in the grocery store and I stopped at a sample station. The woman who gave me the sample was probably in her 60s. Yes, she had wrinkles and gray hair, but I was noticing her beautiful bone structure, and her surprisingly long eyelashes, and that knowing sparkle in her eyes that only comes from living a lot of life. We were having fun with each other, sharing pleasantries. She said to me, “You are really beautiful. You have wonderful, effervescent energy.” I replied to her that I was just noticing her own beauty. And that was absolutely true. There was no cattiness. There was no competition. There was no jealousy, nor one-upmanship. I’m not a lesbian. I don’t think that she was either. We weren’t flirting. We were just admiring each other, like one might admire an exquisite antiquity, aged well and rare and daring and real. We were valuing each other, and in doing so, we were valuing each other’s exquisite examples of femininity.
It’s sad to me that it takes being older to truly understand the amazingness of women. Men totally get it. They get it right away. That’s why so many weak men, out of fear, have tried to downplay and to harass women into submission and subligation. Men know our power and our worth and our other-worldliness more than we do. And often it takes almost a lifetime for us women (and sadly, not all of us) to finally realize it. I love that I have come to this realization, albeit later than I wish. I have come to a clear understanding that it is we women who have brought all of life that there is, on to this Earth. And that is so powerful. That is true magnificence. I love that we women have been trusted with this greatest of responsibilities by the Universe. I love how multi-faceted and complicated and ever-changing we women are, and we will ever be. We weren’t made to be simpletons. We are beautifully perplexing. I love my sisters dearly. It is now that I fully realize that it is time to help my sisters, of all ages, to love themselves, by showing my own deepest, most loving appreciation and reverence for the women whom I come in contact with, every day of my life, and also showing my own most loving, deepest appreciation and reverence for myself, as I go through my daily life. It is time for me to let my sisters know that I “see” them and to allow myself to also be vulnerably “seen” by them. What could be more powerful?
Sisters, I love you. Sisters, I see you. Sisters, rise in your power and in your beauty and in your strength. Sisters, the world needs us like never before. Let us hold hands and let us be the conduit of the power that is life, that is love, that is truth, that is meaning, that is eternity. We were made to carry it all.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.