be easy. take your time. you are coming home. to yourself. – becoming | wing from nejma. by nayyirah waheed. As you cross this threshold and continually move deeper into your days, wise woman, with every breath you can come home to yourself. Take the time you need to follow your own inner guidance. […]
We have within us
“We have within us everything needed to surmount seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We are strong, we are determined, we are resourceful, we are creative, we are resilient, and we have the wisdom that comes with age and experience.” From the 2006 Toronto Statement of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. Across the globe grandmothers are part […]
Being an elder
“The leader seeks a majority; the elder stands for everyone… The leader strives to be honest; the elder tries to show the truth in everything… Leaders try to be better at their jobs; elders try to get others to become elders… The leader knows; the elder learns… The leader needs a strategy; the elder studies […]
Try it on
One way to make a decision when we have multiple choices is to try each of our choices on – and then let the wisdom of our bodies and intuition inform us. Here’s how to do this: Pick one possible choice that you could make in this decision that you’re considering. Physically move out of […]
What’s your plan?
You’ve been doing a lot of thinking about retirement and where you are in the arc of it. You’ve heard other women traveling this path share their wisdom and worries. You’ve been immersed in your exploration for several weeks now. What do you need in order to take whatever is the next best step […]
Nothing to lose
“Life is so dangerous that there’s little to fear Life is so possible, every breath a frontier.” These words from Libby Roderick in her song Dancing in Front of the Guns shifted my relationship with fear. I have a long, rich and varied relationship with fear because I’m one of the biggest scaredy cats I […]
Forces acting upon us
We are smart, capable, thoughtful women who have made our own choices and traveled our own paths to where we are now. We know how to set goals and achieve them. We have faced completely unexpected challenges and found ways to meet them through our own strategies and efforts. We’ve done this in the past, […]
Compelled to do something useful
Even without the calls from the outer world or our loved ones to inhabit various roles or take on any number of responsibilities, we can feel the need within ourselves to be useful. This from poet David Whyte in his book The Three Marriages: “There is no shelter from the calls of work. Find a […]
What if you know what you have to do?
The Journey by Mary Oliver One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice – though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You […]
More than our roles
We’re often known to others by the roles we occupy. Even our close friends and family members identify us, if only partly, with the roles we step into. The various “hats we wear” let people know a great deal about us. Our roles can both define us and create some boundaries for determining what is not […]