Women.  Goddesses.  Mothers.  Daughters. Sisters. 

It is the beginning of April and the vernal freshness in the air inspires action and new beginnings.  Reflecting on the past month, I definitely recognize the powerful role that women have played in preparing me for a leap forward.  During the “wintering” months, my energy and attentions were drawn inward, mentally, spiritually, and physically.  I took a deeper dive into yoga, and did much hunkering down under heavy blankets with tea, books, and a journal.  

Last month, however, the days began to get longer and my daffodils and hyacinths had begun to pop tentatively through the soil.  In March, which was not-so-coincidentally Women’s History Month, I too began to burgeon forth from the hygge coziness and solitude of winter to reconnected strongly with some old female friends. I also followed that energetic tug from the universe to pursue events and gatherings that forged some new friendships with some powerful gals.  

Reflecting on these interactions with such diverse and wonderful women this past month leaves me feeling impossibly grateful.  What a gift is global sorority!  What a gift to be tapping into female, creative energy in the season of rebirth, renewal, and new beginnings!

Collective Past and Common Challenges

A dear college friend reached the big 5-0.  Myself and a group of five other college besties brought her north to a resort hotel to celebrate.  Our group, which we have affectionately coined the “Ya Yas,” has served as a consistent pillar of strength through many of life’s challenges exclusive to women over the years: dating, heartbreak, husbands, pregnancy, raising children,… and always that challenging balancing act of attending to career and family.  

Now, our common ground is another plateau with a different vantage consisting of sending kids to college, mothering aging parents, and subtle (and not so subtle) changes in our gracefully aging bodies.  How wonderful to be able to commiserate, celebrate, and support each other as we face it all side by side.

Tracking Evolution

Connecting with old friends has also provided opportunities to reflect on how far I have come; approaching the tail end of motherhood, and not-yet-crone.  I am in no way the most developed and evolved person I could potentially be, but reminiscing with dear female friends invokes memories of our younger selves which were wilder, shyer, idealistic, pessimistic, foolhardy, inhibited, arrogant, insecure, and much much more.  Laughing about old times with friends, from my current lens of experience, has enabled me to appreciate (and frankly, laugh at) how experience has brought me to my current place.

Ideas and Inspiration

It is said that you gradually become the people you surround yourself with.  Your company can either raise or lower your vibration.  I surround myself with strong, successful women. We share wisdom and serve as each other’s role models and inspiration.  We are living proof for one another that dreams are not unattainable.  My network includes women who are ocean surfers, long-distance hiking enthusiasts, bosses, healers, and independent business women earning their livings pursuing their life passions.  Inspiring indeed!

Aerodynamics of Sisterhood

When I was young, I was a cheerleader.  Jumping up and down on the sidelines with my sisters encouraging the athletes out on the field.  My new squad forms a circle facing inward so we can cheer one another.  We move synchronistically and have done away with mounts or pyramids, during which some girls serve as a base on which other girls may rise.  Competition has no place in the most valuable female relationships.

Instead, women should look to the successes of our peers as inspiration for the attainment of our own, unique goals.  There is enough space and opportunity in the world for us ALL to achieve our dreams.   I think of my female friends as less like the “wind beneath my wings” and more like other birds soaring in my flock.  Birds flying in a V benefit from an updraft caused by their fellows’ flapping wings.  As a collective, they slice through the sky together as a unit, upward and onward.  

As the shift into the spring season prompts the birds to migrate in their flocks, I will fall in with my flock of fellow females and take to the skies.