International Women’s day – Women with Grace….

“Turn shit into fertiliser”. Love that saying, and on International Women’s Day I’ve reflected on those women who have done precisely that… and in doing so live their life with Grace… with “gratitude, empathy, modesty, attentiveness.”… “grace lifts us up out of our awkward difficult lives.” Sarah Kaufman

One of my friends wrote something to me recently (which I will pop at the end of this post)… and I was truly moved to realise that someone had recognised the quality of ‘Grace’ within me. I then started to realise there were so many other women who also live their lives with Grace.

I realised that nearly all of these women had experienced ‘shit’ in their lives. Difficult journeys. Misplaced trust and love. Lack of respect. Abuse. Manipulation. Workplace inequality. The list could continue but you get my drift.

Each of these women I admire because of their resilience and the way they have handled themselves in spite of the ‘shit’ in their lives. Each has just got on with it and dug deep and used their shit as fertiliser to grow and be strong, resilient and beautiful. I have.

These women demonstrate empathy, courage, honestly, strength, humility, and genuine care for others. “…lifting us up out of our awkward difficult lives… ” I admire they way these women ‘live’. No facades. Their ‘real’ lives even behind closed doors are a testament to their personal qualities and is the real meaning of living authentically and inspiring others to also live embodying ‘Grace’.

I am humbled to be recognised as to be living my life with ‘Grace’.

Grace –

I’ve never known quite how to describe you Julie. And honestly I’ve always used a lot of words like inspiring, or superwoman to express who you are to all the people around you. This morning I grabbed a Flow magazine to read and I opened to an article called “More Grace In Our Lives”.

“Sarah Kaufman (The Washington Post) would call this ‘grace’…Kaufman sees grace in Cart Grant’s dance steps, in the backhand of tennis player Roger Federer, in the speeches of Obama, and in the moment her sister-in-law gave her a bunch of flowers to welcome her to the family. Whether it concerns small or big gestures, grace lifts us up out of our awkward difficult lives, says Kaufman. ‘Once grace enters the room,’ she writes, ‘our cold, hard, tottering world becomes a better place in which we live’. Gratitude, empathy, modesty, attentiveness: these are all encompasses in that little world, grace”.

That’s you Julie. You are the embodiment of Grace.”