The Currency Is Changing
Something is shifting in the world... maybe because of our current global situation or maybe in spite of it... and I think a new conversation is just getting started. Even though it may appear that we as women are losing ground, I believe things are changing! We’ve come too far to turn back now!
For too long, and in much of the western world, society has measured women mostly by the visual... how we look, what we wear, and what our lives appear to be from the outside…no matter our accomplishments. And while that's frustrating enough, it's worth remembering that in so many parts of the world, women are not measured at all... they are simply not valued. So what we do with our freedom, our voices, and our visibility matters more than we realize. There have always been women who were deep thinkers, fascinating conversationalists, and genuine intellectuals but the world wasn't always paying attention. We are changing the narrative because it’s urgent if we are to move forward!
Women are community builders and nurturers by nature and when those traits are combined with our intuition and intelligence, we are powerful beyond words. We don’t have to be one thing or the other…nurturing or powerful…because we are both. We can bring our whole feminine selves into the conversation and I believe that the currency is moving toward intellect, and the depth we have as women. By the time we reach midlife, everything we've lived, questioned and quietly pondered over decades doesn't expire…it compounds. While younger women are just beginning to accumulate their context, we already have it…and we're adding more every day. Our voices and examples matter more than ever before!
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud."
~ Coco Chanel
Women create environments where people feel seen and held and nourished. This isn’t a small thing because beauty is not frivolous. It is how we signal that life is worth savoring, that the people around us are worth the effort, that there is still grace to be found even in hard seasons. A woman who tends to her home with care is insisting that beauty matters, that warmth matters, that the spaces we inhabit shape the people we become. The world needs more of this, not less.
As we navigate midlife and beyond we become more interesting as a result of our life experience and I've been thinking a lot about what that really means. Not just well-dressed or well-traveled, but genuinely, magnetically interesting. We become the kind of woman who walks into a conversation with a point of view that's entirely her own. Who isn't embarrassed by her passions and obsessions. Who surprises you. Who leaves you still thinking on the drive home. We are the women who will change the narrative! I wrote about all of it over on Substack and I would love for you to read it.
Midlife isn't the end of becoming. It believe it’s the beginning of the most interesting chapter yet.
Head over to my Substack to read the full piece…I'd love to know what you think!
Happy Weekend!
~XOXO Suzanne