What is it that Empowers you?

What is it that empowers you?

If you had asked me this question ten years ago, I doubt that I could have given you an honest answer. I would have thought long and hard, but the truth is, I would not have known the answer. I would have mumbled some archaic and cliched anecdote, without actually knowing the depth from which this question needs to be answered.

Each individual's approach to their value of self, and the intrinsic sense of self worth, has to be arrived at in their own time, and with their own innate grasp of who they really are.

The thirteen year old in my household got this assignment from school to 'define and identify what empowers me as an individual'. I tried giving her advice, she was reluctant to listen. Teenagers, they think anyone over twenty one is a dinosaur and has old fashioned ideas. This particular teenager is a gifted artist, who brushes aside her gift as a trifle and does not realize the potential of the soul freeing experience that she so readily ignores.

I think though that she is open to approach the conundrum from that perspective. We will explore more on this later, when she is ready.

Then I asked myself the same question. Did I know what really empowers me? Am I qualified to give advice on a topic, when the answer to my self assessment did not readily present itself?

I took the question to heart, and decided that I first needed to answer from my own soul, before I can render intelligent and heartfelt advice to someone else.

A true empowerment has to have, at the heart of it, the thing that makes you feel that implicit greatness embedded deep inside of your soul. That euphoric adrenaline that gets you out of bed every morning, and impels and propels you to seize yet another day, and slay yet another giant. For, we all know, those giants have now tripled in size, in keeping with the ominous trend of the so called, and quite questionable, modern world.

My answer, simply put, is aptly summed up by Helen Reddy in her song of many years ago.

I AM WOMAN.

These three words, I am woman, powerful and nuanced in it's makeup, is akin to The Creator saying "I AM, THAT I AM". "I am what I choose to become". "I will be what I will be". WE were after all, born, created and imbued with powers yet untapped and unexplored. When broken down into it's diverse and many layered beauty of expression and form, this is to me the epitome of who I was engineered to be.

I am beautiful in my own pure and unencumbered way. My intelligence, my stubbornness, my intense wish to be as unique and fierce as I can be, constantly appears to be a deterrent to others.

In my earlier years, I misconstrued this trait to mean that I was the one who was unworthy, I was the one who was so different that I must be the one who did not fit in, and that I needed to change my ways so I would become like everyone kept advising me to become.

Those years were confusing. I always had strong and different opinions from the norm, I wanted things done in a much more varied way than everyone else was doing it. I actually thought that I was weird and a little dumb, since I was thinking on a level that was all my own.

It was after realizing that there was a bit of the NERD factor within myself, that I found my forte.

Being, and feeling different from others, was not a curse. It was a blessing, and it was my 'go to' place to find my empowerment.

I embrace my unique struggles, my victories, my failures, my determination to stay the course no matter what was thrown at me. My strong family values and loyalty to true friends and mentors have helped shape the person that I am today.

I devoured comic books in my young age. I adored Sherlock Holmes, after all it was Conan Doyle's wife who kept him on his toes, while he was writing his stories. Miss Marple, this clever spinster, was among the many and varied Detective novels that kept my mind entertained. I read 'Jane Eyre', one of my favorite books. I discovered the Suffragettes, Maya Angelou and Coretta Scott King. I read about Claudette Colvin, who, nine months before Rosa Parks refused to cede her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, was already making history for betterment and change in the world.

I gain strength from the powerful hearts of courageous empowered women of all times, Oprah Winfrey, Mother Theresa, Amelia Earhart, the writings of Anne Frank, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary Seacole, among many others. I could go on and on about the strength and sacrifices of brave and kind women. I take heart from the brave people on the front lines of our lives going into 2022, and not being deterred from their quest to keep us all alive, clothed, healthy, safe and fed. They give meaning to the reason why life is worth living.

I learned from the mothers of my youth that great satisfaction in one's quality of life comes from service to others. Living only for self will engender selfishness, and that trait will tend to make one appear superficial and maybe not so likable as a person. We all want to be loved after all.

There are women of every strata of life, ever desiring to be all that they could and can be. It is beautiful and lovely to be a woman in any aspect of life. We all must continue the fight for those who cannot easily do so.

Girl power. We still have to fight for it.

The future is indeed female.

Men tried. There have been may wars. Let us now try for peace.

So yes. I am woman, is a powerful statement. One has to delve deep within the in-depth meaning of the phrase itself in order to fully grasp it's power, complexity and interpretation.

Within this phrase is my strength, my determination, my will to survive and triumph over any odds, and the stubbornness to be willing to step to my own heartbeat, and to reach out to attain my own dreams, in my own time and in my own way, however precarious the path may be.

So, my advice to my thirteen year old will be a little bit along those lines. Will she listen and grasp the wisdom that I hope will make sense to her young brain? I am really hoping for the best.

I will try to say, "just be the best version of yourself". Look as deep within your soul as you can, and you will find the answer to whatever question that you honestly and truly desire. For, in order to be truly believable in your self assessment, you have to own and accept that answer as your finality. First be yourself, see yourself the way you want others to see you. Those who accept you for who you are will be your true friends. You do not need the dissenting voices to deter you from your path.

Follow your heart, for that is where your true empowerment starts. Be kind in your everyday dealings with all that you will encounter. Be respectful of all, even the dissenters, they may not mean to be unkind, they may be just trying, in their own way, to be helpful. Smile, and do you, in your own way.

I am hoping that my thirteen year old will start by saying:

"I am thirteen years old, I am a young girl, soon I will become a young lady growing into womanhood, I am an artist, and proud of it. I am empowered by......". Her words will fill the empty spaces of her masterpiece.

As women, we hold the key to encouraging change, and to regain the peace and unity that has been drained from the minds and souls of our earthly family. Ours will be the voices and hands of kindness, if we ever hope to gain the trust that the world so badly needs now to come together and embrace each other for peace, love and unity.

Fostering hope and kindness in the young is a great way to bring about change. We encourage open hearts and open minds, even if it is one young person at a time.

Together, we can do anything.

N.A.