WHAT PRICE DESPAIR?

TODAY I've found myself in the land of despair. I don't like it. I wriggle, resist, cry and stamp like a two-year old.

Until, worn out I discover despair takes me inside and I find again the slowly budding contribution, the one I can wholeheartedly make - the writing and sharing of the glorious gifts women's lives bring the world. The inspirational women with whom I've been in conversation these last years. Those women who've told me of the women who have inspired them, kept them going, challenged them, impacted their lives....

One such was a Gugu, a granny (a minute, laughing soul) in 2009, in Kaylisha, a Township in Cape Town, South Africa - who spoke of 'getting my life back' when in 1966 she stood in front of a Saracen tank and refused to move. Before, she said, she had 'been in despair'. Afterwards 'I was alive'.  'And now, even better, I'm free, I can go where I will'.... 'There was a future, there's always a future'.

With thanks to the Poet, David Whyte:
"Despair is a necessary and seasonal state of repair, a temporary healing absence, an internal physiological and psychological winter". (Consolations - The solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, David Whyte, Many Rivers Press 2015).

Spring silently slips into the world, slowly the seasons change - they can't be skipped 😄

Women of Wit Wisdom & Wonder: Women Who Inspire

Is a passion of my heart.  Celebrating the amazing women I’ve been in conversation with, I am inviting and inciting people to hear, honour and celebrate the lives of women. And to look at how we will inspire the next generations of women. I am speaking, writing and working creatively with groups, large and small (again all over the world) – a book is ‘in the writing’….

Inspired by my ancestors, my grandmothers, and Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison this work is growing – who knows where it will take me next.

Last Saturday (21 January 2017), along with millions of women world wide I joined the Women’s March, my ground was London. What a day – there we had over 100,000 wonderful people. Diversity was there in all dimensions, many marching on behalf of those who weren't able. Huge humour in the placards and grounded, inspiring speeches energised and connected us all.

Women of Wit, Wisdom and Wonder’s Blog is so timely… Posts will be coming as the conversation/ writing fits. Join this conversation of inspiration and celebration. It’s sorely needed.

The image - road crossing sign at the side of Trafalgar Square, London last Saturday. Someone somewhere had a stroke of genius idea, and acted.