Maya Angelou
We are warriors!
From life experiences, we bear scars, some visible for all to see, some concealed in the depths of our souls. We battle the storms that threaten to drown us and stand firm against the winds that threaten to shatter our spirits.
As warriors, we know our extraordinary power, and we use the force of that power to transcend pain, despair, hopelessness, hate, and discrimination.
We know who we are! We understand that our indomitable strength comes from within. We learn that on this journey of self-discovery and healing, we face all kinds of headwinds, encountering dark corridors of despair and disappointment.
Yet, we are not discouraged because we know in our hearts filled with love energy, we will always experience radiant light elevating us to the heights of fulfillment. There are life buoys that keep us afloat when crashing waves threaten to consume us.
We trust in forces more significant than ourselves. We believe in Miracles. We are Miracles. Our hearts beat in time with resilience. The same strength and pulse have carried us through untold trials and tribulations.
We invite you to join our ever-growing band of fearless warriors. We have much work to do. We all deserve to be whole. We deserve to stand tall, unburdened by the weight of our wounds of the past. We deserve to be heard!
We deserve to embrace the life of a heart that beats with unconditional love, joy, and purpose.
Our journey is not for the faint of heart. It is a time to explore the depths of your being, to find out who you are and what you stand for. It is a time to accept and share your wisdom forged from the fires of your personal experiences.
As warriors, we are open to the infinite possibilities ahead of us. The road is wide open, the destination a continuous transformative journey of touching souls with light and love. I implore you to open your heart. Open your mind. Embrace Truth, Kindness, Civility, and Hope. Let these qualities resonate within you. Allow yourself to be vulnerable. Witness the remarkable shifts that will unfold.
Remember, we warriors are beacons of light, illuminating the path for ourselves and others. The time is NOW to forge a future of peace with shared values where Truth matters. Being a leader requires courage. Let us fight for a world that radiates with the brilliance of the True Self."
Aundria Reynolds McMillan Humphrey
Join me as I welcome the women whose stories you will find here. They have been asked to do the impossible. That is, to encapsulate a piece of a big, well-lived life into a thumbnail sketch. I am grateful to each of you.
These will appear intermittently as the stories come in.
There are many aspects to my life as an artist, including sacrifices, losses, financial instability, frustration, and emotional insecurity, as well as a sense of accomplishment and great joy. I am humbled as I sit in my beautiful home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, surrounded by a vast and diverse body of work I have created over the years.
I have always worked for myself, and even in retirement (so to speak), my funds are limited. Having raised my son alone from the tender age of two, I have always had to figure out how to earn money.
I have been fortunate to have the passion, curiosity, and skills to work with materials from silk to cement. My aesthetic sensibilities include painting and sculpture, fashion, jewelry, architecture, and interior design. I delve into photography, attempting to capture nature's exquisiteness.
I feel exhausted just thinking about my journey, recalling some of the things I created to survive. I taught myself how to sew and make patterns for the jackets and coats I designed. I also made one-of-a-kind handbags and sold them to high-end department stores, such as Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel.
Years later, I made jewelry from non-traditional materials and painted pedestals and vases to echo metals. I also created tables on wooden substrates with indoor cement, a process that entailed numerous layers of painting and sanding. Using Dremel tools, I then carved various textures into which I inserted mica, bone beads, abalone leaf, and other minerals.
I taught myself how to do faux finishes for interiors and even accepted a commission to paint a tall outdoor climbing wall that the client, who was a professional climber, wanted to look like rock. Standing on a tall ladder, balancing a can of paint between my thighs, trying not to fall as I painted. I completed that project successfully and am still alive to tell about it.
I still have nightmares about those annual drives, hundreds of miles, to exhibit in outdoor art and craft shows, often with little reward.
I am an artist 24/7. I am always open to the possibility of being inspired by my environment, from a pebble to a sunset. As I view a closet of unresolved pieces, even ones I detest, I try not to get disheartened because art is a constant learning experience. There is value in knowing and accepting failure along with success. In fact, I often find inspiration and opportunities to step into the unknown and try new things through these problematic, unresolved pieces.
Now, in my sixth decade as an artist, I am still excited and awed by the creative juices that continue to flow. I am at peace and happiest in my studio, where intuitive inclinations come to life in pieces that often surprise and delight even me!
A quote from a client: “September Heart took my fantasies and created a beautiful reality in my penthouse apartment in New York City. She was able to translate my concepts of mood and aesthetics into a wonderful living experience.”
September’s website: www.septemberheart.net
My name is Evelyn Meier. I am 89 years Young and have lived a wonderful life. I am still evolving as I grow older. I am not always getting wiser; I am just older, but that is life, right?
No, I don’t mean that I am at death’s door YET, as we all are. As time flies, we all leave a trail of ourselves in the days, months, and years we have lived. Hopefully, we leave a lot of Love, Hope, Smiles, Fears, Tears, Laughter, and Wonderment in our wake.
I have always been a creator. I have used my Heart and Hands to show the world who I am. By the world, I mean people whose world you have touched and those whose world has intersected with yours.
These are people you have worked with, people you know casually, people you know intimately, people you love, people you like or do not like. The world includes people who don’t like you or are jealous of you for reasons you can’t quite fathom.
Over the years, I have learned that different people will see you differently. How others see you may be different from how you see yourself.
I have lived many lives and reinvented myself many times. I have been a competitive figure skater and ballroom dancer. I am an artist and a musician. Even now, I have conversations with my guitar, reminding it that we used to be married, and although we never got a divorce, we are estranged. It understands when I pick it up to play but soon put it back in its place. I have always been a writer and particularly enjoy writing poetry.
Life is about choices; we have just so much time in a day. Usually, something has to give. You must move a small wedge of the pie to let something else sneak in.
I have chosen to share a wedge of my life’s pie.
I was twenty-eight years old when I worked as head designer for the largest Embroidery company in North America. I had a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders. I had thirty salesmen in different departments and clients of those salespeople who all thought they should be first on my work list.
I held to a tight schedule and made any salesman who tried to push his work ahead of others go through his supervisor or the company president. No cajoling me. No flattery. It just did not work.
I was the best designer in the business because of how I thought. I thought outside the box. I knew how to sketch so the large machines could do their work. I figured things out very well, too.
At one time, the Parsons School of Design tried to get me as a teacher of Embroidery and the machines that made that embroidery. My boss went bonkers. I told him not to worry, but he did.
He was so worried that I got the most significant pay raise I’d ever had and an extra week of vacation, which no one else got. I became wise about how valuable I was. It changed how I thought and could deal with my employer and anyone else who came before me asking for a Favor.
Knowing one's true worth and using that information to leave me feeling I had the best part of the deal and the other person feeling they had the best part was a valuable lesson learned.
I taught other young designers how to sketch for the machines but not how to think out of the box. While they could do a decent job, I always had to finish their work so it looked finished. I am no fool. My smarts were hard-earned, and I did not give away anything I worked so hard to learn.
I can genuinely say I was an innovator and a thinker outside the box. Our company line was the largest and most diverse in the world. Even our competitors tried to duplicate my work but could not because my team, which executed the designs, was also the best.
I was so lucky to be where I was in this field. After I left, most companies bought designs from Japan and even Hong Kong. Mine was a fluid Swiss hand, designs flowing from a creative mind, not easily duplicated, resulting in a totally different hand and mind in the embroidering industry.
WHO AM I?
I am a good and honest person. I cry when I’m sad or physically hurt. I laugh joyfully when I am happy, especially in the company of people I genuinely care for, who are very special in their own wonderful way!
I am very lucky to be in a Circle of Friends and family that never ends. Yet that tiny wedge in the “pie” always allows exits and entrances.
I do not live on a Dead-End Street. I live on a Wide Boulevard that is always two-way. I have a large Parking Lot where the Hearts and Love of family and friends will always be able to park themselves for however long they desire. OVERTIME is always welcomed.
I am a very lucky woman because Wealth is always in the Love and Friendship of those we hold dear.
Evelyn Meier, March 13, 2024
My name is Jo Lynn Cartwright. I have just celebrated a significant birthday! It is an excellent time to reflect on my life, the lessons learned from my early developmental years, where I am today, and where I see myself in the future.
I was raised on a cattle ranch in Texas by a loving extended family, which included siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, two sets of grandparents, and many playmates.
Growing up in an extended family showed me different kinds of love. There was the love you take for granted from parents and the unconditional love from grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
Bonds were formed with cousins and playmates that have lasted a lifetime.
My family taught me the difference between good and bad behavior and the consequences of engaging in one or the other. We were taught that showing affection and accepting affection were gifts to be cherished.
We were taught the importance and value of reading, and even now, I can sense the joy I got from my daddy reading to me. I have always been an avid reader, enjoying a wide range of literature, especially To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone With The Wind, and historical fiction.
I was taught good manners, which has always been important. Knowing how to respectfully engage and communicate with people has been of great value throughout my career.
Following retirement from sales and marketing in the Home Building Industry, I found the courage to move to a new country. Contentment and magic have found me in my adopted home, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. San Miguel is a little paradise where new friends, now my second family, have embraced me.
One notable thing that has enormously enriched my life in San Miguel De Allende has been my involvement with Mujeres en Cambio. This organization provides scholarships to help young girls in the poor villages surrounding San Miguel further their education. These girls would otherwise drop out of school due to lacking resources.
Currently, we support 164 girls from the 8th grade through university. Showing these girls that education is a way out of poverty benefits them and their families. Many have excelled and are now doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, nurses, etc. Some have returned to their communities to encourage other young girls to follow in their footsteps.
I help plan fundraising events and am proud they have been highly successful. 98% of all money raised goes directly to the girls in the program.
As I celebrated my birthday and reached a significant milestone, I am grateful that my new home offers me opportunities to grow, learn, and appreciate different cultural perspectives.
In the future, I see more Spanish fluency as I continue to master the language. I seek more opportunities to step outside my comfort zone, such as taking a Hot Air balloon ride as a birthday present for myself, which I shared with my sister.
I shall continue my passions, including spending time with friends weekly for backgammon and dominoes.
My Motto is: Seek joyfulness, look for the good, and appreciate all you have, not what you don't.
Here's some advice: Immerse yourself in a new culture. Learn the language. Immersion in a new culture often leads to unforgettable experiences and memories that help shape and enrich your life.
Jo Lynn Cartwright, March 28, 2024
Slowdowngranny.com
aundria@slowdowngranny.com
Copyright © 2024 Slowdowngranny.com - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.