This blog is for all beautiful, mindful, thoughtful, wise women out there who are ready to embrace  their grand-mother identity and for all the men who recognize, honor and respect this extraordinary trait in women.

It is also a blog to convince myself , about a truth I recently discovered.

Here’s what happened: I turned sixty two weeks ago. In my last half year of being 59 I almost feared the approach of the big 6-0. Even though I have developed a convincing identity over the past decades;  I have also been brought up and evolved in a culture where youthfulness, impeccable weight and looks are mighty important..

I may think I think differently; but deep down inside my programming is the same as all other people who speak my language.
Metaphorically speaking I may think I speak a different language; but that is very much an illusion when it comes down to my daily responses. In daily life I am very much like Pavlov’s dogs. I start to drool when I hear the bells of my cultural conditioning.

I look at impeccable women in feel-good movies, who are witty, intelligent and sensitive while being brainwashed for the whole duration of that movie feeling I need that kind of life; that kind of relationship; that kind of encounter, that kind of understanding in order to be happy

I look at commercials of  slim looking women, advertising the use of certain potions that give confidence and enable women to manifest without a pimple or a ripple on their faces.

I read articles on how to turn myself into Mrs. Perfect, involving plastic surgery; make-up tips, diets, gyms, yoga (mind you for the outer looks not for the outlook on life) and beauty resorts.
And even though I felt remarkably (note I find that surprising) fit and healthy once I turned 60; all these preconceived cultural convictions were  twirling around in my head . That is,  until the following piece of text by Yogesh Kumar came my way (thank you Lily Schuimer)

Women get more beautiful as they grow older. Not less.
Female youth is only prized in modern culture because it doesn’t represent as much of a threat spiritually to anyone who is frightened of divine feminine power.

As women grow and mature, they call in stronger forces of sacred feminine wisdom. They vibrate with the creative power of their stories.
They are more of a force to be reckoned with.
They see more, know more, feel more. They put up with a lot less bullshit.

When women are trained into thinking there is something fundamentally wrong with getting older, and are coerced into spending money, energy and power investing in ‘slowing the signs of ageing’, an enormous vault of divine love is lost.
Just think what would happen if all the women in the world started loving themselves even more with every year that passed.
Perhaps a total revolution would occur.~

~Yogesh KumarVI. The Lovers

The card that goes with it is indeed the number VI (6); the lovers; which is more than just about a love relationship between two people; and instead about all relationships between all people, be it lovers, friends, family, teacher-student, boss-employee, whatever relationship one can think of; as it is respect for all stages and ages that form the foundation of every relationship.

The number VI of this relationship card stands for communication and of course the relationship itself for the way we recognize and validate eachother,

 

Wishing you lots of good relationships with the people your share your life with,

 

Ingrid

 

The abridged spoken version of this spoken blog, features as end note on  ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday  from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of  the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated February  19 , 2019 or click the link below, 2 minutes 57 seconds.