Leaning

It was International Women’s Day recently and a flurry of events supporting the cause happened. I participated in several myself. I’ve never felt undermined because of my gender but we know prejudices do exist from unequal numbers of women in the board to feeling unsafe because we are physically weaker. And so, we must all do our part, women AND men.

I am concurrently reading 3 books at the moment. Thrive by Arianna Huffington, Playing Big by Tara Mohr and Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. They are such eye openers for me even though I purportedly think I know. In fact, I have started a Lean In Circle myself so that we have a support group of sorts.

Imagine my surprise when I got a message from a *Lily bad mouthing *Miranda whom I know has been a friend to her saying Miranda has been talking about me. I did warn Miranda about Lily and how she can be quite manipulative. In the end, this is where wisdom sets in. I took everything Lily said with a big sack of salt. Conversations like this especially among women set us back 50 years. It sure felt like something out of the movie “Mean Girls.” Seriously?!

We all have our bad streaks every so often but to spend that energy dragging people down? Be encouragers, edifiers and biggest cheer leaders instead. Be in the company of people who enrich you beyond recommending the latest shoes and clothes to wear. I am choosing to spend time with women…nay, people who will help me stretch that extra bit more. Let me leave with this question. Are you the sort of person who lights up a room when you walk in or when you leave?

* Real names withheld.