From the women in my life; my mother, my fathers mother, my mothers grandmother; I inherited their wedding bands. These rings remained safe in my jewellery box for years. Occasionally I would take them out and hold them, wondering.

Last year I had made some accomplishments in my life and I wanted to honour this. I gathered up the rings and off we went to a jeweller who fused them together into one ring. One white gold, one yellow gold, one platinum and then, a fourth in pink gold, the colour of love. This one was to represent me. I wanted to join these women and be part of their journey in Life.

I wear the ring on my left hand, the ring finger. The Left side of our bodies houses our feminine energy, the energy of receiving. The left hand and the ring finger’s energy pathways connect to our heart. The heart holds our truth.

Of these women, one I know well, one somewhat and one not at all and as for me, I continue to know more. I respect that I don’t know all. I trust though that each woman experienced all of Life. The joy and sorrow, success and failure, confidence and doubt, pride and shame. They shared, they had secrets. They felt enough, they wished for more. They allowed themselves to be and they feared they couldn’t be all.

I wear these rings, not to remind myself to be a better woman, more to be a woman who simply embraces being a woman in all its light and darkness, where I strive to allow myself to flourish.

In the past month I have received news from friends of the passing of mother’s and grandmother’s.

In their passing may the beauty of their energy remain within us, the force of their tears and their smiles. Here there is no taking from us, no loss. There is only a receiving, a gain of all that being a woman is. Being a woman is a gift, a gift to unwrap, enjoy, make the most of and value.

Thank you to the women who have come before me, the women who are with me now and the women who will continue on after me.

I take my left hand and place it over my heart and breathe in my femininity, my truth, my love; and announce to myself, how blessed I am to be a woman.