I love the way the ACTS Journal practically writes itself sometimes. With an almost uncanny knack for highlighting what needs to be said and heard that particular week. Granted, what we share here is inspired by the women involved with UnbridledACTS, but we love knowing that our stories reach far beyond ourselves, touching the hearts of others who relate.
Case in point…“This One’s for the Girls” popped in my head this week. It’s one of those tunes that never grows old to me. Cute. Catchy. A salute to women of different ages, living life with all they have, reaching for their dreams. Whether it’s about dealing with the pressures of high school, the uncertainties of our twenties, the heartbreaks and disappointments of our thirties, or the quest for the fountain of youth in our forties, women “from one to ninety-nine” relate to this song.
I love that about us. The sense of inclusion that comes with being one of the girls, regardless of age. I don’t know about you, but I have every intention of “giggling like a schoolgirl” when I’m ninety-nine. I can still hear the giggles of my mother and her friends when they were in their sixties and seventies. Mothers and grandmothers to the rest of us, but still “girls” to each other…full of life, young at heart, and cute as a button.
Humorist Frances Weaver was fifty-five and recently widowed when she published her first book. The Girls with the Grandmother Faces is a celebration of single life after fifty, and the title was inspired by the author’s 6-year-old granddaughter. As the story goes, Weaver was preparing to host a bridge party for her friends when her granddaughter asked what she was doing. Without thinking, Weaver told her “the girls” were coming over, to which the little girl replied (also without missing a beat), “Oh, you mean the girls with the grandmother faces?”
Don’t you just love that? There’s something so beautiful about the company and camaraderie of women. Something so essential. So valuable. I pray we always seek to understand and choose to cheer each other on in life…and that we hang onto “the girls” within ourselves, regardless of age, so that the memories and impact of our lives and laughter and love remain long after we’re gone, reaching far beyond ourselves to generations of “girls” still to come.
Here’s to all of you. Past, present, and future. And speaking of that “girl” who was my mother (and grandmother to my sons)…today just happens to be her birthday. She would have been ninety-two. But to all who knew her, she is forever young at heart, full of life, and cute as a button. We love you, Mama.
This one’s for you.
