Wisdom, Wit, and a Woman in Love

If I asked you to describe yourself in one sentence, could you do it?

A few years ago I received a gift of words.  In a team building meeting we were encouraged to write a movie title for women we were paired up with.  My friend that I was partnered with wrote out, “Wisdom, Wit, and a Woman in Love.”

I sat there stunned for a minute.  

Have you ever noticed that sometimes others can put words to your thoughts better than you can?

When I heard those words I thought, “Yes!  That is who I am … and who I want to be.”

The wisdom, comes from walking through some fires and hardships that brought wisdom from experience.  We so often gained the wisdom to help others through the common journeys we take.

The wit, comes from my “spitfire” attitude and love of laughter.  It took me awhile to embrace.  I fought it for so long, thinking it held a negative connotation of aggressive attitude.  When I stepped back and thought about it, I realized my spitfire comes out in people pleasing or illogical conversation, but especially in a scenario where someone is being taken advantage of or bullied.  It also comes from my love of life and laughter.  I can honestly say that laughter is the best medicine.  It not only carried me through some very hard years, but I consistently have people say to me, “You are so funny”.  Now, you can regularly hear me say that if I had a dollar for every time I heard that I would be a millionaire.  It happens enough that my friends will now finish my sentence for me.  Think back to the last time you laughed so hard you cried, and then describe how you felt after.  I often feel lighter, like tension has just left my body and you can often hear me say, “boy, I need that!”.

That is all lovely … but is it what I want?  I couldn’t have come up with the words just like that, but 100% percent it is  how I want to show up.

The woman in love part, well that just comes from finding my special love and gaining a blended family in the process.  I am absolutely a woman in love and am so grateful for second chances.

Well that’s great for me, but what about you?

What is a movie title that would describe you and how you want to show up in your life?

Ask those you love how they would describe you.

As for descriptive words, how they feel around you, where they see your passions come out in how you live.

Can they identify what is most important to you?

You see, if we are living in alignment and actively living out our unique life purpose, who we were truly made to be … then people will see it in how we live our life, how we love others, and how we serve.

Here’s a bit of a trick though … you can’t use any roles that you have.

So you can’t use Mom, Grandma, Nurse, Teacher, Lawyer, Director, or whatever your roles are.  Those are roles but they don’t define you.

We so often think of our roles as defining who we are.  Thing is, we are so much more.  What we do is very different than how we do it.  We can change how we do it, often much easier than what we do.  It can be tricky to change being a Mom, and who would want to??  But if I try and think about who I am as a Mom I start to box myself in.  If I can say, “I am a woman who loves radically with grace”, then I start realizing how I am a Mom and how I want to show up.

Can you see the difference?

So one last time.  If I ask you to give me a movie title that describes you and how you live, what would you say?

I would love to hear the titles in the comments!  

I now keep my sheet of paper that my friend wrote on up in my office to remind me that I am “Wisdom, Wit, and a Woman in Love”.

Love,

Wisdom, Wit, and a Woman in Love