IN one of my articles titled, “Women: The unsung heroes”, I made reference to the old lady in the village who never neglects anyone in her community or clan. To me that is the true definition of the beauty that embodies a woman.
The beauty of a woman is the anticipation that she will face the future with renewed determination.
Beauty is not only physical in nature, the lips, eyes, slim figure, beautiful hair or poise. My definition of beauty is lips that speak with words of kindness, eyes that seek out the good in people, a slim figure that shares food with the hungry and the community, beautiful hair that everyone in the village touches and runs their fingers through once in a while. The beauty of a woman is when she walks with the knowledge that the next person will never walk alone.
Restored
The beauty of a woman lies when restoration is quite visible. Most women are well known to be the captains of restoration, good at bringing back or re-establishing broken homes and families. The beauty of a woman is that whatever situation or challenge she is faced with, she will conquer. Most women survived what they thought could kill them all because of faith. Faith that they will fix their crown and move on with life. Well-known author Alan Lake once said: “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now”. Thus, women are well known for talking softly, eating sensibly, acting fearlessly, working patiently, thinking creatively, behaving decently and above all, handle life intelligently.
Renewed
The beauty of a woman is the anticipation that she will face the future with renewed determination. One of the greatest lessons I have learned over the years is, “never shut anyone out of your life.” A beautiful woman knows how to renew her batteries and in previous articles, I have touched on how the global Covid-19 pandemic has renewed the importance of jobs such as gardeners, baby minders and maids. By nature, the tables have turned and it’s the specialty associated with such jobs that is now in high demand. Thus, all women need to take a cue from this and go back say 25 years so that they can renew some of the skillset in a bid to become best of the best.
Revived
I have also in my previous articles touched on how, “great women are born out of difficult times”. I looked at how a lot of women became multi-skilled since the start of the coronavirus. The lockdowns managed to revive the energy and give a new lease of life to a lot of women. A close family friend who is a marketing manager shelved her job and revived her old passion for carpentry and, as we speak, she has won a contract to design desks and chairs for a reputable company because all its employees have been working from home since end of March, 2020. Another friend tells me how she went back into her telecommunications job that she left a decade ago because she realised there is great demand for Internet and web-based services. Imagine leaving an exclusive job to work in overalls and dirt. It takes a lot of thought to revive old passion and careers.
Reclaimed
One of my favourite books (in the Bible) that I always refer to in my articles is the book of Esther. I find it hard to talk about women and not make reference to the book of Esther, which is all about favour in God’s eyes. As women we need to reclaim what is ours, we need to let the world see the shining stars in us. We need to retrieve or recover everything previously lost. We need to bounce back and the whole world will shake.
One author said, “Never judge someone based on a season.” If we refer to the good book, we are told one season David was a shepherd, the next he was a king. One season Ruth was working in the fields, the next she was owning the same field. One season Mordecai was sitting outside the king’s palace, the next he was inside the palace. Thus, our lights shine in different seasons and to all the women out there, I would like to inspire you to turn things around and claim unmerited favour. Back to the book of Esther, we are told of how the king met several women but Esther reclaimed her position. One of the greatest lessons is that as women we must all stand with courage, if we remain obedient to ourselves and courageous, we will always shine.
Redeemed
As we continue celebrating successful Zimbabwean women, I would like to congratulate Duduzile Shinya for her appointment as president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ).
I am strongly inspired when I see women take up top leadership positions. It should act as a motivation to all the other women out there.
Joan Osgi from Nigeria, last week posted on LinkedIn that she defended her PhD thesis when she was 62. That post garnered 44 000 likes and 7 500 comments followed by the time I wrote this article. Such an inspirational story and I told myself I am going to write about her and inspire someone out there who thinks age can defy them from reaching for the sky. She went on to comment that, “All of us cannot move at the same pace. What counts is arriving at our desired destination.” By Macy Chitepo
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