PURPLE CEILINGS
I often think about a conversation I had with my grandma a few years ago. We were talking about how I planned to decorate my house. “With lots of color,” I told her, “I might even paint the ceilings purple.”
She encouraged me to “Please, do!” as she reflected on the fact that she never owned a house as a single woman or had the chance to put whatever she wanted on her walls.
Last February, I had a dear mentor of mine say clearly, “There is no ceiling for you" and it gave me the permission to take risks that I otherwise might not have.
Today I will call the bank and write my own business checks. I will do exactly what I feel I was called to do — in an office I call my own. Surrounded by decor of my own preference, in a city I moved to on my own.
I talked to my grandma again on Sunday and she reflected the same advice back to me – “Enjoy! Travel! Wear what you love! Meet new people! Keep building!" She didn't get to do these things like I can.
I now often like to say to myself, “paint the ceilings purple!” because the ceilings have been raised for me — by the women who came before me. Now I get to paint them, whatever color I choose.
This girlhood isn’t without the womanhood that came before me.
What an honor to follow in these footsteps. What a great privilege it is to be a woman in this wake.
Keep raising and painting your ceilings,
C 🦋
Things that Made this Week Livelier
Live Lively,
Caroline
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