3 Joyous Ways to Celebrate Ourselves and Our Moms

Thank goodness for technology! Yesterday I was able to chat from my front porch in Cat Island, Bahamas, with a new friend who lives in rural Wales. Francesca Cassini is the founder of the Silver Tent, 'An Online Community for Wise, Wild Women Over 50'. We talked about what we (older women) have learned in our lives, what we've achieved and what we dream to do in the future. Francesca's idea is that together, we can support one another to find meaning and purpose in our lives as we learn from wise elders. The Silver Tent is a tangible way to celebrate the lived experience of older women and help us to nurture intentionality in our lives. I said this to Francesca: Much of what we know as women comes from our caring. Love is at the heart of our families, our friendships and our passion for creating work-around solutions to any manner of challenges. The Silver Tent has a free online summit coming up on April 22-30. If you are housebound with your Mom, listening to the range of fascinating speakers will be fun to do together! I registered and I hope to 'see' you there!

"You’ll find a rainbow of resources in the Silver Tent community to support you in making this phase of your life the most meaningful, the most powerful and the most celebratory." Francesca Cassini

Another terrific resource celebrating the contributions of older women is the UK based Gransnet. There's a wealth of information on every topic you can imagine relating to being a Grandma. Plus, there's an active forum with many topics of interest - check it out! Interestingly, my friend Geraldine Bedell created Gransnet after working as a content editor at Momsnet. She recognized that 'Grans' or older women had a contribution to make together with opinions to be heard. We will speak and we will support one another! Many of us are over 50 and looking after our own elderly parents. I'm one who fits into that category. This is a great site to peruse together with an elder parent.

Another group of senior women who are bubbling over with purpose is The Stephen Lewis Grandmother Campaign. One quick look at this organization will tell you that members helping 'sisters' in Africa are bonding with shared purpose and they're having a great time getting to know each other and their counterparts in the developing world. We ALL have much to learn from one another.

These are three associations that we can participate in with our elder Moms. Together, we can find shared purpose and meaning in our caregiving experiences, our wisdom and our womanhood.