How to be a wonderful woman

This blog post is totally not a food post and if it doesn’t interest you, well, I’m sorry.  Actually I’m not sorry. Because I need to write this and you need to read it. It’s all about the power of wonderful women and how to recognise them, how to be one and how to inspire others to be one.  This is how to be a wonderful woman.

Let me first set the scene:

• I have a friend.  We’d never met until last night.  You might find that creepy, strange, weird whatever.  I work in an online world and part of the online world is having online friends. A year ago I was nominated in the Bupa blog awards and thus began OUR friendship.  A blogger herslf, she congratulated me on my nomination and gave me some advice when I was the victim of some unpleasant comments.  Her name is Talya, and she blogs at Feeling Ostomistic.  She’s a wonderful woman and we are unlikely friends.  There is no way that we would have become friends without our blogs and no way I would have experienced what I have experienced over the last couple of weeks.  She’s also a young woman with terminal cancer. But that doesn’t define her and it shouldn’t define what you think of her, because she is much more than that.
• I belong to an online community, run by Mrs Woog, and that community is the first online community in which I have experienced wonderful women who are willing to help each other, comfort each other, laugh at themselves (and let others laugh at them) and who don’t attack each other. Yep, there really are such places out there!

What are wonderful women?

• You know that woman who always checks that you are there in the playground before leaving with their own child after school (thus not leaving yours alone)? She’s a wonderful woman.
• You know the mum who smiles at you (with a smile that says…you’re not alone) at the supermarket when your child is having a tantrum so epic that glass bottles are shattering? She’s a wonderful woman.
• You know that woman who is willing to babysit your son when you’ve got an important appointment for your daughter and no-one else can help? She’s a wonderful woman.
• You know the friends that turn up with wine when you’re having a crappy week? They are wonderful women.
• You know the mum who helps you walk your unruly toddler across the pedestrian crossing? She’s a wonderful woman.
• You know the woman who listens to you and actually hears what you say? She’s a wonderful woman.
• You know the woman who helps build you up without anything in return? She’s a wonderful woman.
• Bloggers will relate to this one: You know the woman who tells you how awesome you are when you’ve been relentlessly trolled all day? She’s a wonderful woman.

How can we be wonderful women?

I could write a list of a thousand ways that women can be wonderful women.  It’s about helping each other, building up each other and building a community. It’s about building a village based wonderfulness.

It’s about doing little special things for other women, or even helping with the mundane so as to make their worlds a little more wonderful. We’ve all got it in us to do it…we just need to act!

Now…last nights story of wonderful women

Let’s go back to Talya.  Terminal cancer is a big thing, right? A damn scary and awfully unfair thing. I was supposed to meet up with Talya back in January when we were in Coffs Harbour.  But I got sick and didn’t want to share it, so we postponed.  Talya suggested we meet the next time she was in Sydney.

But then two weeks ago, she posted in a group I’m in saying that she was going into palliative care and that she wanted to do something special for her husbands birthday and felt she just hadn’t done enough. We worked together to achieve a video of people the world over wishing her husband Russ a happy birthday and he loved it. (if you want to see his reaction…watch this…)

I never expected what happened next.

This week Talya announced she’d won Dixie Chicks tickets, a bucket list item. But didn’t know how she was going to get from Coffs to Sydney for the concert as she couldn’t fly.  And this is where our wonderful women came into power.

I contacted Kiis and the Kyle and Jackie O show and so did a few other people.  After hearing Talya’s story, they managed to arrange for her to have a stay in the Novotel Darling Harbour.  Women donated petrol money and someone managed to organise her hair and makeup.

Then. Something amazing happened. These women…they arranged extra tickets.  They called contacts…and they turned a buckelist item into an a once in a lifetime experience.  12 extra tickets were arranged…(I got two of them thanks to the gorgeous Talya who suggested I could have some!)…

and we had to be at the VIP door at 7:50pm. Then…

we met the Dixie Chicks. All 16 of us.  They don’t do meet and greets, they haven’t during this whole concert tour.  But they were told the story and they offered to do it. And they were so lovely, sweet and they hugged Talya, took photos and were genuinely amazing. They were so impressed that our community had achieved this, and that was why they did it.

When I get the official photo I’ll upload it here!

I can’t explain the look on Talya’s face. I must have had something in my eyes…because they kind of teared up a little.

Natalie, Martie and Emily (we’re totally on first name terms now, right?) dedicated Travellin’ Soldier to Talya…and my eyes welled up again.

And that’s what wonderful women can achieve. They can achieve anything. 

I’ve never been to a concert before in my life.  And I may never need to go to one again because the feelings and emotions I experienced yesterday won’t ever happen again. As a first ever concert, it was an amazing experience. It was honestly amazing.

So do me a favour…

be a wonderful woman, even in the smallest of ways.