Through another’s eyes…
“She’s not just a pretty face
She’s got everything it takes
She has a fashion line- a journalist for ‘Time’
Coaches a football team
She’s a geologist –a romance novelist
She is a mother of three
She is a soldier –she is a wife
She is a surgeon—she’ll save your life.”

The lyrics are from a song done by popular singer, Shania Twain (a personal favourite) and on a day like International Women’s Day these lyrics, among many others, behooves us to reflect truly on the worth of a woman.

It is said that a woman has strengths that amaze men. She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens. She holds happiness, love and opinions. She smiles when she feels like screaming. She sings when she feels like crying, cries when she’s happy and laughs when she’s afraid. Her love is unconditional, but alas, the only problem is that she often forgets what she’s worth.

As a young woman, myself, I can tell you that I’ve known women of such calibre and have been inspired, as I make my own steps along the path of womanhood, by each of them.

Each of them, in their own right,  has done something extraordinary, and made the ordinary into extraordinary, to inspire others.

Each has done something to make you think ‘That’s the kind of woman I would like to be’. These are the women that make you look beyond the pettiness that seem to plague the lives of women, for the most part.

Each, in their own canny way, reflected a new perspective through their eyes –through another’s eyes.

For me, and it is different for every individual, my extra pair of eyes, my voice of experience, my inspiration is my mother –Beatrice Sharmilla Narine.

Married at 19-years-old to a great man, she shared with him three children – all before she was 25-years-old.

My mother is a wife, mother, homemaker and friend.

Growing up, my mother was a stickler for discipline, although she let my dad deal with us on ‘more serious issues’. Time flies and before we realized it, we were all grown up.

They say you never miss the water until the well runs dry, and only when my mother suffered a stroke at the age of 39, did I realise how much I had taken her for granted.

Coming home the dishes were done, food was on the table, clothes were washed, and the house was impeccably clean. I had not a care in the world – neither did my siblings (mind you my father was her constant help).

However, most disturbing was that, besides my mother’s disposition to discipline there is not much that I remember about her, neither what she did in her spare time, nor what were her favourite things, or anything meaningful about her. Even her laughter was a blur in my memories.

Her illness, needless to say, threw our family out of sorts.

She was one woman, yet she was so important to my family – an importance that we sometimes overlooked.

My mother is a simple woman, but her life is far from being simple. Hers is a complex combination of personalities that, put together, saw a woman in every definition of the word.

My mother loved being a stay-at-home mother and wife and made many sacrifices for that commitment.

“Being a homemaker is what I love and I am good at it,” she told me once.

She posits that in her capacity she is a key part of a partnership, the foundation on which her family’s lives were built.

According to my mother, if financially stable, there is no other pleasure that can compare to being at home to care for a family and help to shape lives. Otherwise she says that, because it is a partnership, both parties should commit to the task of life.

“A single girl should work and be independent, she said, adding that, “In a marriage it can never be total independence because it is a partnership.”

It is in deference to my mother’s view I have resigned to working as I look to where my destiny takes me.

My mother affirms that being a mother is a privilege, expressly the opportunity to shape the lives of the future generation. In her words, it is the chance to “raise her children right.”

On the issue of religion, mom says acknowledgement of a supreme being is of utmost importance.

“Getting sick was a miserable and helpless feeling…God was important for me then too,” mom said.

Along with God, she pointedly included the need to be surrounded by loved ones.

These days mom’s laughter is the most important thing for our family – her infectious laughter that we would do anything to elicit.

A small favour for the many times she served as an inspiration for those around her.

In the Ordinary

The life of Beatrice Sharmilla Narine is simple and it was once said that small minds look for greatness in high places but great minds look for the same in the common place.

The life of an ordinary woman, her ordinary struggles and ordinary ways hold a testimony of extra-ordinariness that can only inspire.

Her faithfulness and dedication to her marriage, children and family; her free spirit and creativity in the way she handled what life threw at her; and her acknowledgement of God – all admirable traits.

All simple things in the commonplace that inspire admirable traits: faithfulness, dedication, open-minded, creative and God-fearing.

All simple things in the ordinary.

The theme for this year’s observance of International Women’s Day is ‘Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all’.

Equal rights or equal recognition of self-worth; equal opportunities giving rise to chances for one’s potential to be fully-exploited. Progress for all – combined with the former, can only lead to the best outcomes for all.

Each woman has an extraordinary story to tell. One that has the ability to inspire, motivate and impact change in lives.

All you have to do is look at life through her eyes, through another’s eyes…