Picnic with: Phenomenal women

These days I’ve rediscovering the importance of female friends.

How important, beautiful and healing it is to have friends of your own gender, and how their friendship gives strength and warmth unlike any other.

Some of these women are friends that have been dear to me for a while and others are new encounters.

What they all have on common is that they inspire me to be better, to reach out, to believe in the impossible and to hope, to hope for miracles in the midst of less than bright moments.

The two women above, Mercedes and Ann, and I have indeed had some wonderful moments together lately.

Brainstorming sessions during a fall picnic, cafe visits, car conversations and evening talks about women, hope, doubt and strength.

These wonderful women reignites that inner spark in me to live deliberately, to seize the moment and to laugh wholeheartedly along the way.

 I wonder if we forget sometimes that we have all have what it takes to accomplish our dreams. That inside we have talents, qualities, passion and experiences that we can draw upon to make our dreams come true at any given moment.

The key?

To believe in ourselves and take the first step into the unknown.

I always carry with me a little black book in which I sketch, write down ideas, addresses to charming bakeries, old bookstores and uniques shops, goals, spontaneous journal entries, hopes, dreams and projects.

On this day, when Mercedes, Ann and I had a picnic in gorgeous fall weather, the pages of my little black book were filled with ideas for a project we’re working on together.

It was such a fun day in the sun;)

Being with these phenomenal women made me think of a poem introduced to me by a dear friend from Norway, my model from this look-book.

She’s a beautiful, strong, and a brilliant woman with such positive spirit!

I thought I’d share the poem with you:

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me. 

Maya Angelou

If you want to meet more phenomenal women, I recently got to know this great woman, she interviewed me for her new site The luncheon project.

She wrote such kind words, and I’m excited to follow her project and be inspired by future interviews.

And today I had lunch with this fantastic lady with whom I over falafel, cardamom tea and cheesecake conversed about beautiful, challenging and life changing aspects of life.

Head on over here to bask around in her great photographs!