The drive behind creating Trailblazing Talks with Dini Petty comes from the fact that I am drawn to our elders—our grandmothers, our matriarchs, the women who hold keys for us. They are the way-showers. They carry stories, mistakes, triumphs, and wisdom the world desperately needs. It matters to me that we hear from our women elders. I want us to see and know the truth—that we are naturally more powerful as we age. We are not diminished; we expand into more courage, more creativity, more confidence, more joy.
I had the privilege of growing up with a powerful, mesmerizing, trailblazing, funny, kind, loving grandmother. I miss her. I miss her presence in my world. For so long, powerful women’s stories have been buried or distorted, overlooked instead of celebrated, and that is the tragedy. My grandmother was a pilot, and she inspired my years of writing about, talking with, and researching the women pilots of WWII. Studying them, and the lineage we collectively come from, whether through our own families or our shared ancestral line, reminds me that we are never alone. Somewhere in your ancestry, or in our global sisterhood, there is a woman whose strength you can draw from. We truly stand on the shoulders of giants, and their courage shows us who we are and who we can still become.
The more I learn from the women before me, the clearer it becomes that joy isn’t something we wait around for—it’s something we create. My grandmother and the elders I look up to, show me that a life of depth and meaning isn’t accidental. It’s chosen. Their example has become a pathway for how I seek bliss in my own life.
As a child, bliss felt effortless: Christmastimes, summertimes, play, laughter, the unbridled excitement of looking forward to a friend visiting or a family gathering. Almost accidental, and definitely circumstantial. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that, for me, bliss is now a conscious choice. A practice. A daily devotion. Creating an intentional life that brings me joy, one that lights me up, takes work, courage, and a lot of gratitude. And it’s completely imperfect, but it’s a practice worth honouring.
Today, bliss looks like creating things that are deeply meaningful to me—Trailblazing Talks with Dini Petty, my story of the women pilots of WWII, and so many other projects that feel like offerings to the world I want to see. I think, often obsessively, about what I want to leave behind on this planet. Legacy feels blissful to me.
Bliss is also found in the people who surround me: those who are true, kind, loving, and who have my back. Bliss is a nature walk, singing a song I love, cuddling with my new kitten, holding hands with my love. It can be so simple. The smallest things become sacred when I pay attention.
Someone once said, “Life is a constant flow of miracles; only your participation is required.” That line has stayed with me. How often in my life I’ve braced against miracles, against joy, afraid to be truly happy. But that’s changing now. The more I grow into the woman I am, the more I love her. And that, too, is bliss.
It’s a miracle we are here at all. This earthly, human existence is so coveted, even with all its polarity. Bliss is choosing, again and again, to be awake to the life unfolding right in front of us.
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