08/03/2026
Today our family spent the afternoon painting a portrait of Frida Kahlo together - a woman whose life held pain, courage, creativity and fierce self-expression in equal measure.
Across generations in our family I watched women carry entire worlds on their shoulders. Navigating economic instability, political uncertainty and systems that didn’t always work, while still holding families, communities and culture together.
One of those women is my mother. Her father didn’t believe girls should study. Yet she went to become a university professor. Later she discovered in the US students were being sought to study statistics, a field with little interest.
Keen to go further, she applied. Without speaking a word of English she was accepted with a full scholarship.
She first went to Berkeley to learn the language and then to Stanford to complete her Masters. Against every expectation placed on her...
And yet today, in the painting studio, she gave up after 40 minutes, convinced her painting wasn’t good enough.
I thought how curious that was. This formidable woman who crossed continents, languages and all odds… feeling defeated by a canvas.
It reminds me of how complex the story of women really is. The same women who can be unstoppable in the serious chapters of life can still doubt themselves in the smallest moments.
Painting Frida felt so fitting. Her work was never about perfection. It was about expression, about turning pain, identity and lived experience into colour.
The afternoon ended with laughter, dinner together and a table full of imperfect Fridas.
Across the world and especially in places living through conflict, instability or deep uncertainty... women continue to do what they have always done:
They hold life together.
Often in the shadows. Often without recognition. But with a strength that shapes families, communities and generations.
And than you to for your graceful and fun guidance!
