Gentle Woman

She looks at the world from a little above it — not with distance, but with understanding. She has learned that nothing is truly black and white.

This woman knows life is complex, and that its real beauty lives in the nuances — the in-between states most of us rush past. She can step into any situation and somehow always belong there; her gentle presence puts everyone at ease. Her figure is slightly turned, leaning a little left, a little right — pulled in two directions, the way life so often pulls us. It doesn't trouble her. She manages it all. She is a gentle kind of superwoman.

And every so often she feels it: a moment of fulfilment, the quiet certainty that she has arrived at something. In those moments she throws her hands into the air and cries out with joy.

She can be a model for all of us — a reminder to stay energetic, to keep moving toward what you want, while holding on to softness and goodness inside. That is what I hope she brings into the room she hangs in: a little of that steady, gentle strength.