Women have a purpose: to make the world better by serving others, and by doing so, they'll find joy, according to local psychologist Jody Carrington.
Carrington delivered that message during a packed keynote speech in the Alumni Centre on March 16. The speech was part of Dot's Day, a one-day women's empowerment and well-being conference, offered for a second year at the Ralph Klein Centre and the Alumni Centre.
"Kindness comes first always and then you take a stand on who you are," Carrington said.
"If you've lost your purpose, you've lost your passion. They do not happen in isolation.
'I'm going to give you a little clue about the finest purposes in this lifetime often involve serving. We are here to serve other people; that is where you find your biggest joy.
"The thing that gets me out of bed in the morning...is the way I can make people feel. Here's what's cool — it's free, it costs me nothing and I get paid exponentially more than I give away.
"I've sat with Humboldt mamas. I've sat with people with stage 4 (diseases), they don't have much time left. And I say this to every one of them like I would say it to you — joy is a choice," she added.
Carrington recommended the people in her audience associate with people who don't judge them for who they are, what they look like or what they wear.
"If I do not have to wear a bra in your presence, you are my people," she said, sparking laughter.
"For me, those are the light bringers, the magic makers, the world shifters who think outside the box, who are the game shakers. They challenge you, they break you open, they uplift and expand you. They don't let you play small. There's no time for playing small.
"If we spend more time worrying about what other people think and things that can go wrong, what do we miss? Joy."
Carrington said women are "wired to do hard things," ranging from raising children to consoling others in times of grief.
"The hardest thing to do on this planet is stay connected to the people you love the most," she said.
"Food brings people together. And when we only text each other or like each other's posts, or we don't show up on each other's doorstep and say 'tell me more, how's it going? I have open-face egg salad,' we don't make sense of hard things."
"We're going to make a commitment to each other, this community and our daughters, our granddaughters, that we are going to live differently. We're going to step into our purpose," Carrington said.
"So repeat these words after me: I am amazing!
"I believe we know this together -- we can change this community, we can change this world."
