A Drop of Clear Water: The Healing Power of Women Supporting Women

Years ago, when everything in my life felt grey and heavy, I had a healing session with Sandra Sweetman. I had burned out—utterly—after years in academia. My mind, once sharp and eager, felt sluggish. My body ached in ways I couldn’t quite name. Even music, my lifelong passion, had fallen silent within me.

Sandra’s daughter had been my student—one of my favorites—and had suggested I see her mother. Sandra had lived in Hong Kong for much of her life and often returned there. She shared a practice with me that she had learned through her own experiences and teachers: the Guanyin Energy Refresh Meditation.

As she guided me, I imagined a lotus blooming at the crown of my head, filled with the clearest water. I let Guanyin—the goddess of compassion, or whatever her name was, as I had never heard of her before—drop a single, pure drop into that flower. And then, for the first time in as long as I could remember, I felt something shift. The exhaustion, the emotional weight, the tension I had been carrying—it began to loosen. That meditation, that moment, was the first time I felt truly refreshed in years.

I didn’t know then that I would become a healer and that Sandra would become my mentor. But I knew that something had changed in me, that I had been given a tool to return to myself, to clear away the stagnant and allow in something new.

The Power of Women Supporting Women

When my husband died, my prayer for myself was that I receive the assistance I need, when I need it. And time and again, I have—often through the presence and wisdom of other women.

Sandra had already been my mentor for years before my husband got sick, and it was only then that I realized one of the reasons she was meant to be in my life was to support me through that loss, drawing on her own experience as a young widow.

Here’s another extraordinary example: the first time I traveled downtown after my husband’s death, I found myself sitting next to a woman about fifteen years older, who had been widowed at my age, with children the same age as mine. She had built a new life, burned out, and then—like me—became a coach. She was American, came to Canada for a job, met her husband here, and built a life here. The parallels were uncanny. But what mattered most wasn’t just her practical advice—it was the deep knowing that I was fully and completely supported. That the help I needed would always arrive.

Returning to Renewal

As I write this, I’m traveling to the Colorado Rockies, returning to my parents' home for the first time in two years. The mountains have always been a place of renewal for me. David and I chose to marry in their home. I grew up hiking and skiing in the southern Rockies, always feeling a deep connection to the landscape. My boys will be skiing, the air will still be cold, but the sky will be impossibly blue, and I will be surrounded by peaks that remind me what it is to feel grounded, to feel open, to feel refreshed.

Join the Conversation

Women supporting women is a powerful force. This International Women’s Day, I invite you to share your own reflections on the wisdom and strength of women’s connections. Let’s join these ripples of healing, renewal, and transformation.

I’m honored to share more about this journey, along with the Guanyin Energy Refresh Meditation, in my Substack newsletter. Click to read the full piece and watch the meditation.