Meet Windy Nicely, Founder of Awakening of a Women
Meet Windy Nicely she is the founder of Awakening of a Women.
What was the most difficult part of the path that you had to overcome?
“Really, I came from some of the most challenging circumstances that any human being could have. I left my home at 12-years-old to escape the neglect of my mother. I then ended up living in-between the streets and institutions. I was abused by mental health professionals. By the age of 18 I was homeless and a year later I became a single mother. In the words of a good friend of mine, “You’ve lived through most people’s worst nightmare.”
It’s really wild to think that what most people fear are the very things that shaped my path. My life was hard and it’s taken a lot of perseverance to move through, but it’s also given me a lot. It’s polished me and refined me in the same way that the ocean erodes and smooths out pebbles—by force and intensity.
As the prison inmate and Buddhist artist Moyo has said, “Funny how the thing set to kill you is the thing you use to heal you. The solitary cell is the best sparring partner for the prisoner it holds. It is the best guru, the best teacher.” Having spent many years of my adolescent life in solitary confinement Moyo’s words are particularly salient for me.
Even outside of an actual cell we all have challenges that seem to imprison us. The invitation of my life has been to recognize the potential in adversity, to see that so often the difficulty of our lives is really the dying of one world and the birth of another. If we could learn to lean into it, to work with it as an artist works in their medium, to embrace the alchemic process that occurs, then we’re no longer at odds with our lives and no longer fighting with it. I believe that this is the heart of faith. Faith can’t be learned through ease, but through challenge. I’m grateful for the difficulty of my life, for what it’s taught me and who it’s allowed me to become, and most of all, I’m grateful that it’s given me the skills and insight to help others.
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