Women See Women: What It Means to Tap In

Women of Action: Turning Care Into Community

There are moments from an event that stay with you long after the flowers are cleared from the tables and everyone has gone home.

For me, one of those moments from this year’s Yellow Rose Luncheon Women of Achievement came during Kitrina Tinnin’s acceptance speech.

Kitrina, one of this year’s Women of Achievement honorees, spoke about her work with Red Slipper Warrior Project, a charity supporting women and girls fighting cancer. She talked about how precious and fragile each day is, and how there is no time to waste, no time to live small, and no time to withhold our gifts from our communities, our churches, and the people dear to us.

Then she shared a phrase that stayed with me:

Tap in.

At Red Slipper Warrior Project, they use T.A.P. to mean:

Thoughts. Action. Prayers.

Thoughts matter.

Prayers are powerful.

And when you add action, you create movement.

Kitrina’s message was an invitation.

An invitation to tap into our lives, our people, and our communities. An invitation to notice where care is needed and let that care become movement.

And honestly, I cannot think of a more perfect message for a room gathered to

celebrate Women of Action.

Women See Women

There is something sacred about the way women notice each other.

We see the friend who says, “I’m fine,” but whose eyes tell a different story.

We see the mom who is holding together the school forms, the doctor’s appointments, the birthday gifts, the groceries, the work deadlines, and the emotional temperature of the entire household.

We see the woman who is smiling at the meeting but quietly walking through grief, diagnosis, caregiving, divorce, burnout, uncertainty, or fear.

We see the gaps because we have lived inside some version of them.

And when we are at our best, we do not just see.

We move.

We bring the meal.

We send the text.

We make the call.

We sit in the waiting room.

We offer the ride.

We remember the important date.

We show up with paper plates, coffee, flowers, or a plan.

We say, “I’m coming over,” instead of “Let me know if you need anything,” because sometimes people in crisis do not have the energy to assign tasks.

That is not small.

That is community.

That is care with legs on it.

Action Does Not Have to Be Dramatic to Matter

I think sometimes we make action too intimidating.

We imagine that helping has to be a grand gesture, a major commitment, a perfectly organized plan, or a life-changing intervention. But so much of the care that holds people together is ordinary and practical.

A freezer meal.

A handwritten note.

A clean towel.

A filled gas tank.

A walk around the block.

An offer to sit with someone’s kids.

A reminder that she is not forgotten.

A donation.

A volunteer hour.

A willingness to listen without trying to fix everything.

Action is not always glamorous. In fact, it is often inconvenient. It interrupts our schedule. It asks something of us. It requires us to stop scrolling past the need and decide that we are going to participate in the solution.

But that is the point.

Women of action do not wait until life is calm and beautifully organized before they help.

They help in the middle of real life.

In the middle of unanswered emails, overfull calendars, messy kitchens, carpool lines, grocery lists, aging parents, hormonal chaos, and the constant low hum of “what am I forgetting?”

They step in anyway.

Because care still matters.

Connection still matters.

Beauty, nourishment, kindness, and practical support still matter, especially when life feels chaotic.

Part of the Action Is Not Abandoning Yourself

There is another part of this conversation that matters, too.

If we are going to be women who notice, serve, support, volunteer, lead, nurture, and act, we also have to be women who are willing to care for ourselves.

That may sound obvious, but many women are very practiced at disappearing from their own priority list.

We know how to remember everyone else’s appointments, preferences, medications, schedules, shoe sizes, snack needs, emotional cues, and deadlines.

But our own sleep?

Our own hormones?

Our own nervous system?

Our own nutrition?

Our own digestion?

Our own joy?

Our own health?

Those can quietly slide to the bottom of the list.

And then we wonder why we feel exhausted, irritable, foggy, depleted, inflamed, disconnected, or unlike ourselves.

Part of being a woman of action is learning not to abandon yourself while you are busy showing up for everyone else.

As a physician, I see this pattern all the time. Women are often not lacking motivation. They are lacking support. Time. Space. Guidance. Permission to matter in their own lives.

The body rarely asks for perfection.

But it does ask for support.

Sometimes that support looks like sleeping more consistently for the first time in months.

Sometimes it looks like eating real food again.

Sometimes it looks like replenishing nutrients, calming inflammation, supporting hormone balance, tending to gut health, moving your body gently, or finally saying no to something that has been draining the life out of you.

Sometimes it looks like making the appointment you have postponed because everyone else needed something first.

This is one of the reasons I care so deeply about creating space for women to be heard in healthcare. So many women are not asking for perfection. They are asking for someone to notice, to listen, to help connect the dots, and to support them before they completely run out of steam.

Self-care is not selfish when it restores your ability to live, love, serve, and lead from a healthier place.

It is part of the circle.

We care for ourselves so we can better care for others.

We care for others, and in doing so, we strengthen our own sense of meaning, connection, and purpose.

We lift one woman up, and eventually she has enough strength to lift someone else.

That is how communities become stronger.

That is how movement happens.

Tap In

Kitrina’s challenge was simple:

Tap in.

Tap into your life.

Tap into your people.

Tap into your community.

I keep thinking about that phrase because it gives inspiration somewhere to go.

It is not enough to feel moved for an afternoon. The real question is what we do with that feeling after the luncheon ends, after the flowers are cleared, after the applause fades, after we return to our regular lives.

Who needs us to notice?

Where is there a gap we can help fill?

What small action could we take this week?

Who needs a text, a meal, a ride, a donation, a phone call, an invitation, a listening ear, or a reminder that she is not alone?

And just as importantly, where do we need to tap back into ourselves?

What part of our own health, joy, energy, or spirit needs attention? If your answer is “honestly, probably all of it,” you are not alone. Many women are carrying more than they realize. A thoughtful, personalized health visit can be one place to begin.

Maybe that is the real afterglow of a day like the Yellow Rose Luncheon. Not just inspiration, but direction. Not just admiration for women of action, but a renewed willingness to become one in our own everyday lives.

Because women of action are not meant to run on fumes. We are meant to be nourished, supported, connected, and alive in our own lives, too.

That is the full circle.

We take care of ourselves.

We notice each other.

We act.

We pray.

We create movement.

We lift one another.

And somewhere in that beautiful, imperfect, inconvenient, deeply human process, we become the kind of women who make our communities better simply because we chose not to look away.

So here is the invitation:

Do not live small.

Do not withhold your gifts.

Do not wait for the perfect moment.

Tap in.

And if part of tapping back into yourself means finally making time for your own health, I would be honored to help you do that.

I'm ready to make time for me