Carolina Miranda has a look of impish curiosity that draws you right in.
She asserts, “Feminism is simply allowing a woman to be who she is.”
She laughs easily and lets her guard down with honest tears, both happy and sad. She tells you that the best thing about being a mother is that your heart grows “three to four sizes larger” and you can not only give that love to your children,
but to the whole world.
Carolina Miranda, Brazilian turned Canadian is a warrior out to fight the good fight for equality. After a divorce left her breathless, she sought out to become the type of woman to make her two young girls (ages 2 and 4) proud.
Working as a teacher, she uses the rare spare time she has to spearhead the website
Feminine Harbor. Through this platform, she hopes to introduce her children to strong role models aside from herself: “It takes a village to raise a child and I am happy to form that village myself.”
Her website has a monthly theme allowing women across the globe to voice everything from the anger over the lack of ramps for strollers in parks (a fight she herself fought – and won) to finding support after a miscarriage. Carolina doesn’t want to have any regrets, so she spends her time retracing old steps and healing old wounds while simultaneously beating a path all her own.
Carolina has a deep-seated faith in the universe. On January 1st, she relinquished some of her control but did ask the universe to keep her on track with signs. She laughed, “And oh – have I been getting signs!”
These three stories from her life might sound like coincidences, but they’re also proof that
kindness is more common than we think:
1.
The 5-Minute Friend Turned Savior. Carolina met a woman at a mutual friend’s party and they immediately got along. Problem was; they only had about five minutes to chat. There was enough commonality that they became Facebook friends. Carolina expressed some difficulty on Facebook while she was moving with her girls. This woman who had never spent more than that 5 minutes with Carolina declared, “I’m coming over,” and drove from Toronto to Cambridge (about 1.5 hours) to help her. She taught her how to use a drill. She boosted Carolina’s spirit. And when Carolina asked her why she was doing it, she simply replied, “I am a woman who saw that
another woman needed help. Why wouldn’t I do it?” Kind of makes you look at your Facebook connections in a new light, doesn’t it?
2. A Snowstorm Savior. Carolina was stuck in a snowstorm with her two young children. When she called 911, they asked if she had gas in the tank or if she had landed in a ditch. When she answered, “yes and no,” they told her she was their last priority with thousands of people stranded. Carolina hung up the phone and sighed. Within minutes, someone knocked on her window. A man said to her, “I will get you out,” and immediately set to work. Carolina remembers the snow on his eyelashes while he doggedly toiled. When he got her out, he took her home, where his young boys played with her girls and his wife made them dinner. The whole family gave up their beds and Carolina drove home happily the next morning.
3. The Facebook Connection & Soul Connection. Carolina contacted an acquaintance due to the mere fact that she sounded like she had a Brazilian name and was interested in intellectual pursuits. They started to send emails back and forth until Carolina asked if they could turn it into a phone conversation. The woman said, “Sure, but as long as it’s before December 18th, because I am flying to Brazil that day.” Guess who else was flying to Brazil that day…on the same flight! The two women met up in Brazil for a party. There, they discovered that their fathers had worked for the same company and had been friends. In fact, Carolina and this woman had played together as children.
The power of miracles and
the power of kindness are two of the things that Carolina strongly believes in. She also wholeheartedly believes in the power of women and the community of women.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Carolina has the ability to roar, but she is just so busy smiling.
Courtney Sunday from Toronto, Ontario
Courtney Sunday is a writer, yoga teacher, Pilates instructor and Thai massage practitioner. She teaches corporations in Toronto the fine art of breathing deeply, and travels too much for her own good. She likes to cook meals from scratch using ingredients from her garden, and would mill her own flour and make her own butter if she had more hours in the day. You can find out more about her at www.courtneysunday.com.
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