Ricarda’s Story: Embracing Her Inner Strength
"My strength comes from the inside. And so, I realized if I take care of myself and other people, it brings such a fulfillment."
As Ricarda says, her strength comes from the inside.
Ricarda is using that inner strength to feed the homeless, mentor teenagers and act as a role model for her two grown-up daughters.
Watch the video to hear her story.
Video Transcript:
My name is Ricarda. I’m 47-years-old.
The most pleasurable part of getting older for me is I see myself enjoying life, taking a little bit more risk than I did when I was in my 20s, even though I thought things were invincible.
It’s not that I don’t care, I just go for it. And so, getting older kinda takes away that barrier of feeling like, “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t.” I’m like, “Why not? You know, I’m living today, I’m gonna go for it.”
My strength comes from the inside. And so, I realized if I take care of myself and other people, it brings such a fulfillment.
My husband and I—we teach teenagers and young adults, like on Friday nights we give them something to do.
So, we rent out the studio and our gym in our house. We just love encouraging people. So, that’s the main focus of our family motto.
And then we take those teenagers and the young adults, like college-age kids, and we go out the very next day, and we go feed the homeless. We have an account with Panera Bread and Lady Di in different cookies and sweet treats. And we take them with us, and whoever wants to go, and just bring the smile to someone’s face. I think that’s the beauty of embracing life, because it’s not about you. You’re really reaching other people and that, for me, it makes a huge difference.
It’s amazing to see, if you take a stand for something and other people can see your passion in it, then other people jump on board because you’re opening up a door for them to be able to express themselves as well. So, I’m seeing teenagers and college-age kids and young adults along with my husband and my girls and we go and hit the streets and just tell people how much they’re loved.
The greatest reward is hearing something like this. There is a young man with his older mom and they’re homeless, and they live in their car. He said, “What’s more than you bringing us the bread and the cookies, is the fellowship. Like someone would stop and talk to us.” And so, the teenagers behind me… they’re just bawling and they’re going, “Wow, we can really change someone’s life through a simple treat!” But really, it’s mostly what are you bringing that’s part of you that you can share with someone else?” It’s just noticing people and knowing that you can make a difference.
I have taught Tolley and Shalom, my daughters, about being a confident woman, is really truly embracing who you are at the core and not allowing anyone to change that. Because each of us are so different, as women, as people, if we can really embrace our uniqueness the way that we’re designed, created, the way that we function, then you’re able to really grab a hold of life. My girls are now understanding that your confidence is not in the appearance, so to speak. It comes from within, and if it comes from within, it shows in your countenance. And so, therefore, when you see my girls, they’re extremely confident. And I’m very proud of them.
I have had a few conversations with my daughters about aging. My 20-year-old says, “Mom, what if I get wrinkles on my forehead?” And I just tell her simply, “If you look at your body as a vessel that you take care of, whether you get a wrinkle on your forehead or a crow’s feet or however going forward, because life does happen, embrace it and say, ‘Oh, this is when I was filming. This is when I was directing. This is when I was shooting this.'” She’s a musician. “So, if you look at it you’ll go, ‘Oh, that was from the studio. Thanks for good times.'” So, I just kinda help her to see, it’s okay.
I am really proud to almost be 48-years-old and I embrace it because I think it’s fun. I really enjoy life and I encourage everyone else to as well.
Video Highlights:
0:03 Most pleasurable part of aging
0:34 Her strength comes from inside
0:47 Teaching and encouraging others
1:05 Feeding the homeless = embracing life
1:38 When you take a stand, people join in
2:04 The story of her greatest reward
2:45 Teaching her daughters to be confident
3:28 Her advice on aging for her daughters
4:13 Why she’s proud to be nearly 48