EPISODE 018 | Nancy Drope: Fierce Self-Compassion and Generational Healing

In this deeply resonant conversation, Nancy Drope reflects on resilience, independence, and breaking generational patterns of silence and struggle. She shares how her yoga practice, astrology, and oracle cards ground her in optimism while guiding her journey as a grandmother of six. Together with Lee, Nancy explores themes of fierce self-compassion, gratitude, and the importance of play as a radical act in a culture obsessed with productivity. This episode is a call to embody unconditional love and to claim relevance in every season of life.

Key Topics Covered

• Maintaining visibility and relevance in a culture that erases older women
• The influence of grandmothers as independent role models
• Breaking cycles of trauma, grief, and emotional repression
• Practising fierce self-compassion and kindness toward oneself
• Tools for grounding: yoga, astrology, oracle cards, optimism
• Gratitude as both starting place and destination
• Reframing resilience without glorifying hardship
• The power of play and joy as radical, healing practices

After you listen to this episode, consider what practices — whether play, gratitude, or fierce self-compassion — help you stay visible and grounded in a world that often tries to erase women as we age? 

Share your reflections with me on Instagram @crone.rising.official or by email at hello@leecurrie.com.

Crone Rising is for every woman who’s done being quiet and done being small. We’re not here to fade. We’re here to rise — unapologetic, unmuted, and unmissable.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

So hello. Welcome to Crone Rising. Thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Well, thank you for inviting me. I'm thrilled.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

So, the big question: how do you maintain your relevance in a society that wants to keep you invisible?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Oh, wow. That is that's a how do I keep my relevance? I'll repeat it back to you. Um, in a society that wants to keep me invisible, um, I actually uh function in a a way that I think is like in the moment. So um I continue to just show up for myself and for my friends and my family and um and encourage them if they're not in that space to maintain that. That's that's sort of where I'm at. Um, I know that um that it is challenging. Um, my personal way that I do that is to not watch the news. I haven't watched the news, I don't think, since uh probably 20 uh 2015. A long time.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

That is a long time.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

That is a very long time, yeah. Every it's sort of like a soap opera I fe figure. You know, you can turn it on, and then there it is, and it's the same stuff, different day. Right? Uh it's a I shouldn't say that. It's very much more intense days. There's no doubt about that. So I really try to maintain my optimism, um, you know, in the best way that I can, not watch the news, um, go to my yoga practice, um look at the look at the astrology, pull oracle cards, um, all the things that are not mainstream. And uh and I have, you know, I have a lot of people to thank for that. Um and actually I would have to say I have to thank my grandmothers for that because they were very much independent women. And um, so I have learned from that, but perhaps maybe um sometimes maybe too much of being independent. It can be a burden, yes, yeah. So I find myself um, you know, doing all of my things. I have six great six grandchildren now, all under five. Well done. So that is definitely my uh that's that's a big focus for me um to be able to um stay really grounded in in looking for the next, you know, the next generations, because um our time on the planet is very short.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

So your grandmothers, how did what what influence can you get into what it is they taught you?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah, no, I can. And um it it um some of it is hard news, just you know, to be you know completely honest, because that's sort of where I come from, is that um my grandmother, my mother's mother's um uh father, it took his life. And so um my grandmother raised five children on her own. So so there's um there's definitely mental health there, and you know, having to remain strong in you know the 20s and the 30s. Um, that is one. That's so that's my mother's mother, and then my father's mother, she uh divorced in the 30s. Wow, yeah, yeah. So so I have these two women, you know, sitting on my altar here, uh cheering me on. And then even the you know, as generational as um my mother, um, given the fact that her father took her life, I mean, that's an emotional thing for her. And if you believe in the epigenetics of it, it's passed down through the generations, and so, you know, uh, I really feel like I'm here to break this pattern of you know being able to stand, uh hold your emotions, um, um, and not let them take you out of being grounded. Do you know what I'm saying by that? Yeah. I do. It's hard. It is.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

So so that's the gift you're pl hoping to give to your grandchildren so that you don't absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Because I mean, I have noticed, you know, even in my own, you know, evolution of you know, becoming this 67-year-old, you know, crone, as we call ourselves, um, that you know, my emotions did take over a lot um in in my lifetime. Uh, at the same time, I was able to pick up my boots and carry on.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Resilience is a word that I would really like to never have to use again, but it's a wonderful attribute to have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah. Yeah. When when things get tough, you can just uh, you know, dig in, not dig in, but I don't know, just uh look at I look at it actually, I'm really grateful for the examples that have been set before me um to be able to, you know, maintain where I am now. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah. So well, I have this phrase, it's I I just like I turn shit into sunshine. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah. Yeah. The hard times you get to just turn it around.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah. And gratitude, I think, is the greatest starting place. It's kind of the start and it's also the end. But you have to go through a whole bunch of other things in order to get there.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Yeah. You know, I'm really so grateful for um for these um, I'm gonna call them um, I guess they're tools. The the tools that I've had to be able to use to to get to where I am. And and certainly the astrology is is a big part of that. Because um, for the longest time I would look at, you know, not the well, maybe it was victim, the poor me. And then when I looked at the chart to see that I have these really tough angles, it really just gave me that fortitude to be able to accept um that this is this is my life um path and journey, and um, and there's still a lot of work to do uh on a daily basis, and um just be the example. You know, really just be the example of you know the unconditional love that we're all seeking.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

So if uh one of those young women were to ask you the greatest lesson that you've learned as a crone, as a crone, the greatest lesson as a crone that I've learned is to just continue to stay in um love and self-compassion.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

To stay in compassion for myself because I have those voices that are always telling me that I'm not enough. So you know, I just have to go. Yeah, um, that's not really true. That's not really true, but it it's so um it's so deeply ingrained, you know, like the that generational going back to the ancestors again, you know, going back to my grandmother's, like they show that independence, but you know, what was their life like? Right. So, you know, it's a it's not it's no surprise that this year is the year of the snake where we get to peel off a few more layers. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So as that crone, it was like really stay in in um love and self-compassion. Fierce.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yes. I I think I would probably add to that that if you can stay within that fierce self-compassion, but realize that you can only handle the 24 hours you're in and not project and not you know, that whole worrying is like you're just gonna relive it over and over and over again, and it doesn't serve anybody. You know, and admonishing yourself for the past mistakes, well, learn from them and move on.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

But but with kindness to yourself, give yourself grace.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yes, yes. The kindness is um is the key.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

So I used to, and I kind of still do, but not as not as consciously. I would pick a uh word of the year. Yes. And a few years ago, I chose a very, very difficult word because our society is not built for it, but I chose play. There is no mention of play, even in golf magazines, which I thought, oh, they'll have to have some kind of image of play or word, the word play. Do you think I could find one? So that's actually how I ended up learning how to do digital because I couldn't find anything in just our regular publications. Wow. You know, so it just let me know how wired we in North America are to work. Play is somewhat foreign. Yes, so yes, I am looking to have fun, I am looking to play, I'm looking to add more of that as opposed to this constant.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah. So is your is your podcast is this fun for you? Is this play for you?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

It is because I enjoy talking and learning from other people. Right. Like, how do you show up in the world? Yeah, I know how I show up in the world, and it may or may not be the best, or it may or may not work. I don't know, but it's fun for me to talk to people from like all walks of life, right, over, you know, like 55, I guess, and who've gone, who've learned some things, who've lived some things, who've you know, they have something to share.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

And I'm more than happy to I love stories, so come on, tell me a story.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

This is where I really feel like we had just have to trust and open up to the fact that we're not in control, and life is gonna unfold as it's going to unfold. And the sooner that we can accept that, um, the happier we'll be.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

I love that. And on that note, I'm gonna stop because that's the perfect end. Can't get any better than that.