The Spirituality of a Good Handbag

By Shanice Padmore

Last month my best friend from London brought me the most amazing handbag. That same week one of my cousins from Chicago bought me a beautiful classy black bag and it coincided with a brand-new peach bag that my mother handed me because she bought the wrong colour and she thought it looked cheap. Now, I’m sitting on my bed writing a story about the spirituality of a good handbag. Because in the moment of resting down my old, white, slightly dingy bag and packing this new bag, God was having a conversation with me.

There are some things every Trini woman of a certain age knows. You do not leave home without a handkerchief because (ahem). You do not eat curry that looks white-ish and you do not eat doubles with milk drinks because (ahem ahem) and well we certainly do not walk into Mass on Sunday without a handbag.

Now, before anyone suggests that a handbag is simply a fashion accessory, let me correct that misunderstanding. A Trini Catholic woman’s handbag is not just a handbag. It is a whole ministry.

It is a portable emergency kit blessed by experience, motherhood, grandmother wisdom and generations of women who understood one important truth: Always be prepared, because you never know what will happen between leaving home and returning.

Inside that handbag may be a rosary, maybe two, in case you are sitting with someone who forgot theirs. A prayer card from a retreat ten years ago. A bottle of holy water carefully wrapped because “you never know when somebody might need it.” A tissue for tears during a beautiful hymn. A pen because someone in church always needs a pen. A lipstick, and a mint because… I am not even sure why. Maybe because we picked it up in exchange for the fifty cents change…

When the handbag is ready. The woman is ready.

God knows us. We have been preparing for everything since childhood. But perhaps there is something deeper about why women carry so much. Because carrying is part of who we are. We carry children. We carry families. We carry responsibilities. We carry memories. We carry the names of people we pray for every night. We carry the hopes of our children and grandchildren. We carry the worries of our friends. And sometimes, if we are honest, we carry things God never asked us to carry.

At that moment, I realised that there is a beautiful spiritual lesson for me here. What we carry matters. We are very good at carrying things. Sometimes too good. We carry everybody else’s problems but forget that we also need somewhere to place our own. Even the handbag has limits. And any woman who has ever searched for her keys at the bottom of a bag knows this truth.

I also had to remind myself that a heavy handbag is not a sign of strength. Sometimes it is simply a sign that we need to clean it out. And the same is true for our hearts. Every now and then, we need to empty our emotional handbags. Remove the old hurts. Throw away the guilt. Let go of the disappointment. Release the things we have been carrying from seasons of our lives that have already ended. Because God cannot fill a heart that is already overflowing with things we refuse to put down. Of course, cleaning out a handbag is not always easy.

Honestly, instead of fully cleaning out my old handbag; I started writing this article. I knew I was avoiding some emotional memories. I found receipts from last year’s Christmas shopping, a pen that stopped working during the pandemic but was pretty, a forgotten sweetie wrapper and three safety pins (Because you never know…).

But isn’t life like that?

Sometimes we are carrying so much that we lose sight of the blessings already around us. The friend who checks on us. The family member who loves us. The small moments of joy God places in our day. The grace that carries us when we think we cannot go another step.

So, to every Catholic Trini woman walking into church on Sunday with her handbag on her shoulder, I want you to remember this:

Your handbag tells a story; it tells the story of a woman who is prepared. A woman who serves. A woman who loves. A woman who remembers everyone’s needs, even if she forgets where she put her keys.

But also remember this: You were never meant to carry everything alone. Give God the burdens that are too heavy. Give Him the worries that keep you awake. Give Him the things you cannot fix. And keep carrying the things that matter most: Faith, hope, love and kindness.

And maybe, just maybe, a little chocolate for after Mass. Because even saints needed nourishment. And every good Catholic Trini woman knows: A handbag without a snack is simply a missed opportunity. God bless the handbag.

And God bless the woman carrying it.