This video speaks for itself! As you listen to each woman, remember that you too have a part to play in this global transformational shift. We are being invited as women to examine the powerful creative expressions that we are holding inside and are being asked NOW to take action in whatever form is wanting to be birthed through us.
I invite you to go to Omega’s website as well to see other videos of keynote talks by some distinguished faculty at Omega Women’s Institute. We all inspire and inform each other!!
“Omega’s annual Women & Power conference is one of the most celebrated women’s gatherings in the world, unique in its rich diversity of speakers, performers, and participants. The conference is dedicated to empowering women to bring hope, healing, and change into their own lives and to the world around them.
Last year, the conference was a call-out to women of all ages and backgrounds to become the leaders we have been waiting for. Whether you are a professional, activist, volunteer, student, artist, mother, spiritual seeker, or social visionary, it is time for us to dig deep, retrieve our authentic voice and values, and lead with courage and heart—at home, work, and in the world.”
I have just come back from visiting two of my sons, and playing joyously and full on with my 3 year old granddaughter Sorenna. As she grows quickly I see the amazing girl she is, and forsee the powerful woman she will become.
I watch Sorenna and see how absolutely at home she is in her body, her mind, and her playful and creative spirit. She is not afraid to be exactly who she is – in the moment. She operates from a place of full self acceptance. I yearn to be like her….
I often wonder why women – including myself at times – are frequently so hard on ourselves. By that I mean attempting to fit into a “square hole” of our cultures making with our rounded, and curvy bodies (even if you are thin you have curves!!), hearts, and psyches.
This week I was blessed to view two videos – both of which are here for you – that speak to acceptance in all of its many forms. Here are two stunning women bringing themselves out to millions of people. They are stunning because they both have a track record of saying yes to putting themselves out their within their particular creative art form, and they keep showing up to do just that.
One is a musician who has written many powerful songs for women as she speaks of her own life experience through her music, and the other is a young woman that very early on found her love of poetry and theater arts could be put together – and oh what a perfect fit for her!
The first is India Arie singing Gift of Acceptance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert with a global message for all of us. We are in a time on our planet when we are realizing more deeply that what affects one of us affects all of us. I say that acceptance of ourselves at deep levels of loving care allow us to accept others as we do ourselves. Just what the world needs!
The second video is a brilliant TED2011 talk by Sarah Kay that inspired two standing ovations. “Sarah tells the story of her metamorphosis — from a wide-eyed teenager soaking in verse at New York’s Bowery Poetry Club to a teacher connecting kids with the power of self-expression through Project V.O.I.C.E. — and gives two breathtaking performances of “B” and “Hiroshima.”
To me this is not only especially inspiring for our girls and young women coming up….but also a reminder to us as mature women that with acceptance of all of who we are (warts, fears, wrinkles, sexual preferences, and all!), the best of our creative gifts are unearthed. It is within our uniqueness that our genius shines!
International Women’s Day just celebrated it’s 101st birthday on March 8th. “This is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievement of women around the world. It is a national holiday in some 30 countries including China, Russia, Vietnam, Rwanda and Bulgaria. In 2010 there were approximately one thousand clebratory events in 64 Countries. On March 8, 2012, we will make history, with an unprecendetned celebration in every city around the world”.
….and YOU know we can create and manifest this!! Coming on the heels of my last post I wanted to share the video below with you and also give you a link to Women’s Day Live 2012, a vision in the making. It birthed on 3/8/11. The question posed by Lili Fournier (and ME!) is: How are you going to be a part of this?
The video below is an inspiring one reminding us of the power that we hold collectively and collaboratively to empower ourselves and each other as women. It starts with you taking care of YOU….and then reaching out for that “sister’s” hand. I will be there with my hand and my full expression to meet yours… Empower Women, Change The World!
With the most recent devastation in Japan (and New Zealand not long ago) showing us how small our global village is, and the deep interconnectedness that pervades everything – we as women have before us a task that is of the utmost importance.
We MUST step up and into our knowing, be willing to learn new skills, and not be afraid to speak our truth and follow that with action. This will often “upset the apple cart” of traditions and what has gone before (mindsets), yet we all know that many of the structures across the board that have been laid down are not sustainable, and haven’t been for a long time.
For example, our home -the earth – in no uncertain terms, is letting us know that new sustainable working solutions need to be created, implemented, and honored as the way that will connect our global village in peaceful and creative relationship/partnership. We all want to survive…but even more to thrive.
I believe that everyone holds a key to creating the shift that is presently sweeping our planet to a more sustainable, socially and culturally just, and empowering world. We can either fight against the changes, hide our face under the covers, or we can ride the wave with determination, purpose, and surrender.
It takes both you see, for it is in the determination and purpose that we commit to – whatever our passion and free expression is – and it is in the surrender or deep letting go, that we find the paths and solutions/resolutions that have been right before us all along. It is here that our most ingenious and committed creations happen. However, this also means that we first have to take the best care of our own beings in order to be sustainable ourselves.
As a long time supporter for Women For Women International I have been aware for a long time that women are at the forefront of global change by first empowering themselves and each other, then their families and communities. Here is another example I came across recently reflecting this stepping up.
In the far away village of Tilonia in Rajasthan, India, where few tourists ever wander, an experiment has begun to bear fruit globally. Established in 1972, the Barefoot College is a non-government organization that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable.
This village is situated in arid land where water is scarce and poverty rampant. Here is what Sathya Saran says about women in this village:
“The women of the village work together with their menfolk towards sustainable development, and also help educate and inspire those in nearby villages to rise above the vagaries of nature and their hardships by effort and education.
Tolonia’s most famous export is the solar engineer concept. Making the most of the abundant sunshine, the Barefoot College has trained its women to set up solar electrified systems that can provide light and power to entire villages. In fact, the 80,000 square foot campus of the Barefoot College is electrified and maintained by the women solar engineers, most of whom have little or no formal education and live within the broad dictates of a rural, feudal, chauvinistic, male-dominated social milieu.
The women engineers are trained to create everything such a unit needs, to help install and run it, and to train the villagers of the receiving village to maintain and run the units themselves.
Going a step further, the Barefoot College also trains women from many other parts of the world to create this cheap, endurable and sustainable source of alternate energy, and how to take it in working condition to their respective villages.
Language and regional differences are forgotten in the giving and taking of knowledge so vital to better living. Women’s empowerment finds new meaning, as Tilonia’s solar-energy-giving-women help light lives across the world. “
These ‘Barefoot solutions’ can be broadly categorized into solar energy, water, education, health care, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development.
So far, the Barefoot approach has been replicated in 17 states of India, 15 countries in Africa, 2 countries in Asia and 1 country in South America.
Barefoot Approach and its objectives:
*Provide sustainable solutions to improve the quality of life in poor, rural communities
*Reduce migration by generating employment within villages
*Provide vocational training to semi-literate and illiterate men and women through the process of learning-by-doing
*Reduce drudgery of rural women and girls by providing them access to education, vocational training, health care etc.
*Empower rural women socially, economically and politically
*Encourage community based, owned and managed initiatives
*Demystify technologies and decentralize their uses to improve their quality of living
*Use and promote traditional knowledge and skills that have been passed on through generations
Dr. Bunker Roy, the creator of Barefoot College, answers this question in an interview on Empowering Rural Women:
What do you think needs to be done by the Indian government to make the environment more enabling for enterprises such as yours? Between 2004 and 2009, the Barefoot approach of training illiterate rural women to solar electrify their villages was extended to Africa. By this year, more than 100 semi-literate and illiterate grandmothers from 21 countries in Africa will have solar electrified their own villages. Under a unique scheme called ITEC, the Indian government has covered the air tickets and six months’ training costs to each of these grandmothers to come to India. What the Barefoot College has effectively demonstrated is how sustainable the combination of traditional knowledge and demystified modern skills can be when the tools are in the hands of the rural poor. Our message has reached the far corners of the globe. The respect our community has for the Sun (solar electrification) is really a simple message which is easily replicable in inaccessible, neglected and backward communities all over the world.
For more of this interview go to: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/empowering-rural-women-1.635403
This is just one of 1,000’s of efforts across the globe in which women hold a pivotal and vital role. This is also where men and women can come together in equality and work on behalf of the betterment for all.
In one of my favorite stories, Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz stepped up over and over again in spite of her fears, and at the very end found that the bucket of water right in front of her was the key to melting her biggest fear embodied in the “Wicked Witch”.
Curiosity, willingness to engage and collaborate, and perceiving ourselves as an active participant with something to offer will pave the way. I wonder what is right in front of us that will potentiate our coming out of hiding and stepping up?? Don’t forget, it can be simple….
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
~ Rumi
I start with this Rumi poem for several reasons. First it reminds me of what to remember as I wake up each morning with new possibility arising within a very big shift in my life. It also speaks to me of the beauty that resides within and without each of us, and the myriad of ways that we can express this within our own uniqueness.
As women we have often listened to others dictates about what is right or wrong with us – especially our appearance – and followed the voices of others whims and desires. If you are like me, you have also wanted to fit in within the “appearance” that you were blessed to have been born with…but may have been continuously displeased with – attempting to change somehow to fit in with what “beauty” or “acceptable” appearance is in your particular culture.
This not only speaks to external appearance, but the “beauty” that we share inside of us offered as gifts of full expression. This beauty that we seek to understand our entire lives may have been held back from full expression by fear of being misunderstood, not being accepted in the constraints of cultural bias, or perhaps even punished in some form.
In my global travels I have found this to be true universally. What is it that has us judge our appearance, inside and out, set apart from recognition of our heart and souls dream for who we are to become this lifetime?
This past week I was blessed to make contact with a woman at the gym after my swim. She approached me, and what resulted was a short but very profound sharing between two older women that are committed to bringing the fullness of who they are out into the world.
Martha is an artist -a full time one at that. The glow that radiated from her as she talked about her art gave me encouragement and inspiration to bring my own without the hesitation that has self sabotaged me in the past.
Yet, I learned that it was not until she was in college that she dove into the potential of the art within her. Her mother did not want her to be an artist when she was growing up. It was OK for her sister to be one, but mom wanted Martha to be an dancer. With the freedom that comes from leaving home, Martha started to explore her own beauty within the world of visual art. She now gives herself permission to bring this to the world as her gift.
This week I also bought a new bathing suit as the old one had such thin material from frequent use that it was bordering on embarrassingly revealing. When I got it home I tried it on for the first time and realized that it was a tad too small – but not much.
As I gazed at the reflection in the mirror and turned and twisted to see all angles of my aging voluptuous (I love that word!) body I decided to see the beauty of having a body – a body that can swim, lift weights, hike, walk, ride bikes, make love, sit in meditation, run on the beach, play, laugh and breathe. A body and ageless “beauty” that can be expressed until the last breath is taken….full and complete acceptance of what is now.
Is it time for you to explore that inner and outer beauty…… to simply be the pretty amazing woman that you are? ! There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the fullness of our expressions….
Here is a powerful video by Katie Makkai filmed at the 2002 National Poetry Slam. She brings a lot of emotion and wisdom to the question – Will I Be Pretty? Thank you to Karri Ingerson for this video!!
There is a extremely contracted template for aging in our Western culture…and I, for one, am here to expand and redefine it – or possibly not to define it at all, but to say let us live our days/our years in a celebratory way! After all, if we weren’t aging, we would be dead!
When I come across examples of women who are living their passion well into their later years, I pay attention. These women are inspirations for us. They awaken possibility within our hearts, minds and bodies, and remind us that each moment of this precious life is here for exploring and living with all the passion we can possibly express and create. These possibilities are actually unlimited.
There is a lot of “press” these days about “letting go” of the constructs and habitual patterns that have kept us locked into an oftentimes “deadly” repetitive replay of a safe way of living, while resisting the changes that are mounting around us and the whispers of our heart and soul that beckon us to “please come out and play!” Sometimes this work seems daunting and we struggle with the back and forth between an assumed “safety” (most often conjured up by our rational minds) – and heart and soul freedom. In fact this is my passage and that of many others right now.
What if it was easier? What if we just merely accepted that we hold within us the Divine spark already and that we were meant to be full expressions of our deepest creative, sensual, and soulful natures. In that case all we would need to do is say YES! This is a YES! with no rational mind limitations. This is a YES! that says I am deeply interconnected and an important part of the whole. This is a YES! that says NOW is my time….and the next moment, and the next, and the next. The path may be strewn with unusual and sometimes challenging experiences…but they all can be seen and accepted as an invitation to live and breathe with the fullest expression that we are capable of in the moment.
Growing up I loved to watch the passion and art of dancing, and still love it…as well as dancing myself whenever I can. A couple of years ago now I took Cuban Salsa lessons for a year and even though I found myself going the wrong direction in the rueda (circle) at times under the Spanish verbal and hand sign direction of the teacher – my body, heart and soul sang with pleasure in every step and shake of my body.
When this video came to me I knew that it must be shared with you. Here is Sarah “Paddy” Jones, a 75 year old British lady who is still living her passion! Wonder if you will shed tears as I did witnessing her come to radical aliveness on stage??! Is this how alive you would like to be at this age – any age?? I know that I would!!!! If not NOW, when???
The video below is misnamed on top, so please disregard the title of Ginger Rogers who died when she was 83. Sarah “Paddy” Jones is British and living in Spain. She took up dancing 5 years ago after the death of her husband. She has seven grandchildren.
This second video is less performance oriented and more into the heart and soul of “Paddy”!
Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living In better conditions. ~Hafiz
This post is important. Important because women are being called to step up into their full expressions as the awakening on our planet spirals out globally, and as we build a new world with very different foundations. We as women have an important purpose in all of this – to foster collaboration from the heart and soul; to speak out on behalf of the planet, our children, communities, and each other; and to express every bit of the creative genius that we are holding onto inside letting go of the fear that no one will recognize it for what it is – wisdom much needed right now!
Given all of this we cannot proceed, or pass GO as the game of monopoly states, until we heal the relationships with the women in our lives. I believe that if we do not have closure or understanding with those that we have had challenges or break down of relationship with, then we are bringing our wounds to the table, and not releasing those that have been close to us, and ourselves, into fullest expression.
As women we bond easily, fiercely, deeply, and often tenderly. Relationships with other women are at the core of our thriving and full acceptance of ourselves. Without healthy relationships with women we fall apart within and without. Our culture, community, and world suffers…and so do we.
This week, as many of you know, there was a repairing of a relationship that took place
Iyanla Vanzant
between two very powerful women – Oprah Winfrey and Iyanla Vanzant. Feminine Power hosted that very same day a conversation with Iyanla on “Woman to Woman: How to Heal Our Relationship Breakdowns with Each Other”.
I bring you the link here to listen to the conversation as I feel that it is vitally important that we do this work with each other first!
Late in 2010 I lost a friend that was very dear to me. She simply stopped communicating with me after 2 years of a meaningful friendship and many adventures. At first I attempted to create story – in other words think of the ways in which I might had offended her, or figure out why she did not want to relate any longer. I left phone messages, wrote e-mails and left a letter at her doorstep at Christmas time…but no response.
Then I realized that she was not going to respond, and that it was time to do my own internal healing around the loss, move out of any story, recognize that there was no longer a resonance which kept the relationship alive and growing, forgive myself and her, and let go. There was of course sadness around the loss of the relationship…but what really hurt was that we could not come together, face our fears, and deeply listen to each other with an open heart and mind – either for closure, or for expansion of relationship with each other or with ourselves.
This is what Iyanla speaks to in the conversation on this link. Take the time to listen in and reflect on whether there are any relationships with women in your life right now that require letting go of the fear that you carry and with courage (action taken from the heart) telling your truth.
“Woman to Woman: How to Heal Our Relationship Breakdowns with Each Other” with honored guest, Iyanla Vanzant
Welcome to the recording of our special Women on The Edge of Evolution event with Iyanla Vanzant, who shares the challenges, lessons and blessing of healing the relationship breakdowns with our sisters. Iyanla Vanzant is the author of five New York Times bestsellers. Her most recent book, Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through is a masterpiece of hard earned wisdom and a tribute to the resilience of the human heart.
Sister, remember this: :: you are completely and utterly loved.:: the intelligence that grows the leaves on the trees, is also moving you. Surrender.:: your body is a miracle. It breathes, it pumps, it digests and it moves. It is God in action. Just stop. Stop right now, being so violent towards it.:: the body is earth…awakeningwomen.com
Christine Arylo has declared 2/13 as International Falling In Love With Yourself Day. What could be more appropriate than a focus on self love for women and girls the day before Valentines Day.
As each of us as women step up to the plate in our lives and bring courage, strength, wisdom, collaboration, listening, and our own uniquely wild creative expression and stories….. we become free. In this stepping up however, we must embrace our wholeness, and love every single itty bitty part of ourselves – even those parts that we would rather hide under the rug or in the bushes some place! Not always easy…
So girlfriends come out and play today – and everyday that you possibly can! Here is a video that reminds us why we are being called to action on the global, national, and community fronts of our lives. It is when we say YES! to our unique dance in life, and fall in love with ourselves, that we are able to inspire other women to do the same while living our lives FREE.
This is ALWAYS an inside job. When done with dedication and commitment you light up the world! Join the Tribe.
“In a world where everything is sexualized instead of humanized, I worry that we’ve lost touch with the sweet eroticism in life. To me, being human, life itself is erotic. It’s a being alive to the magical, pulsating, ecstatic body and universe we live and experience through. It’s a way of being in the world in a sensory and tactile way, leading and relating to others with your energy awareness and senses.
…in its highest sense, our sexuality is a gateway to spirit, to the place where humanity meets divinity, and as such it is sacred. It offers us a readily available opportunity to experience the ecstatic union we all long for. If… that is… we dare surrender so deeply to the erotic dance, with ourselves, with each other.”
Starting off with this quote sets the stage for the focus of this post, as the Divine Feminine is coming full force into our awareness across the globe. There is a reason for that. Our planet needs us to re-balance – and quickly! Yet, what exactly is the Divine Feminine or the Feminine Principle to you?
For women and men this is where humanity meets Divinity – the ecstatic union of the
interconnection that plays out constantly – seen and unseen, felt and not felt. It is about collaboration, connection, listening, and flow. There is an immense intelligence in life that is begging us to pay attention. It can be seen and felt all around us if we will only pay attention. A friend of mine in the UK found this in nature on one of his daily walks. This spiral serpent encased in ice can also be seen as this erotic dance that is being played out in a very elemental way.
Bringing the Shakti energy back to the drawing table of life in our present time means that each of us as women (and men) are being invited to step up to the plate of our lives, heal whatever needs healing within ourselves, and be sensuously present to life as an “erotic sacred dance”.
Someone who invited this dance to play out in her life was Georgia O’Keefe, and it wasn’t always an easy path for her to take. Her statement, “I have been absolutely terrified my entire life, and I have never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do”, challenges us to live our lives from the inner urgings, that if not heeded leave us living half of a life instead of the whole one we were meant to play out.
As women, when we walk into a room, into a new situation, or launch an innovative creation we can embody this energy by being fully in our belly – our pelvis – and of course do this with grounded passionate presence. This sensory way of being in the deepest feminine parts of ourselves creates an opportunity to confidently stride into the moments of our lives because we courageously trust that we will always have the wholeness of who we are – and no one can take that away from us.
When we understand that we no longer need to puff up our chests and be “strong” in a masculine energy sort of way, make prose more important than poetic, or come from logic and rational left brained thinking to be taken seriously….. leaving our deepest feminine parts behind on the shelf in a dark room….then we will be heard, seen, and acknowledged for the gifts that we bring – and the Earth that gives us life will breathe a huge sigh of relief!
Shiva/Shakti
It is the Divine erotic dance between masculine and feminine energy inside and outside each of us (we are literally surrounded by it!) that keeps life juicy, creative, and leads to a gateway of embodied sensual living from body, mind, heart and soul.
Discover the pathways of erotic living this week that you are already embodying, or can surrender into more, and ignite in your body, heart and soul. Make love to life….your life!
on How to Increase your Personal Presence, Financial Flow, and Make a Greater Impact on those around you with the Power of your “Feminine.”. This is #2 in a series of 4 – Great!
True Identity of a Carousel - Photo by Dewitt Jones
Falling in love with the journey is what makes life juicy! Otherwise, we put off living, as if there is something better around the bend, tomorrow, next week, next year, or in the next moment. Before we know it – our lives this time around are finished.
Time seems to be flying by these days. It is not just me that is aware of it. There are many of us that are feeling our way into a new reality. Perhaps a different location to live, the gathering of a tribe (community) to play and create with that aligns with our inner desires, dreams and values; coming into the expressions that we have kept in that silent place inside of ourselves because of fear or self doubt; or as Lone Morchstates below in a quote from The Feminine Fad: about power, truth & the new feminine, perhaps finally seeing ourselves as sacred, co-creators of the world.
“On the societal, cultural level, maybe that means we move from seeing ourselves as mere consumers, sex objects and advertising targets to seeing ourselves as sacred, co-creators of the world, because, in our hearts, we know that for every action (thought, feeling…) there is a reaction. We don’t live in a vacuum, everything affects the collective, and each person’s choices matter. My sense is that when we can tell ourselves the truth of who we are, we can also love ourselves, When we love ourselves, we begin to trust ourselves, and naturally a lot of hole-filling choices, masks and needs might just fall away. We might see more clearly. We might feel closer to our self-authority. We might actually begin to feel utterly alive and begin to breathe with Mother Earth. A sweet thought to behold.” www.divinelyfurious.com
We all know that the journey can hold deep holes we at times fall into, mountain tops where we can see clearly, and the everyday one foot in front of the other where you never know what is going to show up next. The potential for being utterly alive is constantly present in all of these places.
Will we take a breath and step into the aliveness on the unknown path, or will be choose the “safe” and deeply rutted route? There is a vivid dream that I had several years ago now that pointed me in the right direction and that I draw upon even now when I forget – which is often.
In this dream I am attempting to get to a destination of “higher learning” and many are on the path in front and in back of me. I reach the cliff ledge and see in the distance the “place” where I wish to get to. My attention is totally focused on “how to get there” thus I am assessing and watching how others before me are making it down the cliff side – including ropes, climbing gear, negotiating narrow and dangerous paths, just jumping with parachute (or without!).
“Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.” ~ Ray Bradbury
As I stand there in indecision I take a breath and turn my head to the left – my feminine side – and see before me a path that gently winds its way to this place that I seek. Ahhh – it has been here inside of me all along!
Now there is choice! An adventure down the dangerous cliff side by finding our own unique way to traverse it is possible, but not the only option. It would be the journey from that ledge of possibility that teaches about life. It is the falling in love with it from a place of trusting, and letting go from within that informs us.
Kerri Lake, in a recent piece entitled “Once You Are On The Freeway, You Can’t Back Up” speaks of a pivotal moment in time when mind became dictator and the voice of the universe, disguised in sheriffs garb, brought her back to her senses. You will find it HERE Thank you to Sherryl Fraunenglass on A Woman’s True Voice, and Kerri Lake for this inspiration!
Sometimes it feels overwhelming to take life full on, yet the alternative is to live imprisoned in a game that doesn’t excite us. Maybe, just maybe, we can fall in love with the journey no matter how dangerous or difficult it may seem, become sacred co-creators of the world, move forward in spite of our fears and doubts, and immerse ourselves in the gravity of love.
WildlyFreeWoman 