I came across this video yesterday and wanted to pass it on today to all women as it is a fun way to celebrate all that it is to be a woman, not just a mother! Catchy tune that I immediately started to sing and dance to!!
So many strengths in being a woman! If we will daily remember our worth, act out of that embodied space, and remind each other of our strengths….the world would shift in a moment!
As adult women we sometimes realize in open, aware, and quiet moments that we have come far away from our Source – that remembering and living of the magnificent, loving, confident, wise, knowing, connected, and creative beings that we are.
When my 3 year old granddaughter Sorenna told her mother, “Mommy, there is a baby in there!” and her mother said “no honey there isn’t” having no idea that she was pregnant, Sorenna was coming from an innate knowing……a sense of the sacred energy of creation felt by those that are consciously connected and not distracted by the stimulus that daily pulls us away from our Source.
In fact, upon Sorenna’s insistence, her mother decided to get a pregnancy test, and guess what? Yes, I will have a grandson in September, Sophia will be a mother again, Sorenna will have a brother, and my son will have his long awaited son.
Just today I watched a video (which is below) of one of the wise ones still connected to what is important in life. I don’t know how old Sadie is, but I do feel that each of us should take what she says (and is!) to heart!
In addition, I have added a short video, put out by theAwesome Women Hub of women who are sharing what they feel the world needs next. This could be you or me on this video…and I do believe that Sadie and Sorenna have a place there as well.
Remember who you are….live it daily…..and remind each other!!
Sadie tells us “Believe In Yourself”!
Awesome Women Hub Asks Women What The World Needs NEXT
Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the Creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The Creator and the creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing — until there is only … the dance. ~Michael Jackson
I was rather amazed by this quote by Michael Jackson. Amazed because it captures so perfectly what dance and movement is to me in my life….and which I definitely do not do enough of !
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to wake up and dance into the beginning of your day, even for just a few minutes? We often forget in our very complex, over stimulated, busy lives that there is a simple remedy to remind us of these magnificent bodies that we inhabit. Not only a reminder, but a “wake up call” to breathe deeply and to move in a way that brings us back home to the moment – to our aliveness!
“17 seconds of focused pleasurable visualization is stronger than 2000 hours of working to obtain a goal.” – Esther Hicks
What if you combine words, breath, and visualization with movement to start your day? What if you shimmied into that beautiful body of yours (it is the only one you will ever have!) and felt that feminine power express and energize. Wonder what the day would be like starting out that way??
Sometime this week I invite you to start your day with your favorite music and dance your way into your day….or, try out Tonya Freeman’s Shift to Bliss: Dancing Meditations and Visualizations. By clicking on this link you can listen to some of her tracks and see if they fit for this earthy morning ritual.
“In ancient times, woman as Priestess, as Goddess, danced the Sacred Dance in the beauty of her nakedness. She danced in the temples, on the hills, in the valley, by the ocean, in caves and in the desert. The Sacred Dancer connected herself to the entire universe. She was one with all things. The dance was not only a way of telling the story of life it was a celebration of life itself. Uni-Verse. One Song. The Song of Love. Women knew the magic and the healing power of the Sacred Dance. They knew that by dancing together and for one another that they were doing the work of the Great Mother Goddess. They enjoyed a direct connection to the Divine Femi9 Energy. “
– Diva Mama Tonya
I say, we don’t dance and move enough from our sense-filled- self in our Western culture. It is about time we started to – daily!!
The Dance does live on…… and is a creation from our own uniqueness and creativity – a prayer for the day. Shake it up, clear it out, strut your stuff, and…..get to movin sistah!
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!
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”!
“…why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. ~ J.K. Rowling
Having spent some time this weekend in Portland participating in the ritual of sharing 2011 vision boards with two beautiful women friends, I realized that although I feel like I am on the inside of a cannon about ready to explode in a completely new direction –
Gaye's 2011 Vision Board
that it is the contribution I have to bring in this new direction, place, and creation of relationship that matters most.
As women we often feel that we need to “make a difference” in the world, in our families, in our communities, in our relationships – it goes on and on. However, might we try on how it feels inside to compare “make a difference” to “make a contribution”. For me, there is a edge to “make a difference” that is somehow filled with the expectation that we have to do something, and the need to make certain “that something” hits the target that we are aiming at. It also somehow feels attached to attempting to gain favor or recognition for something – that may or may not be our natural authentic expression. Feel a little pressure here?
Now there is nothing wrong with challenging ourselves, but how does it feel to simply “contribute” from the still (and sometimes very loud) voice inside that asks you to follow your heart and soul. To bring that unique expression that is only yours out into the world. There is a flow that happens when we reach this place….and a knowing that even if we “fail” in bringing or manifesting our contribution out into the world, that at least we have taken our divine and true nature and given it a voice and a form from which to express.
As J.K. Rowling says in the above quote, when we stop pretending to be other than what and who we are, then we have the energy, passion and commitment to direct into the livelihood/artistic expression/relationships that matters most to us. We set ourselves free when we contribute from this place of being….and it is here that we thrive.
There are two videos this week that I want to share with you. The first is of an amazing woman by the name of Jeanne Dowell who is a first-time entrepreneur at the age of 80! Merging her long-time experience as a yoga teacher, Jeanne, along with her 44 year old daughter, launches a new eco-friendly apparel business – The Green Buddha company. Jeanne teaches us that it is never too late to contribute and that often, just naturally, that contribution does “make a difference”.
The Green Buddha-oomphtv.com
The second video is at the other end of the age spectrum and features an incredibly courageous, articulate, wise, intelligent and beautiful young woman giving a keynote talk on Martin Luther King Day in her high school auditorium. Kayla’s contribution is saying YES to her fullest self – even when that may present challenges that she might not know how to handle. Staying silent however, is not an option for this young woman….and her entire school learns a deep and valuable lesson about being authentic, even when it is terrifying and filled with the unknown.
Maria Carillo Highschool, Santa Rosa, California – Kayla comes out.
May we yield to the Divine nature that we are and trust in the direction that it leads us.
You will find Dewitt Jones on my other blog post this week since he, and what he has created in his life – and continues to expand into – has made such a great impact for me. The title of this blog post is actually a quote from him from his recent interview done with Sheila Finkelstein of Picture To Ponder.
In that interview he said, “taking time to fill your cup every day is an act of creative selfishness.” If we can see our creativity as a way to “fall in love with our world” instead of something that other people are judging, then we are well on our way to being authentic in our expression.
That shift in consciousness around our very individual and unique contribution to the world – whatever it is – can not only enliven us, but has the potential to enhance life for other living things as well.
We are connected to something way larger than we are. The energy of passion drives everything and there is something to celebrate in each day. Our life is our art!
Listen to WHO by Gypsy Soul below, an incredible group from Ashland, Oregon. We are the sum of the choices we make!
This single is the stridently independent Gypsy Soul playing in Seattle’s Triple Door Theatre – part of their Live DVD
“But if you are gonna fail, fail for who you are rather than failing while trying to be good at what other artists and writers have been good at. Fail looking for the truth rather than because you tried to avoid it. Recognize your beauty, submerge yourself in it, and create out of it.”
Archibald Campbell, Wild Artist, Heron Dance www.herondance.org
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