....ignite your fire

I have been invited to participate in a telecast viewing of a seminar/workshop.  It's called Ignite Your Fire.  The facilitator is Margaret Lynch. 

She is a personal development coach who uses the

 Emotional Freedom Technique..

EFT, a modality I was introduced to by Bettina Fleming 

who uses it in her ministry at 

The Positive Living Center in Oakhurst. 

The workshop was about standing in our power.

Men and women.

Knowing what our soul is calling to.....and freeing ourselves from past scripts and pronouncements that aren't our truth, but what we have taken in order to survive the tribe we find ourselves in,

 or were born into when in reality we are not that person at all.

It was about what magnets we are for what we want when we are truly 

awake to our souls desire....

the focus is largely about what magnets we become 

when we step into our power.  

That what we are seeking is also seeking us.

It is about that power we have when we are connected to our souls calling.

 I do believe we are put on this earth to exchange our gifts...

that we all have a purpose.  

Knowing what that is, and owning it is what gives us flight.

The days I have spent with this group of women has been enlightening.

I was inspired by the women and men who were at the live telecast and even more so by the women in the room with me.  

I know I always come back to this.  

The wonder of the women I know.

But I can't help it.

They are moving forward.  

Healing themselves a little at a  time and in leaps... 
and want to share what has worked for them.

I admire them for their energy and commitment to doing their part to make the world a little better in some way.  A little more beautiful.

They are healers, artist, writers, ministers, organizers, and these are their second jobs. 

Some of these women, my sister/friends,  have been through some BIG stuff...

and not only survived it...but come to the other side still believing in humanity.

It's big stuff.

They inspire me.

The workshops theme song...

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. 

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. 

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. 

We ask ourselves, 

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

 Actually, who are you not to be? 

You are a child of God. 

Your playing small does not serve the world. 

There is nothing enlightened

 about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. 

We are all meant to shine, as children do. 

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. 

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

 And as we let our own light shine, 

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. 

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

 

----from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.

....the Crone

"The Crone holds an unspeakable wisdom in the very cells of her body. 

The beauty and the horror of all life are held together in love. 

Being with her.... we begin to see everything from two sides--

the side that is totally in life, 

and the side that is already dwelling in disembodied soul. 

The Crone helps us hold the paradox."

--Marion Woodman--

Borrowed from the blog..

Maiden, Mother, and Crone

http://mxtodis123-maidenmotherandcrone.blogspot.com/

...sex and the misogynists

I am aware there is a war against women's healthcare going on in this country...I'd heard the disrespect with which access to healthcare is joked about by men like Rick Santorum's backer Foster Freisstalking.  I heard him talk about the good old days when he said, ''You know, back in my day, they used Bayer Aspirin for contraception. Then gals put it between their knees, and it wasn't that costly.''

But I had no idea the war had turned so unbelievably slimy until I heard Rush Limbaugh repeatedly attack the charactor of Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who had testified before congress regarding a woman's right to contraceptives as a part of health insurance coverage. She was not asking for the government to pay for contraceptives, she wants employers and universities to offer health insurance that includes contraceptive coverage...

There is a growing movement to deny reproductive healthcare for women of every socioeconomic group even though access to birth control has a huge impact on state governments. A study by the Brookings Institute shows that every dollar Medcaid spends on expanding family planning programs save a a state $5.62 by reducing unintended pregnancies.   But nowhere in Flukes testimony did she discuss anything personal or even contraceptives for limiting unwanted pregnancies.....
She limited her testimony to contraceptives that are prescribed for things like excessive bleeding, debilitating cramps, cysts, irregular periods, etc..

Limbaugh..."So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal," he said. "If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch." 

Rush Limbaugh has a history of making misogynist remarks but I was still stunned when I watched and heard the 50 plus times he attacks Sandra Fluke.. It appears that today there are still many people who believe a woman who wants access to affordable reproductive care is a slut, a prostitute...that she wants to have.. "repeated, never-ending, as often as she wants it sex." That she is a slut for having sex, and a prostitute for wanting her insurance company to provide coverage for her birth control...

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was arrested not long after she opened the first birth control clinic 100 years ago...When the judge sentenced her he said that a woman did not have..''the right to copulate with a feeling of security that there will be no resulting conception.''  It seems that in we haven't come very far, when women are still being vilified for asking for the freedom to be in control of there own bodies.

Limbaugh..."What does it say about the college co-ed Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says she must be paid to have sex?" Limbaugh asked on his show last Wednesday. "What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex, she can't afford the contraception. 
She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex."

Limbaugh.....''Folks, for all the hilarity that’s contained in what’s going on here . . .
here’s a woman exercising no self-control. 
The fact that she wants to have repeated, never-ending, as often as she wants it sex''

Rush's ugliness

http://youtu.be/q1oOjKQflN0

No matter where you fall on the issue his rabid attack on her is stunning...
jaw dropping...
not only because he obviously never listened to her testimony, 
but it seems his rage is caused by idea of a woman having consensual sex..
Might it be something he's never experienced?
These kind of attacks are about silencing women...
Who will want to speak up for women next...who dare?

Sandra Flukes response

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/sandra-fluke-interview-view-discusses-rush-limbaugh-apology-15850518

49% of large group health plans do not routinely cover birth control

97% of large group plans cover prescription drugs, but only 33% of those plans cover oral contraceptives, which are the most popular method of reversible female birth control in the country

A paltry 15% of large group plans cover the five most common forms of birth control: oral contraceptives, diaphragms, IUDs, Depo Provera, and Norplant

Women age 15-44 pay 68% more for out-of-pocket healthcare costs than their male counterparts, largely due to the cost of reproductive healthcare

\

....a man??

A real woman always keeps her house clean and organized, 

the laundry basket is always empty.

 She's always well dressed, hair done. 

She never swears, and behaves gracefully in all situations and all circumstances. 

She has more than enough patience to take care of her family, 

always has a smile on her lips, and a kind word for everyone.

Post this as your status if you too, 

have just realized that you might be a man....

from  FB

....woman worship

A friend sent this to me...and I think it's an idea whose time is way overdue....the paragraph that starts with, "I'm not a big believer..." really resonates with me....loving is not a willed thing....I believe opening to my core comes in stages...and with the trust and belief that doing so will be honored...

Why it is Wise to Worship a Woman.....by Arjuna Ardagh...

A few days ago, after a particularly exquisite evening with my wife Chameli, I put this post up on Facebook before going to bed:  

"I have had many, many great teachers in my life. A super abundance. No one and nothing comes close to the woman who is now asleep in the bedroom. My marriage has become the guru, the salvation, the muse, the crack through which the divine shines through."

Many many years ago, I went to Bali for a vacation, on my own. I met up with some other young travelers there and we hired a Jeep to take us on a tour of the island. We drove up right to the highest point of the island, where Tourists don't usually go. Our guide took us to one of the most sacred temples. It was surrounded by a big brick wall with an ornate entrance. After removing our shoes and wrapping scarves around our heads, we stepped together through this entrance. Inside, there was a short courtyard and then another brick wall with another entrance. After more preparations of lighting incense and giving offerings, we stepped through the second entrance. We were allowed to go through the opening in one more wall, but that was it. All together there were ten walls around the deity in the middle. Hindus could go beyond the fourth wall. Devotees of that particular deity could go beyond the fifth wall, and so it went on. The only people allowed to approach the deity directly were those who had given their lives completely and totally to its worship. Everyone else could come a little closer, a little closer, to the innermost beauty, but not all the way to the center.

I'm not a big believer of the worship of statues, but there's a beautiful symbolism to what I saw there, because a woman's heart is just like that. At the essence of every woman's heart is the divine feminine. It contains everything that has ever been beautiful, or lovely, or inspiring, in any woman, anywhere, at any time. The very essence of every woman's heart is the peak of wisdom, the peak of inspiration, the peak of sexual desirability, the peak of soothing, healing love. The peak of everything. But it's protected, for good reason, by a series of concentric walls. To move inwardly from one wall to the next requires that you intensify your capacity to devotion, and as you do so, you are rewarded with Grace. This is not something you can negotiate verbally with a woman. She doesn't even know consciously how to open those gates herself. They are opened magically and invisibly by the keys of worship.

If you stand on the outside of the outermost wall, all you have available to you, like many other unfortunate men, is pornography. For $1.99 a minute, you can see her breasts, maybe her vagina, and you can stimulate yourself in a sad longing for deeper love.

Step through another gate, and she will show you her outer gift-wrapping. She'll look at you with a certain twinkle in her eye. She'll answer your questions coyly. She'll give you just the faintest hint that there is more available.

Step through another gate with your commitment, with your attention, with the small seedlings of devotion, and she'll open her heart to you more. She'll share with you her insecurities, the way that she's been hurt, her deepest longings. Some men will back away at this point. They realize that the price they must pay to go deeper is more than they are willing to give. They start to feel a responsibility. But for those few who step though another gate, they come to discover her loyalty, her willingness to stick with you no matter what, her willingness to raise your children, stick up for you in conversation, and, if you are lucky, even pick up your dirty socks now and then. And so it goes on. You've got the gist by now.

Somewhere around the second wall from the center, she casts the veils of her personality aside, and shows you that she is both a human being and also a portal into something much greater than that. She shows you a wrath that is not hers, but all women's. She shows you a patience that is also universal. She shows you her wisdom. At this point you start to experience the archetypes of women, who have been portrayed as goddesses and mythological figures in every tradition.

Then, at the very center, in the innermost temple itself, all the layers of your devotion are flooded with reward all at once. You discover the very essence of the feminine, and in a strange way that is not exactly romantic, but profoundly sacred all the same, you realize that you could have got here with any woman if you had just been willing to pass through all the layers of initiation. Any woman is every woman, and every woman is any woman at the same time. When you love a woman completely, at the very essence of her being, this is the one divine feminine flame. It is what has made every woman in history beautiful. It's the flame behind the Mona Lisa, and Dante's Beatrice, and yes, also Penelope Cruz and Heidi Klum. You discover the magic ingredient which has lead every man to fall in love with a woman.

When you learn how to pay attention to the essence of the feminine in this way, you fall to the floor in full body prostration, tears soaking your cheeks and clothes, and you wonder how you could have ever taken Her, in all of Her forms, for granted even for a second.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arjuna-ardagh/goddess-worship_b_660896.html

....mothers, daughters, friends

This is the cover of a little journal Daughter #2 presented to me about two years ago...In side she had written this...
""My Dear Mommy (she calls me mommy when she is happy with me....if not, I am mother)
Please answer these questions for me in this book. I want to have a collection of information about you...your experiences, your thoughts, and your hopes. It means so much to me."
She didn't even have to say please...the fact that she was interested in my experiences, thoughts and hopes meant a lot to me.

Her questions were thoughtful...

Can you think of three days that stand out in you life as exceptionally happy? I

If you, with the wisdom you have now, could talk to ourself at my age, what advice would you give?

Do you remember the first boy who you cried about because you loved him? who/when

Could you sense my specific soul or personality while I was in your womb?

When did you learn that being creative wasthe road to joy?
There were 13 questions.
It took me almost a year to answer them....to give them the attention they deserved....
Not too long ago she gave it back to me...this is part of what she wrote...
"Reading you answers was one of the most touching, beautiful, and significant experiences of my life... I love that you think in ways that our so creative. You are a big INSPIRATION to me!"

And she has asked 8 more questions..She want's to know more!! It makes my heart sing.

I've been thinking about the importance sacred circles play in the lives of women who are lucky enough to belong to one. In circles we can we can share our stories. Women know so much, experience so much...we have knowledge, wisdom...we are bursting with juicy creativity..let's gather and share, the world needs more feminine energy..
let's grow it together.
When women wake, mountains move..

Imagine a Woman

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.

A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.
A woman who listens to her needs and desires.
Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past’s influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.
A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.
Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.

Imagine a woman who names her own gods.
A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.
Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.
A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.
Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honors the body of the Goddess in her changing body.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

“Imagine a Woman” © Patricia Lynn Reilly, 1995
www.imagineAwoman.com

The poem is copyrighted and may not be used without permission.

....in my email

It's funny how things work....the research for the post I did yesterday left me jangled, sad, and worried about woman's place in the world...I was going to let go of the story for a bit...but as things often happen...the syncronicity of things...I found this was in my email this morning. It's a simple click to maybe, just maybe, make a difference. Click here to sign the petition...here
hug, hug

...women

Crone, by Ellen Carnese

Isn’t this a beautiful face…? I love it. She talks to me and tells me woman stories. I love women. I happen to think we are amazing. I celebrate women in my art.......and I need to blog about this...

There is femicide taking place in the Congo.


I listen to Free Speech Radio. One of the programs I listen to is Living Room, a daily program about politics, society and culture. Eve Ensler, advocate to stop violence against women and the author of the Vagina Monologues, was a guest last week. She is touring, talking about her new monologue about teenage girls called, I Am An Emotional Creature... and about what is happening to women and girls in the Congo.



I've known about this horrific story for too long. I don't want to know about it....but I listened... you can too)......and I was brought to my knees. She has been there, talked to the victims, it is hard to listen...if you do I believe it's just a few minutes into the broadcast.



There is a war taking place over minerals and the mass rape of women and girls is now a common tactic of war....There is a new word in our vocabulary...'reraped'...these children and women are not just raped, but mass raped, tortured, their insides destroyed. There are over 1000 rapes reported each month...and many, many more that aren't reported....500 thousand or more rapes in an area only twice the size of New York state since the beginning of this war.




We know that women and children, the collateral damage in war torn countries suffer tremendous hardships and crimes against humanity....but by all accounts the Democratic Republic of the Congo is hell.


I know a lot of people don't want to get involved in other countries stuff, their politics...but this isn't about politic. This is about human rights and Unspeakable things are happening there...maybe that is why there is no world outcry...no coverage....no outrage...we don't want to speak of it, it's overwhelming.. Or is it that the world just doesn't care?
Is this racism, colonialism?
What is going on?


So I come to you dear readers...not to bum you out, but in the hopes that you will listen, watch, and read information about the Democratic Republic of Congo...our sisters around the world and our daughters here, need us to speak out...I believe we must bear witness...we must speak....what we allow to happen to one of us, can happen to any one of us. We know what happens when something becomes commonplace, the norm...we know it spreads...the world becomes immune, desensitized..are we already there?. And in our countries, where violence against women and children hasn't gone away, we can't afford not to speak out.



World Leaders and Our President, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, must take action...this femicide is spreading to other countries and will continue to spread if he does not make this an issue. Senator Clinton visited not too long ago and said changes are on the way. Many promises have been made, and much money spent......but the unspeakable goes on.


We can make a difference, we can help.

hug, hug