spilling into grace

A little help?

Hey everyone...

Hi how are you nice to see you...

I've been a little "out of it" for a bit.

Quick update:  fell down a flight of stairs, concussion, aches-pains-awesome bruising, recovering, leaping back into some great, fun projects...

And now that I am on the mend and up and about...  Does anyone know of someone who wants to work part time from now through the end of January?  

If yes, could you shoot them my way?  I need to find someone who can be a great arm of a couple of women who are super busy with lots of tasks.  Let's see...  organized, great at detail work and SUPER fabulous with diverse peoples and organizations.

As we're all great networkers I thought I'd try here first before opening the flood gates to folks I don't know...

Thanks!

~ Peace Out

"Only those who ask for more can get more and only those who know there is more, ask."

~ Mr. Everit's Secret: What I Learned from the World's Richest Man

For the girl in all of us...

Check out Girl Effect:  www.GirlEffect.org.  

Peace Out.

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.  
 Life's a bitch.  You've got to go out and kick ass."

~ Maya Angelou, American Poet

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Forgiveness

I thought this was powerful and wanted to share.

Peace Out.

"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."
 - Mark Twain

Letting Go

sublimely in the flow

Awareness is a heady feeling isn't it?

The scent of fall is in the air, thanks in part to the burning of autumn on my altar.  The weather is cooler, life is calm and there is beef simmering in the slow cooker for a dinner of beef and noodles later in the evening.

And perhaps if I'm feeling bake-y this afternoon, there will be a pan of brownies to join them.

I have a new pair of shoes (two in fact) and even bought myself a small gift while I was at it.  I'm excited that at some point UPS will show up one day and I'll have something (actually two somethings) that reminds me of this good space.

There is something about acknowledging "right now" that lends me a deeper understanding of being in the flow.  It's been a lovely stroll these past few days after a fairly emotional, challenging week.

I had horrific news of my best friend who has always been a big brother to me.  He is still dealing with the ramifications of his situation and I can only take a sidelines seat and be supportive.

And my sister had surgery - a complete hysterectomy.  During her surgery she had a bleeder, so what should have taken only a few hours, actually took five.  She's doing well and is at home, safe and comfy.

Of course, all of this is happening 2500 miles away from me.  That is both a blessing and a challenge.

As for today, I am mindful of how blessed I am and incredibly grateful for the love that surrounds me.

Hope this finds you the same.

~ Peace Out.

"Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow."

~ Sun Tzu 

"My research has shown me that when emotions are expressed--which is to say that the biochemicals that are the substrate of emotion are flowing freely--all systems are united and made whole. When emotions are repressed, denied, not allowed to be whatever they may be, our network pathways get blocked, stopping the flow of the vital feel-good, unifying chemicals that run both our biology and our behavior."

~ Dr. Candace B. Pert

"Affluence = abundant flow."

~ Eric Butterworth, Spiritual Economics

This just in - women CAN vote

Happy 19th Amendment Day!  You didn't really think I'd let it slide now did you?

Have you seen the movie Iron Jawed Angels (with Hillary Swank)?  It's worth the view if you have the time.  It showcases the relationships of the women who stepped up the women's suffrage movement, who were jailed and force fed, and ultimately won the right to vote.

You have to admire their tactics -- this from About.com:

"Opposed by a well-organized and well-funded anti-suffrage movement which argued that most women really didn't want the vote, and they were probably not qualified to exercise it anyway, women also used humor as a tactic. In 1915, writer Alice Duer Miller wrote,

Why We Don't Want Men to Vote

• Because man's place is in the army.
• Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
• Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
• Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
• Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government."

Some statistics that make you go hhmmm...

As of 2006 there are roughly 152 million women in the U.S. (as opposed to 148 million men).

65% of those women voted in the 2004 election (as opposed to 62% of the men who voted).

Of combined men and women who vote, they are split almost equally between the two major parties.

17% of congress are women.  There are only 7 female governors (with the resignation of Sarah Palin).

I did mention that there are currently more women than men in the US and we rank something like 66th in the world in terms of percentages of women in office, yes?

We have a long way to go in terms of equality, women's pay and owning that we can make a difference in our world if we put aside our differences.

Thanks to the women who set the curve then AND now.  Today - thank a woman who inspires you and remember that you make the difference in our world.

~ Peace Out

Alice Paul Quotes:

"I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."

"There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it."

"I always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end."

overwhelm

i've had to get to the bottom of this overwhelm thing that keeps plaguing me to death.  too much stuff across the board.  my "yeses" these days are habitual instead of intentional.

i have a lot of people in my life who do really great things in the world.  that doesn't follow that i need to be part of it all.  

taking stock of the things that no longer affect me positively has been a real eye opener, as are the reasons for my choices in the first place.

living my life fully does not come with the tag line of "for other people."

the concept of "me first" has been an intriguing one to me of late.  it's true that i'm a "shero," which much to my disappointment has never come with a clever name or a cape.  my thinking has always been that i have more than enough to give, and if i can make a difference then i say yes.

that policy, however, has usually not extended itself to me.  

notice that past tense there?  yeah - i'm writing an addendum to the policy that covers my own needs, wants and wishes...first.

and possibly the commission of a very cool cape...

what's in your personal policy manual?

~ peace out

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.  Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is, to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer. 

 ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

the state of my being: complete

"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, Rejoice, for your soul is alive."

- Eleanora Duse

Athlete Semenya's family brush off gender controversy - Yahoo! News

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – South Africa's new 800-metre world champion Caster Semenya was declared a "golden girl" by local press Thursday, with the athlete's family shrugging off questions about the runner's gender.

via news.yahoo.com

Seriously? Really? This is what we're doing to one another in the world?

“We need not just a new generation of leadership but a new gender of leadership.”
- Bill Clinton, 42nd President, United States

God is Watching?

People keep coming to our door with Bibles.  

At first I was thinking that it was a random thing.  It even happened to the LOML once when I was out of town.  He was kind enough to chat with them and somehow it all ended nicely.  That never happens for me. 

Last month a guy came to the door as we were on the way to the hospital - but how often do you get to use that excuse not to talk to someone and if you do use it and you aren't really on the way to the hospital I think that takes away karma points, yes?

Anyway.  He seemed nice enough and his Bible was average size and promised to pray for all of us.

Excellent.  We could use it.

Then about a week later, two people showed up on the doorstep and each of them had small Bibles.  I don't know why in my head I think that the size or number of Bibles is important to this story... it's kind of like a story problem where at each stop people get on and off the train to different places and it turns out you don't need to know the numbers that you've been tracking, you have to know the eye color of the conductor's dog...

But I digress.

After putting Mrs. Shmeggman in a room so she will stop trying to make people deaf by barking, I run down the stairs and open the door to two women and two big Bibles who want to chat.  I am not really what you'd call "chatty" on a good day and this wasn't one of them.  I politely told them that I appreciated their drop by (total lie) and wished them a good day.

But oh wait, they wanted to know if I've read the Bible.  

No offense intended, but Goddess Help Me.  If I say yes am I going to get quizzed, if I say no and lie is that double karma points off for the second lie in about a minute?  I slowly nodded my head yes I'd thumbed through it a time or two.

And was I familiar with...  blah blah blah.

Let me clarify that I am usually open to a good conversation about spirituality and religion but not one where "yours is better than mine" or "my God is bigger than your God."  

I almost gnawed my arm off to get them off of the porch.  They, too, are praying for us.

Then a week later there were the two nice young Mormon boys who dropped by and I have no idea what they said as the LOML was being funny by telling me that they asked for me by name.  Yeah, right.

I don't know if they're praying for us.  He didn't ever tell me.  I'll assume so as we seem to need a lot of prayer. 

And then a few days ago, FOUR people showed up at my door.  Two women in dresses and two men in suits - each with a Bible.  I'm wondering at this point if God is responding to people who are praying for us, sending reinforcements?  I dunno.  She's got a great sense of humor, but mine is slowly waning.

I couldn't bring myself to answer the door.  But they were nice enough to park outside of the house and drop by again before they got into their car.

I have been trying to get to the bottom of figuring out why I don't want to open my door. Part of it is that I feel like they're intruding into my day.  But would I feel the same if a girl scout dropped by with mint chocolate cookies?  Well actually - I would.  But as a former girl scout who had to hock her share of crap, I'd open the door, buy some (freeze them because they taste yummier that way) and wish her well.  

I grew up inside of the Christian faith.  (Quick aside, once a neighbor asked me as a youngster if I knew what a presbyterian was and I said it was a woman who sold herself... so funny, even at a young age.)

None of the churches I attended (okay fine, that I was bribed and coerced into attending by my mother) required us to go door to door and share about it.  

Of course I honor and respect those that have chosen that path.  

But if they'd skip our house - I'd be grateful. 

~ Peace Out

Small, teeny tiny print:  For many, many years now, I've embraced my own spirituality and the expression of it outside of the Christian faith.  That does not mean, however, that my experiences as a Christian were any less profound to me nor were the miracles/prayers answered that happened wiped off the slate as I learned to understand "Creator" in my own voice. This blog was just sharing experiences as I hang out on the planet...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama...  "We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection."

French pool bars Muslim woman for 'burquini' suit - Yahoo! News

Nonetheless the woman, a 35-year-old convert to Islam identified only as Carole, complained of religious discrimination after trying to go swimming in a "burquini," a full-body swimsuit, in the town of Emerainville, southeast of Paris.

via news.yahoo.com

I find this article interesting for oh so many reasons...

"My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it's very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do." 
-- Ani DiFranco