Article 1 – Women’s March, a female perspective

Women can be together without persecution being triggered so strongly. Now we can really do something.

I had a dream with my mother in it. She was a young woman, likely in her 20’s. Wearing lipstick in a shade that I’m currently wearing, salmon like. With horned rim glasses, and a smart black suit and white shirt, her hair slightly darker than the auburn of her pictures. She was sitting on a bus. So reminiscent of one of the women in the movie Hidden Figures. My mother was a bookkeeper and when I saw the movie there was a gentle reminder of her energy.

In the dream she was happy. This was the real standout. It took me 2 days to realize the power I was feeling from this dream. It was more like a visitation. Just a day after the women’s march, I had to take note. She was happy. Wearing her dreams on her beautiful face, this version of her was full of the potential of her becoming.

My mother’s mother worked in the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. Her mantra to my mother was women were to be seen and not heard, passed on to her no doubt. My mother would mention it to me, not as a suggestion, but sharing with me what she had been told. My grandmother didn’t care for women, and my mother had an easier time with men too. I as well, in my 20’s was more welcomed into the life of my husbands band, than the circle of women surrounding it who threw shade my way.

My mother, Bette, faithfully raised her brother, as my grandmother, Lola, worked the swing shift at the mill. My uncle Terry never receiving anything less than an A+, breezed through Old Miss college, being their most outstanding student – the Woods society of excellence created in his honor, was a Rhode Scholar, then worked in D.C. as a nuclear engineer. Unfortunately he dropped dead of a cerebral hemorrhage on the squash court in the pentagon gym at age 28. (my mother was convinced he was killed by the government) My mother was 9 months pregnant with me at the time. Unable to attend his funeral, at Arlington Cemetery, my grandmother shunned my mother and consequently me as well. Telling her that she no longer mattered.

I came into this life fiercely defending her. I would fight her battles. My dad wasn’t a tyrant, but had a way of teasing her, and sometimes put her down. It was cloaked with sweetness though, as they were a loving couple. He was frustrated that she kept so much to herself, he’d try to bring her out.

Back on the bus. I had never seen this version of my mother. Beaming with the dreams she had of becoming a lawyer. There was a freedom around her. She seemed to be letting me know how far reaching the events from the 21st of January really are.

Women want to unite. Sisterhood is natural. The incorrect position women have had with other women, has been forced by the patriarchy. It’s gained much by keeping women apart. No more.

This collective energy is not only giving permission for all people to speak up now, but encouraging it.

To be heard

This uniting spirit is creating a safety net for expression. Or at least a fuck it- what do we have to lose. Persecution is finding healing. Women can be together without that being triggered as strongly. Now we can really do something.

My mother used to say to my sister and I that we were so powerful. Well, she was no sissy, she just never felt safe.

Power Journal is ready for you

Journal with Purpose

I’ve been writing journals since I was about 9. That’s quite a few hundred journals in my lifetime. I have to. To put words on paper, get things out, get to the root, and finally when an aha occurs I want to remember it.

This week, 3 different stories came to me. 1st was an interview with Ne -Yo, songwriter and producer. He had a lot of pent up aggravation as a kid after his father left, and his mom gave him pen and paper and said write it down.  The journals he began to write became the seed ground for his songs.

Here, part of a post from Humans in New York, “I was the youngest person in prison, so I withdrew into myself, and I started writing in a journal every single day. That journal became my world. I used it to figure things out, and one of the first things I realized was that I’d stopped being me. It wasn’t so much the crime that had landed me in prison. It was that I had decided to stop being me.”  Part of a powerful thread of stories from a neighborhood in Brooklyn that’s a hard place to get ahead. You may be following the miraculous story that is unfolding there starting with a young man, Vidal. It’s the greatest human story of the moment being broadcast.

I spoke to a friend the other day, we hadn’t talked in so many years. As we shared where we’ve been, we met in the NYC when she came to see my apartment as I was looking for a housemate at the time, she’s now out west and I’m in Asheville, we both referenced looking back at our journals and seeing how we had referenced things that we had forgotten and how some were playing out. I read something from 2004. These were entries I wrote while doing a play in Woodstock. I was so happy and wrote about how free and creative I felt. How someone had seen the play and wanted me for other plays and that he’d help me get my equity card. I had forgotten about that. And THEN amidst the journaling, I wrote go to Mt Mitchell, in Asheville NC, highest point east of the Mississippi. Planted the seed. I did visit Mt Mitchell last year. I went because a friend recommended it. I had no idea that I had it on my bucket list.

We are always creating. Always. Every thought, every word, every sensation. We are receiving and sending signals constantly. To have a place to write in that stream of consciousness way, with structure and support strengthens us at our core. It’s powerful.

Co-create consciously. The Power Journal.

Any journal story you want to share?

2015.. an 8 year!

The powerful 8 year is here, and January 1st is a one day. How cool. It’s actually a 10 day, the Wheel of Fortune. What auspicious numbers to start the year. Be prepared for opportunity. Center and get ready set go!

An 8 year will have us in a balancing act collectively. There will be a lot that will come together, and it will likely be fast and fierce. As a group, if we can come together and make adjustments in the moment when things occur before things get lost and we get distracted, we will swiftly move forward. A good thing to remember is to communicate directly and with lightning speed. Don’t get mired in minutiae, and keep things balanced. Act boldly and powerfully. Remember Ben Franklin, who warned about the danger of procrastinating. He’s a great example for this year. Check out his advice.

When pursuing leads nowhere..Part two of the Divine Feminine

Taken from Osho’s October newsletter on women:

Recently, Satya Nadella, the new Microsoft CEO, created a storm among working women with his casual statement at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: “It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raises as you go along.…”

There was uproar among women in the Microsoft Corporation, who are paid overall 78% of what equally qualified men received, and all over the U.S. there were many comments and tweets condemning Nadella’s chauvinistic attitude. This remark in TIME magazine represents the bitterness of all women regarding the gender bias: “Smile pretty and don’t be so unbecoming as to ask for a salary bump. After all, a raise is a lot like a male suitor, and if you pursue it, you might just drive it away.”

When I read this, I had been writing about the divine feminine. I don’t know if a statement has ever felt so nauseating. I don’t feel it’s in the nature of women to pursue. It’s unnatural, and demonstrative of how completely out of whack it all is. It did propel me to look at where I’ve been in this kind of pursuit.  It just makes me shake my head. I can see the pursuit in my own family.

This fall I went to an art studio of a very established older male painter. My friend had worked with him, and she thought that maybe they needed more help on the sales floor and that I may be a good fit there. I went in and I walked through the gallery attempting to take in his work. I finally rounded a corner where only a few paintings were on the wall and there I sat. I began to experience a power in the work. I watched a video about his process. All very inspiring. I then was approached by the head coordinator, a female, and she and I connected beautifully. We walked out toward the painting studio where I met the artist, and something very surprising happened. I started to shift. It was so quick, almost imperceptible. The meeting place of our two energies, took me directly to a role of myself that I knew very well, that I suppose I used as a woman.  But I was watching it. This hadn’t happened in so long. I got such a read on how he was with women, and an even more important read how I had a deep pattern, a created character like Marilyn Monroe, to directly give this guy energy, give him what he wanted. To me this is the pursuit.

My parents were born in the early 20’s, and were very non traditional. I was in constant debate with my father growing up. We challenged each other. I felt completely safe in doing so. Now my mother used to hear from her mother that women were to be seen and not heard. I am one person removed from this attitude.

All I can really say is it is an interesting time to be female. To be anything for that matter. We are busting through stereotypes as fast as we can.  Shedding skins, breathing into personal freedom, longing to be true. I respect the giants of Feminism. I am doing my best to stare this cosmic joke right in the face.  It is deeper than any of us can truly comprehend. To have to defend women on any level is beyond ludicrous. Onward.

The Last Boomers 1961-1964

The last of the baby boomers turn 50 this month. I have always been fascinated by the generation I was born into, and never knew what it was called, if indeed it was part of the boomers. I am inspired to write about us after reading an article by P.J. O’Rourke. He finds us a bit mysterious, that our part remains quietly obscure. We have seen a lot, and are not sure about commitment. We came of age when deregulation began, and divorce more common- many of us didn’t have kids. We are often living contradictions, not easily impressed, with an inherent sense of rebellion as well as spirituality.

Reincarnated Monks

I met and hung out with a Tibetan monk in the 90’s in the East Village. I adored this little guy yet don’t remember his name. We used to bop around and I was invited to meditation gatherings at his apartment just a few blocks up from mine. He told me that many born between 1961 and 1964 in the States are reincarnated monks. That felt accurate. For myself, and many friends born around the same time. These brilliant seekers kinda in the world who carry a deep longing for something that they themselves aren’t even sure about. Fellow last boomer David Fincher has directed some of the best movies in observation of the illusion of life. The Game, Fight Club, Benjamin Button, and even House of Cards. At least he’s out there with his work. It’s time for the rest of us to come out of hiding.

Some signs of the Last Boomers:

We’ve seen loss, know that nothing is stable, get the illusion better than most, are spiritual without denomination, don’t like to be labeled or pigeon-holed, better yet don’t want to be pressed to commit- we need exit strategies, maybe even those with kids still have a deep desire to be free, have held back, would prefer to live in a monastery but don’t, are watchful, extremely creative, full of wisdom, and have always been looking for the perfect place to live- a Shangri-la.

My siblings are part of the early boomer phase. Many have seemed to be more cause orientated.

Their platform has always seemed more clear, and I along for the ride. On the way to a hiking trail I was with my brother and his friend of the same age, both earlier boomers, while I in the backseat took in their conversation as they spoke of  climate change on the planet and wanting to be off the grid. Although I strongly related to what they were talking about and want to do just that, I feel an almost required duty to be in the world and relevant. Here’s a picture of my brother and his friend as we walked on the Appalachian Trail. The two of them met in Nepal years ago.

Here’s to the boomers!