My life would have been different

Judith Duerk writes in her book, Circle of Stones; a Woman's Journey to Herself, "Long ago before the patriarchal period, in many places on earth, the Goddess was worshiped." Wow, I am intrigued by this concept. I wonder what life might have been like back then and I especially wonder what MY life would have been like.

She writes more to intrigue me further. And I notice I yearn for a circle of wise nurturing women in my own life.

"How might your life have been different, if, long ago when you were still a tiny child, long before you began to come to the Women's Lodge as the normal cycle of your life, you had been brought here especially by your mother and aunts...and you and your girl cousin entered shyly into this place you had overheard so much about?

And, after the fires were lighted, and the drumming, and the silence, you heard, for the very first time what the women called the Naming...each woman speaking slowly into the stillness, sharing her feeling of how she saw her life and what she wished to say of it...sharing it with the women around her...weaving the threads of her life into a fabric to be given and named.

And, as the shadows of the day lengthened into dusk and you leaned your head against your mother's shoulder, you pondered in your heart a different sense of a woman's life...

How might your life be different?"

What to do about the Economic Crises

This morning I woke up and thought before I started the day being busy, doing errands, and running around like a crazy woman getting ready for the holidays, I would spend a luxurious hour immersing myself in the question, “What do I really think is next for me on my personal journey?” “What do I want to do with myself that will make a deeper more meaningful difference in my life and the lives of others I touch?”

You know when you finally decide to buy a hybrid car, like a Prius, every car on the road seems to be one? Well, everywhere I turn there are women and men too trying to answer the question, “What can I do with my one precious life that will make me feel fulfilled and help others? What am I dreaming about and yearning for that I have not yet done? And if not now, when?”

All is going relatively well in my life at the moment, and yet recently I notice again an undercurrent of restlessness. I think my restlessness is fueled by the financial crises and economic chaos we find ourselves in no matter where we live in the world. I feel we must make some changes to the way we are running our businesses and living our lives in order to sort things out and create a new sustainable way of living on this planet. And I think even my small individual attempts to help in this time of huge world transition will be welcomed. I believe we each can make a difference, even if we don’t yet know what difference that will be. I believe that the way to make this difference where we could change the world and impact the lives of others is to do it with our gifts, our sparkle, our unique touch that we’ve had our whole lives; you know the essence of who we are.

So let’s start simply and ask ourselves two questions:
“What’s your gift?”
“What are one or two things I can do this week to use my gift to help others?”

So what are you waiting for?