INDEPENDENCE http://ezezine.com Wild Woman Network Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 2 July 15, 2005 E-mail: wwn@wildwomannetwork.com =========================================== INDEPENDENCE July 4th is a celebration of independence in the United States. Besides the cookouts, and holiday shopping we paused to remember the privileges freedom brings. But what does it mean? What are we free to do? First of all, I am free to sit comfortably in the home of my choosing. I can write what I want, mostly. I don't have much money but I am better off then most of the other people on this planet. Our independence gives us advantages and responsibilities. On the 4th I walked a couple of blocks to stand on a street corner to watch the Macy's fireworks with my neighbors. We could see them from our perch on the Queens side of Manhattan. Mothers and fathers were there with kids and grandparents, pets, chairs, sodas and a sense of anticipation. My small neighborhood reflects a great diversity of people. In front of me sat a Hispanic couple with kids in tow. Ahead of them were women with colorful saris who stood with their children. Behind me was a Korean family from my building. I know the fence we were leaning against is on the property owned by a nice Italian family. We learned later in the evening the fence on the garage side had just been painted when his not happy wife yelled at the 15 young children who were hanging precariously off of it. Nonetheless, we were a cornucopia of people, nationalities and languages all watching the fireworks on Independence Day - a movie producer could not have planned itbetter. My neighborhood offers a perfect blending of all the above. Each person maintains his or her individuality and culture. We all reap the benefits by the various stores, restaurants and daily interactions of this mix of people. On a normal day I don't identify people by their nationality but on that day I could see our forefathers were indeed visionary in creating a nation for all people. Let's work hard to keep it that way. =========================================== Quote: It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may too rarefied for us to breathe. Certainly I wouldn't be writing this book, on this subject, if living with freedom were easy. The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the only truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them." Stephen Pressfield. The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. =========================================== Welcome to the second issue of WWN - and a warm welcome to the new WWN subscribers. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas and please let me know what you would like to see in upcoming issues. I am using a new newsletter program and if the newsletter does not come to you in an easy to read format drop me a line at wwn@wildwomannetwork.com. It may take a couple of issues to sort it out. I am lucky that I get to read lots of how-to books on creativity for my bi-monthly column. I have just reread Stephen Pressfield’s book, The War of Art. Currently I am reading Coaching the Artist Within by Eric Maisel. Daily I confront issues around creativity and taking the time to just write. As an example - I had a whole month to work on this newsletter but here it is two days before the due date and I am tapping away at the keyboard with a knot in my tummy because I am rushed and anxious about it. I find satisfaction in reading that other artists suffer (needlessly) too. I am not the most incredible horrible person in the world. Pressfield's book shines the light on the resistance to creating and Maisel gives some good tips on how to create despite the anxiety we all may feel. Creating is messy and we can fail miserably in our creation. I sent a draft of the newsletter to a friend who replied, “There are a number of grammatical errors in it, including some split infinitives. It would take too long for me to point them all out...” Gasp! I went looking for online grammar checkers. Having failed that I have done my best to rejoin my infinitives and hope my text is readable. By the way my friend also said the newsletter was “spunky and informative.” So maybe with a good grammar book and a red pen I will be able to find the errors in my own creations. If you have suggestions for good grammar software programs please let me know. Writing is a craft and I am eager to improve upon it. As independent folks we all have a responsibility to live our lives the best way possible. When we live healthy functioning lives we can better support and serve those around us. What have you wanted to create but have left undone? Think about one unfulfilled dream you have lingering in the back of your mind/drawer/closet/computer files. What holds you back? What steps can you take right now towards fulfilling that dream? =========================================== Wild Interview: Barbara Winter is a Minneapolis-based entrepreneur; writer and speaker who has spent the past 17 years helping people discover their passions and turn them into profitable businesses. She is the author of the best-selling book, Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love (Bantam, 1993), and the publisher of Winning Ways, the newsletter for people living and working with passion. http://www.barbarawinter.con/ I met Barbara many years ago at a daylong seminar. I bought her book Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love and it is now a favorite on my bookshelf. I have not yet taken the leap to full jobless living but figure if I keep talking about it I will do it. Barbara also offers some Wild Woman tips in every issue of WWN. JUMPSTART YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT is a collection of 52 short essays designed to add inspiration to the entrepreneurial life. It's the kind of book you can dip into for a quick pick-up. One reader told me she keeps hers in the bathroom; others say it's on their bedside table. It covers a wide range of subjects and has lots of real life stories and examples. It's aimed at people who are self-employed and just wanting to connect with another kindred spirit. Do you consider your work a vocation or a career? A vocation for sure. But I'm not sure I even think about that word very much. I passionately wanted to live a creative life and be supported in that. I also think entrepreneurs are artists who just happen to use business as their canvas. Why? I think I answered that! What excites you most in life? Watching people in my seminars realize how magnificent they are and how much they have to offer. I also get really excited anytime I get to talk about ideas with other creative folks. And spending time with my business partner Nick Williams is a great blessing. However, these days my ultimate excitement is my granddaughter Zoe who had her first birthday and has made a fabulous contribution to our entire family since her arrival. What dreams would you still like to fulfill? I'd like to wake up in a peaceful world where everyone is excited and happy to get out of bed and spend their day working at their personal right livelihood. My own life has been a fulfillment of my wildest dreams and building on that is the adventure I plan to continue for many years to come. It's both humbling and exhilarating. =========================================== Featured Article: I am currently reading Donna Hene's book, The Queen of Myself, and will talk more about it in future issues. I find this book provides the missing piece to the familiar archetypes of virgin, mother, and crone. There is a big gap between mother and crone and if you have not been a biological mother then what do you do. In her book Donna offers another alternative and that is of becoming a Queen. I think you will enjoy her article on Empress Energy. Empress Energy: Extending Our Influence Out Into the World By Donna Henes, Urban Shaman The Queen is a mature woman who has conquered the challenges in Her life and claimed Her own royal power. She cuts through fear and ambivalence, takes charge, and establishes Herself as the sole ruler of Her Self. She has struggled for Her transformation and has achieved it. Her proud potency is palpable, Her authenticity uncontested. Her life now takes on a new ease, a grace, a certain lightness of being born of Her Self-knowing, Self-respecting, Self-directing, Self-projecting passion and purpose. She sails ahead on Her own steam, cutting efficiently through seas that are sometimes smooth as glass, sometimes choppy and fraught with danger. Her age and vast experience is Her ballast. She keeps Her center, come what may. But something else remarkable takes places once the Queen has stepped into Her sovereignty. Now that Her situations and systems are established, Her life in working order and running more smoothly, the Queen can afford to enlarge the territory and expand the horizons of Her Interests and influence and extend the parameters of Her physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual domain. Now that She is firmly rooted in Her best Self and acting for Her own benefit, She is free to reach out in ever increasing concentric circles and offer Her compassion, expertise, time, and money to people and causes that call to Her sense of response-ability. Maturity brings with it the understanding that everything is not about us, that the world does not revolve around our personal story, that we do not exist in a vacuum, and that all those other people out there actually have lives of their own and are not simply extras in our movie. Life and living have shown the Queen the value of community, cooperation, concern, care, and communion. "Life is the only real counselor," Edith Wharton suggested, "wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue." Knowing Herself to be an inextricable, integral part of a greater whole, Her ministrations multiply to include the welfare of the entire world around her. When the Queen assumes Her authority in the ever-greater realms of responsibility and takes it upon Herself to right the wrongs of the world, She ascends to a higher plateau of power. The Empress is the Queen writ large, the level of intensity of Her royal engagement exponentially expanded. Model monarch that She is, the Queen-become-Empress, operates from the deep and mighty reserves of Her own personal power and wisdom, wrought through Her dedicated willingness and ability to change, to always, always, change. She is committed to exploring, confronting, and enriching the undeveloped and underutilized parts of her body, mind, heart, and soul. By working to connect all of the constituent dots of Her many parts, the Queen is constantly becoming ever more of Whom She truly is -- Her Highest Self, Her Extreme Royal Highness, the Empress. Today, just as the cumulative damage to our Earth is reaching a perilous point of no return and our entire natural and cultural environment is in the throes of dangerous disconnection and dis-ease, we wise, mature, accomplished women are called upon to step up to the challenge and ascend the throne of conscious, conscientious leadership. It is incumbent upon us to use our considerable Queenly power, in whatever way seems appropriate to our individual skills and involvements, to stem the tide of unthinking aggression that can drown us all. In the same way that it was up to us, and only us, to redeem and transform our own lives, our own Selves, we need to grab the reigns and redirect and correct the negative and harmful conditions that exist in our community, our society, and our planet. Rachel Carson, an Empress of the highest order, warned us, "We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road -- the one "less traveled by" -- offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth." In the same way we Queen Empresses strive to create change for our selves, we can work to effect positive, sane, humane, and sustainable change for the greater good of all. The future we envision starts now, today. And the buck stops here, too, with each of us. To paraphrase Gandhi, we must be the future we wish to see. What we seed is what we get. Positive change need not be earth shaking or dramatic. It can be quite personal, subtle, and quiet, yet it does need to be rooted in positive intention and grown organically with great care and attention to the purity of the process. The ends do not -- cannot -- justify the means, because the means have a nasty way of becoming the end in the end. All we mortals ever have, from moment to moment is the means. It is our ways and means of thinking and acting that justify our lives. The chief dispenser of order, measure, justice, and right relationship in all realms, the Queen's rule is informed by Her keen holistic perspective, as well as the promptings of Her own intuitions. She holds the vision of a world community that is more inclusive, creative, joyful, respectful, and reverential. As She seeks to use the full force of Her personal power as an agent for positive change, the Empress does not turn away from imperfection, nor avert Her gaze from the gruesome details of life. She opens her eyes” as well as Her ears -- even wider in order to witness, to learn, to help, and to heal. Her heart, too, is now open, secure in the knowledge that She can rely safely upon Her instincts and abilities. Her past losses and pain have taught the Empress Queen to recognize the signs of pain and loss in others -- a language She speaks thoroughly. Comprehending their need, She reaches out to them in sympathy, empathy, advocacy, succor, and support. Nor does She shrink from Her responsibilities to protect and preserve the very forces of life. The Empress opens Her mouth, as well, and speaks boldly Her truth with conviction and compassion that commands respect and response. It is a big world out there and the plights and problems of humankind can seem insurmountable, impossible to change, but the Empress Queen knows all about change. Has She not been through the rapids of menopause, The Change, and come out the other side, altered forever, stronger and smarter by far? A Queen of Her own making, She has certainly changed and is still changing, is committed to continually change, and therefore, She knows that through effort, patience, and persistence, things can and do improve, that all things are possible. She is the living proof. The Empress does not bite Her tongue nor does She withhold Her views. She makes Her beliefs perfectly clear, assumes full response-ability for them, and then takes action to effect change for the betterment of all. Personally, I do not think that it is a coincidence that just as the earth teeters on the very brink of destruction, there comes along a generation of fiery, accomplished, clever, ambitious women at the height of our supremacy to whip it back into shape. And the sheer enormity of our numbers means that we can actually be the critical mass necessary to make a real and lasting difference. Let us harness our impressive Empress Energy: our purity of purpose, our passion, our heartfelt compassion, and our enormous power, and let us direct it toward creating a safe, sublime, and peaceful world for us all. The future is in our very capable hands. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, together women ought to be able to turn it rightside up again. --Sojourner Truth, American abolitionist and U.S. General - (1797-1883) MAMA DONNA'S TEA GARDEN AND HEALING HAVEN PO Box 380403 Exotic Brooklyn, NY 11238-0403 Phone: 718-857-1343 Email: CityShaman@aol.com http://www.DonnaHenes.net http://www.TheQueenofMySelf.com =========================================== Interesting Events and Links: MORE ON BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR . . . To learn about several people who have overcome limited resources to meet enormous opportunities, check out http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/ This site grows out of a two-week series that aired on PBS and offers resources on social entrepreneurship. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Workshop - Opening to the Light of Love: Releasing Sexual Guilt and Denial So You Can Experience the Love of Your Life with the Reverend Daniel Neusom. Saturday, July 23, 11 am to 3 pm, $30.00. Where: The Sacred Light Fellowship, 208 West 30th Street, Room 801, 8th floor. Press *12345 on the keypad to gain entrance into the building. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own http://www.selfhealingexpressions.com/scrapbooking.shtml James W. Pennebaker, PhD author Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions had this to say about the course: "Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own" is a creative and thoughtful guide to self-understanding. In 20 lessons, she takes the students' hands and leads them through a series of exercises that deal with family, spirituality, health, the future and the past, and other topics central to human existence. This is a very nice journaling project that could be helpful for millions. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dear would-be Queens (and also Queens who have already been crowned), This August, the illustrious Omega Institute is offering A 5 DAY ROYAL RETREAT FOR THE QUEEN OF YOUR OWN SELF THE QUEEN OF MY SELF: WOMEN STEPPING INTO SOVEREIGNTY IN MIDLIFE WITH MAMA DONNA HENES August 14-19, 2005 Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY (800) 944-1001 www.eomega.org =========================================== Wild Woman Tips: Let Others Know What You Have to Offer. By Barbara Winter, author of Jumpstart Your Entrepreneurial Spirit! Be ready to talk about your business with anyone at anytime, anyplace. Opportunity doesn’t always show up at 9:30 AM on Tuesday over the telephone. It might come via a stranger sitting across from you at Starbuck’s. Be sure that you are prepared to provide information at all times. At the very least, always carry a good supply of clean, unbent business cards. It amazes me how many people say, “Oh, I don't have my cards with me." What good is a card in your desk drawer? If you have a brochure or printed materials that are portable, carry them, too. Learn how to talk about who you are and what you do in a way that’s fascinating to others. Don't just tell people what you are doing - tell interesting stories about what you do. Barbara Winter is a Minneapolis-based entrepreneur; writer and speaker who has spent the past 17 years helping people discover their passions and turn them into profitable businesses. She is the author of the best-selling book, Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love (Bantam, 1993), and the publisher of Winning Ways, the newsletter for people living and working with passion. http://www.barbarawinter.con/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 13 Steps For Making Your Romantic Dreams Come True: by Reverend Laurie Sue Brockway. "Always be ready - you can meet that special someone at the most unexpected times and places." -- Dr. Judy Kuriansky, The Complete Idiot's Guide To Dating Welcome to Project Soul Mate. These tips will help you to open your heart, your arms and your life to love in 2005 and beyond. Forget about searching for the one who might be The One. First, clean up stuff you no longer need, get your life in order, and simultaneously, get ready for love. Here are just a few of my pearls of wisdom on the topic, culled from more than 25 years of work on the front line of the Relationship Revolution and many more than that out and about on Love's Battlefield. #2. Acknowledge and slay personal dragons In the mythology, fairytales and Hollywood movies that shape our consciousness about soulful love, epic lovers have a series of challenges to meet and master, and a few dragons to slay, before they can claim the precious prize of everlasting love. The same holds true for modern soul mates. While some people seem lucky in love -- as if they were born in a state of readiness for true intimacy and partnership – the rest of us typically have some life to live and some lessons to muddle through first. Some of us have baggage we need to drop off at the Heart Break Hotel before we can truly unite with another at the highest level of loving communion. Work hard to clean house. Toss out old stuff, memorabilia that depletes your energy and keeps you stuck in the past, and ex-loves who no longer have any business being in you life. Liberate yourself from the past by cleaning out one draw at a time until you work your way to creating closure with the things you’ve been stalling on. Do it for you… and the love will follow. Stay tuned for tips 3-13 © Copyright 2005 Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway. All Rights Reserved. Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway regularly marries couples in love and has been cited as one of the New York's most creative and unique wedding officiants. She is also widely recognized as an expert in women’s empowerment, self-esteem and spirituality. She is a bridal stress expert, devoted to helping brides-to-be tap into their inner power and poise. She co-facilitates the nationally acclaimed Bridal Survival Club for The New York Wedding Group and is author of WEDDING GODDESS: A Divine Guide To Transforming Wedding Stress into Wedding Bliss (Perigee Books, May 2005). Visit her at www.WeddingGoddess.com. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0399530991/qid=1109955985/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-9853850-6684113?v=glance&s=books&n=507846. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tip # 2 by Lucia Luna A spiritually satisfying job is work that expresses you, not work that defines you. In our culture, the expectation that we will earn a living is pervasive. When someone asks us what we want to do with the rest of our lives, we usually answer in terms of work—going back to it, retiring from it, changing jobs, adjusting our hours. However it is clear that work priorities shift for women in midlife—and if we ignore this urge to recalibrate our lives, we will tire ourselves out trying to hold back or tamp down those new creative thoughts and energies. Do we really want to define ourselves in terms of the job we do? What doors will open up if we truly reconsider the place that work holds in our lives? Rethinking your work life doesn’t just mean finding a new job or a new line of work. It means seeing who you are and who you are not. It means noticing how your priorities have shifted and deciding to live in integrity with those new priorities. You have to ask yourself, what matters? Lucia Luna, The Midlife Midwife has spent over 20+ years involved in the study and practice of spirituality and healing methods. Lucia's mission is to empower her clients to take their focus off "perceived" limitations, learn to use the power of the mind and the creative flow of the universe to birth personal power & wellness for the prime of life. http://www.lucialuna.com/ =========================================== If you know someone who may enjoy receiving a subscription to Wild Woman Network Newsletter, send them this link http://home.ezezine.com/331_2/ The list is used solely by Sandra Lee Schubert and Wild Woman Network. You may be invited to other interesting newsletters and receive occasional announcements. =========================================== Notes about Me: Sandra Lee Schubert is an interfaith minister, writer and founder of Wild Woman Ministries and Wild Woman Network a forum to explore and express creativity and spirituality. She writes a bi-monthly column - Write A Way: Journey to Creativity for Holistic Expressions an online newsletter of Self Healing Expressions. She co-facilitates a popular writing program called the Wild Angels at the historic Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Her subscription e-course - Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own is available: online http://www.selfhealingexpressions.com/courses.shtml it offers subscribers the opportunity to create a book of their own lives. Email: wwn@wildwomannetwork.com, or visit www.wildwomanministries.org. 212-642-5042.