Women in the LEAD

The New World Family

”The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.”

-Illusions-The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Richard Bach

 

I am grateful to have a family that I love and one that supports me fully. However, I am also grateful for my family of “soul connection” – my family-- not of blood. This family consists of amazing friends and colleagues—worldwide.

Looking back through the many years past, I now realize that I was very fortunate to have been brought up in a close Irish family. We were often reminded of how important ones direct bloodline clan was to the Irish American Community that I as raised in. The familiarity provided a sense of security in a new –unfamiliar land.

I remember trips to Ireland when my parents would return to the states having proudly purchased our family shields. For as long back as I can remember the family shields for both my mother and father hung in the hallway for all to see as they entered our home. The shields, through pictures and written Gaelic, told you where our family was from and something about our craft or trade and family history.

I was fortunate to grow up under a roof where both joy and respect were encouraged but am well aware that many have had great challenges living in their family of birth. Today we are fortunate to have a greatly expanded view of family available to us. We have choices. We can now experience the gifts of diverse cultures living together in community. We are also fortunate to experience the interconnectedness of the world as we realize that the interests and convictions that we, share as well as the personal-societal and geographic preferences that we hold all factor into our newly defined world family.

There is a new world family forming….

How do you perceive or define your family presently.

Can you expand your family to include new possibilities?

Do you share respect and joy with you family?

What is now possible for you when you think of –The New World Family?

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: In Celebration of International Women's Day

RELATED WOMEN's PODCAST INTERVIEW:
Listen as Maureen and I meet in an intimate conversation with Dr. Helen Fisher, Ph.D., author, The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World. Together, we explore the emerging roles of women in the 21st Century.

As we celebrate women everywhere in this day of international remembrance of all we've become and will be, I also see it has a day of reflection. Even in my lifetime so many things have changed for women. Miracles happen after a lot of hard work. Together, women of the world are touching and changing everything as it is through our innate talents, our intuitive gifts, our conviction to put our knowledge into action. There are so many fingerprints on this journey of ours...our sisters across the ages are whispering in proud celebration for the steps that led us to this place today, still with so much more to do.

INSPIRATION FOR OUR REFLECTIONS OF GRATITUDE

"...And at sometime in your life
trying to be good may be to STOP running
and take time...
to be quiet
and discover who you are
and where you've been...

Sister Corita Kent
Carmelite Nun
The Wonders of Solitude

May we join in a virtual <<< HUG>>> today, celebrating the honor we have been given to put our personal signatures on this time in history.

May God bless your important work!

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

The Power of a Loving Heart

“A loving heart carries with it, under every parallel of latitude, the warmth and light of the tropics. It plants its Eden in the wilderness and solitary place, and sows with flowers the gray desolation of rock and mosses.”

-John Greenleaf Whittier

As we approach spring, I am noticing the amazing flowers sprouting up on the California coast. They smile. My heart lightens.

Where are the flowers in your day? Look closely.

How is your heart responding?

    Maureen Simon

Plant a Flower Where You Think a Flower Will Grow

 

“ Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

-Abraham Lincoln

 

Two weeks ago Abraham Lincoln would have turned 198 years old .His lifetime search for equality and fairness, in his day, were seen as were revolutionary. I sometimes wonder how much have we actually built on his conviction and heroic leadership. I wonder where in our lives we now need to build more equality and fairness and how we as a nation with great leadership capabilities can contribute and participate more towards the needs of the world. I am interested in seeing us lead from a position that addresses the true needs of the world-- beyond our own self-interest.

A new film entitled; “Amazing Grace” will enter the theater world this weekend. The film is inspired from the opposition to England’s slave trade and England’s abolition of Slavery in 1807. Lincoln was two years old at this time. But the issue made a huge impact in his life as he went on to make major contributions to the abolosition of Slavery in the United States.

Lincoln, in his lifetime, experienced the raging civil war, rampant slavery and a world where the poor had extremely unfair la rights. Lincoln addressed these issues with a heightened interest in establishing equity and fairness. During his life he became famous for many great acts including the Emancipation Declaration, which was Lincoln's declaration of freedom for all slaves in the areas of the Confederacy not under Union control. Lincoln's domestic policies included support for the Homestead Act. This act allowed poor people in the East to obtain land in the West. Much of Lincoln’s life was dedicated to and focused on equality for all.

In one of his best-remembered writings, The Gettysburg Address, Lincoln writes of those who died in the battlefield of the civil War:

“ That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.

I read this quote today and wonder not just about the US soldiers who have lost their lives in war but about all who have sacrificed their lives because they believed that this act would contribute to the for the betterment of others. I think about those who have foolishly perished in the rage of war and wonder --to what end did they die. Are we wiser or better people and leaders because of their gift of life?  We need a new way of creating peace --a new way that reflects and incorporates the learning’s gained form all that has been before us.  We need to be very aware of the effect that our present day actions will have overall on the well being of this world. We are learning that we are all interdependent and interconnected. We must now show the wisdom and compassion of Lincoln and lessons learned in our life and in our political decisions. We hold the responsibility to lead with wisdom and foresight.

    Maureen Simon