Women in the LEAD

In What Direction Are You Moving

“The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

                                                            

Do you know what direction that you’re moving in?  A little bit of self awareness goes a long way.  Some people are challenged and often stalled when they hold the belief—“I don’t even know what direction I’m going in.”  This can often be a stalling tactic or a way of not claiming any path.  One of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King—paraphrased—leads us to take the first step even if we’re looking up a long staircase and do not know where we’re going.  He tells us that the first step will guide us to the next.

The art behind taking a direction and moving towards it is both the belief in oneself and the belief in one greater than oneself.  What is the next step that you need to take?  What holds you back?  If you take this step, where might it lead you?  Trust, there is great opportunity in uncertainty.

                                                                                    Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Following YOUR HEART

I read once that love comes from within your heart and soul. It's a feeling that you have never experienced before. You feel something which can not be explained. If you been blessed with being in love you know this feeling.

Over the years, I've also realized that there is a similar unexplainable feeling when you've discovered your unique and special calling in life. There is JOY in loving what you do. It knows no time or space or limits it sometimes seems. You find yourself lifted up to accomplish things you never dreamed were possible. You go to bed with it wrapped around you and you wake up with it as your first thought.

I'll never forget my interview with Karen Pomroy, founder of Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary at Jumpin' Jack Ranch in Arizona. She talked about the winding path that led her to her calling. It was clear that the path had been creating itself from her early life. At the point of the decision to follow her heart, she invested all she had in time, money and conviction. "I feel that when you are doing your purpose, it's not like work. It's your life." she told me. "When you follow your heart, you take a leap of faith---and when you trust, magic happens!"

Karen's inspiring story and work has lessons for all of us. I want to personally invite you to see and listen to her at a special exhibit at our WOMEN's GALLERY at Women in the Lead called Saving the Horses; Following Your Heart. This special exhibit showcases the work and passions of Karen Pomroy's mission to follow her heart, saving the horses and being an advocate for women’s health.
The exhibit includes a visual self-learning exhibit so you can step inside her story and work and a three-part inspiring audio/podcast interview. Also, learn more about Karen's work and how you can get involved too.

What is your following-your-heart story?

What would you like it to be?

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

Create from the Inside Out

“The single most important factor of success, abundance, and the creation of prosperity comes from within yourself—your thoughts.  As James Allen reminds us in As a Man Thinketh,  Ä particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on character and circumstances.  A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.”

                                                            

                                                                        Don’t Worry, Make Money

                                                                        Richard Carlson, Ph.D.

One cannot say enough about the significant role that our thoughts play in the quality of our lives.

What thoughts filled your mind today?

Do they reflect the tomorrow that you want to live?

                                                Maureen Simon

“Our Differing Emotional Needs”

“Men and women generally are unaware that they have different emotional needs.    As a result they do not instinctively know how to support each other.  Men typically give to relationships what men want, while women give what women want.  Each mistakenly assumes that the other has the same needs and desires.  As a result they both end up dissatisfied and resentful.  Both men and women feel they give and give but do not get back.  They feel their love is unacknowledged and unappreciated.  The truth is they are both giving love but not in the desired manner.”

“Mars and Venus In Touch”

John Gray, Ph.D.

It is when we truly begin to listen and understand the needs of another that we find true peace in ourselves and in the world.  So, what does it take for us to truly understand the other.  Men are socialized in a totally different way than women.  Young boys are brought up to compete in math and science and are measured on performance.  Young girls play games in a collaborative way, seek cooperation, and have a tendency to look after the whole group.  Our emotions are formed into social behavior at a very early age, therefore our needs are formed at a very early age.

The art is to learn how to listen to our partners deeply—so that we can understand what their actual needs are as their needs will very differently than ours.  That is the beauty when the masculine and feminine are finely balanced.

                              Where do you need to listen more deeply in your life to the men and women that hold a special place in your heart.

                                             Maureen Simon

WOMEN: War and Peace in Simple Pleasures

We've had so much violence in the world this year. It numbs the soul. A while back a little book came in my mail called Bits and Pieces...the magazine that motivates the world. I haven't seen one of these little booklets for years, but it was fun to receive. It is always full of quotes and stories of inspiration. Funny, I needed one of its messages badly in a week of exhausting demands. I share it with you...

THE VALUE OF SIMPLE PLEASURES
Eleven-year-old Zlata Filipovic, like so many girls her age, kept a diary in 1991."We gave ourselves a treat today," she wrote one July day. "We picked the cherries off the tree in the yeard and ate them all up. We had watched it blossom and its small green fruits slowly turn red and now here we were eating them. Oh, you're a wonderful cherry tree!"

Zlata's words read like any young girls's whimsical musings. But this innocent summer activity held a much deeper meaning: Zlata wrote the diary entry in the midst of war in her hometown of Sarajevo. "I miss fruit a lot," she continued. "In these days of war in Sarajevo, there is no basic food or any of the other things a person needs, and there is no fruit. But now, I can say that I ate myself silly on cherries."

That simple pleasure brought tremendous joy to a girl who witnessed brutality daily. Simple pleasures can do that if we take the time to appreciate what the moment offers.

Adapted from Zlata's Diary
by Bits and Pieces
Zlata Filipovic
Viking Press

What simple pleasures can you take in today that will help your see the beauty and gift of another day no matter where you may be?

What blessing has come your way today?

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

Knowledge of Heaven’s Timing

It is said,

when you have the total knowledge

of yourself and your opponent,

victory can be secured.

When you have a thorough knowledge

of heaven’s timing

and the layout of the earth,

then your victory will be complete.

Sun Tzu (10.26)

As we work towards gaining greater success in our lives we begin to see that we must take into account many variables. Every thing in life has its perfect timing and all things arrive in their perfect season. To achieve a place where ease and success becomes available to us we must know thyself, and believe that all things occur in the right time. This proverb teaches us that there are many variables to wining or achieving. It is always clever to take into account the wisdom of the ages.

                                                                                                Maureen Simon