Women in the LEAD

Those Who Have Failed To Work Toward The Truth Have Missed The Purpose Of Living

“Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.”

--- Buddha 

When I think about Ghandi’s famous words “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” and his lifelong quest and devotion to truth I feel guided by one of the world’s greatest leaders.  If we hold truth as one of our highest values and then move into the world to create change that aligns with our values we are living two of the highest universal principles.  Buddha also reminds us that if we have “failed to work towards truth we have missed the purpose of living”.  One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is a focused personal exploration into – what level of truth do we live our lives from.  Truth is relative therefore we must stretch ourselves to a deep exploration – one below the surface. 

Where in your life could you be more truthful?

How would this new truth change the quality of your life?

--- Maureen Simon

WOMEN: BEING Your PERSONAL Best

It seems we are always finding something wrong with ourselves. Some very special friends who have overcome great adversity have helped me to see my own personal imperfections differently. Helen Keller's words often come to me as an explanation:

"Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them----but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight. When you do the best you can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."

One of the inspirations for me has been brave man named Bill Tipton. He became blind through an illness he never planned on. I wrote about his story in a book a few years back. Since then, I have a chance to really see how the human spirit is designed to be reinvented...even under the worst of circumstances, we have much more we can become. Visit Bill's blog and you'll see how he is touching people around the world---working at BEING his personal best! If you're wondering how you can make a difference or change a circumstance in your life BE YOUR BEST, I think you'll be inspired.

Are you working on being your best? What's your story...

Debbe

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

To Grow Is To Change

“Deep within every life, no matter how dull or ineffectual it may seem from the outside, there is something eternal happening.  This is the secret way that change and possibility conspire with growth.  John Henry Newman summed this up beautifully when he said, “To grow is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.” Change, therefore, need not be threatening; it can in fact bring our lives to perfection.  Perfection is not cold completion.  Neither is it avoidance of risk and danger in order to keep the soul pure or the conscience unclouded.  When you are faithful to the risk and ambivalence of growth, you are engaging your life.”

                                                                        John O’Donohue, Anam Cara

I must admit I have posted this more than once and will definitely post it again as it is one of the quotes that has most influenced my life.  Since my last posting John O’Donohue has passed on to the other world (in early 2008) – I might add at a relatively young age.  He inspired me more than most any other teacher that I have had in my life.  He had a sense of bridging this world with the other world, as do other mystical Irish writers.  Many Irish live in both worlds as the culture holds great respect for both.  May John’s passing remind us to live our lives growing each day – allowing for the new knowing that there is “something Eternal happening”.

 

---  Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Coming Home

I wrote this post a while back, but I wanted to share it again in a moment of deep gratitude for all of my blessings:

The early years of my life were a whirlwind it seemed of missteps, milestones and miracles. There were more partings than I want to recall and some amazing events that showed up unexpectedly and shaped my life. All in all, it was as I reflect on it now a time of growing. I wrote once, "...and when darkness came to me, my vision's brightness gave me hope, and I moved on to find tomorrow." I am grateful for the glimmer of hope that never left me in those years.

One of my dreams was wanting to come home. For many years, I didn't. I traveled in my work a lot and many times, I know I extended my stays and planned a longer route by design. Coming home was a very sad place at the time. It lacked love and peace and harmony. My vision though still had its glimmer of hope. One symbol was a phrase from a poem that I had read when I was a young girl and had carried around with me for years. It expressed what I hoped MY HOME would be like someday...

"...I've saved some sunshine should you ever need a place away from darkness for your mind to rest." --- Rod McKuen

Well, long story short, "dreams come true for me,"  I repeated over and over through those years ... and after many twists and turns, a lot of hard work, determination, heartbreak and healing, they did. Today, I live in a little beach cottage. Not fancy, but it is MY HOME as I always dreamed with the ocean out my window and warmth and safety and harmony all through it. Over the door way in my living room, it reads in subtle, understated words painted by my best friend as a present one year... "I've saved some sunshine..."

This morning, I read a poem that made me flash on this recollection in my own life. It moved me to write it down with pain and sorrow now in the past and share with all of you in a way I couldn't have done some years back. Now I experience things differently. This little poem helped me see it.

No matter what happens
In the rush of daily life,
May your home welcome you at day's end
With comfort, peace, and light.
May it be your shelter
Throughout any hardships,
And may you know many blessings
In the company of loved ones and true friends.

--- Corrine De Winter

I thought Corrine's writing might inspire you to think about your experience of COMING HOME. If it is all you have wanted, may your heart fill with gratitude, knowing not everyone is given this gift. If it isn't quite what you hoped, keep your vision bright. Repeat often:  Dreams come true for me!

May you all be blessed...

Debbe

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

Feminine and Masculine Leadership Styles

Much of our current corporations and organizations are structured on a masculine hierarchical model of leadership, which places a leader at the top in an autocratic role.  This model contains power at the top and limits the sharing of knowledge and authority.  The feminine model of leadership is built on relationships and the sharing of power.  Much like a web.  If you picture a spider in the center, the web around the spider that supports it and is as significant as the center point.  The spider can go in any direction and be supported.  This model represents the feminine style of leadership.  We are concerned about the whole, include the needs of all as we collaborate and create powerful inventive solutions.  This model is needed in our world today in many arenas – business, politics, and in the building of peace. 

-- Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Are YOU an Expert at STRUGGLE?

Do you ever feel worn by STRUGGLE? I've been working to change my mantra. It's not one that I consciously chose to think of myself struggling, but it crept up on me --- and I am struggling to get rid of such thinking. :-) The more I feel like I am struggling the more I seem to struggle. The other day, I pulled one of my favorite books of my shelf. It was written by Sue Bender and it's entitled Stretching Lessons: The Daring that Starts From Within. She said this about the art of our struggle:

STRUGGLE
by Sue Bender

"... Talent is doing what comes naturally," a friend announced.

"What do you think comes naturally to you?" she asked me. The answer came quicly and with great certainty:  STRUGGLE! I'm an expert at STRUGGLING."

Have good things grown out of my exhausting habit of struggling? Absolutely. I've written two books using struggle as my method. But after seventeen years of this single-minded obsession with writing, I still didn't think of myself as a writer.

Working this way only confirmed an old belief of mine: good things will come to me, but I will have to work hard and work all the time to make them happen...

If I were composing an ad for a relationship magazine and deciding the really tell the truth about myself, I would say: Expert at struggle, longing for ease. Signed: EAGER.

"I want to learn about ease," I announced to my wise friend Mitzi, with a determined ring in my voice. "I'm going to use my natural talent for struggle to learn how not to struggle."

This little story helped me remember that I too need to turn the "gift of struggle" into a nice calm ease about enjoying every precious minute.

How about you?

Warm regards,

Debbe 

Debbe Kennedy, founder
Global Dialogue Center, home of Women in the Lead