Women in the LEAD

Influencing for Change and Contribution

Influence directly relates to who you are rather than what you do.  People need to believe in you, trust you and know they can count on you to deliver and be what you espouse to be.  There are very elemental qualities to being a woman of influence.  Trust is one.  Your ability to know what you value and believe and to live it through all your words and actions is another key and important element.  When people meet or speak with you and can clearly determine that you live and work from a place of integrity doors open and life becomes fuller and richer. 

A key element in influencing is being able to look at the needs of another and to act for the betterment of others or the whole.  Our world today is leading us to think and live beyond our needs and to include the needs of others.  In order to do this, we must become empathetic and interested in others.  With the world’s walls and borders opening through mass communication, we are for the first time in an excellent place to begin to understand and include others needs alongside our own.  We can do this through taking an interest in a topic that takes us outside our own world to another or by reaching out to a person in a country or place that we may judge yet want to know more about. 

 Our ability to influence, to contribute and to be a part of the many necessary changes that are needed in our world today is a conscious choice.  Notice where your influence, skills or contribution is needed and understand why.  Begin to take focused and meaningful actions that will allow you to make a difference in areas that are important to you. 

Maureen Simon

[email protected]

www.Maureensimon.com

www.womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com  

WOMEN: Creating a Better WORLD

There are so many wonderful examples that women are working to put their unique fingerprints on the world in positive ways.

Jasmin Tragas, creator of the popular wonderwebby BLOG in Australia, continues to surprise us with her creativity and ways she inspires us to get involved. She tells her story of being encouraged by women who are using the web to  make a difference and her gathering of "difference makers" in an ebook: WorldShapers: Extraordinary Women Making a Difference. The book showcases 16 women who generously shared their stories highlighting a wide range of meaningful projects --- from training women in Nepal, rescuing orphans in China, nonprofits in Africa and a range of other efforts to do good things to serve the world. Read more from Jasmin's blog post, "Women Wired to Change the World." Download a copy free from Lulu.com

For further inspiration from Jasmin Tragas, visit the A Women's Investment at our WOMEN's GALLERY at the Global Dialogue Center. We were honored to include her inspiring story and exhibit in our collection.

As I take in the contributions of women across the world, I here whispers of Mother Teresa in the distance encouraging all of us. She is saying...

"Don't wait for the leaders. Do it alone; person to person."

Do you have a story to tell? We would love to hear it.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center 
Home of Women in the Lead
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work

Allowing the Positive To Prevail

“Flowers always make people feel better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul”.

                                                                                                Luther Burbank

 

 

In these most challenging times it is so important to bring our thoughts to see and experience the positive that exists in our world. War, human suffering abuses in equity abound. How can we bring our thoughts to include all of the positive that exists daily in the world?

 

If we can agree that our thoughts are the precursor to the way we live in the world, it would make sense to watch our thoughts. It is time to hope for better days and to play a significant role in the direction that this world is going. Let’s start by noticing the thoughts that we think each day and by taking one small action to benefit more than just our own needs!

 

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: REMEMBERING DREAMS COME TRUE

This has been a time for remembering and renewing what we know about possibilities. As I reach for new challenges in my life at this time of crisis and opportunity, I am again reminded to Nwakego's dream come true. I've been playing her music for inspiration again. Perhaps, her story will touch you too, so I am posting it again in remembrance:

NWAKEGO's DREAM COME TRUE
Life is always calling to us. Do you listen for it? Do you hear its whisper on the wind asking you to reach inside to be more, to bring out that special gift you have to offer the world? Sometimes, the call comes and we act right now ... more often I think it comes in incremental steps. We hear it. We respond. Then other things need to happen to make all the pieces come together into that DREAM of ours come true.

The story of Nwakego demonstrates this truth:

Nwakego is Igbo (pronounced e-bo). She speaks English and Igbo. Her motherland is Nigeria. She is a poet with a beautiful voice and a message of love and thanksgiving for the world. Her new CD, MMA-MMA in Thanksgiving and Love is a celebration of Igbo songs brought to life as a gift to her children and all Igbo children of the world --- and for you and me too! Nwakego explains it this way...

"After my baby, Chizaram, uttered her first Igbo words “Bia” and “hapu ya” I knew I had a sacred responsibility to raise her as a well rounded Igbo child, who will understand, speak, write and BE truly Igbo. I thought of all the Igbo children in America and Europe who are suffering identity crisis because of the loss of their mother tongue. By maintaining our Igbo mother tongue, we maintain our pride and ethnic identity as a people. Our language is our identity. It is whom we are. God made it so"

Nwakego's work on  MMA-MMA started in 2001. It was inspired by Fr. Eustace Edomobi came up with the idea of doing studio recordings of some of our traditional catholic hymns as a way of preserving them for future generations. So, the multi-talented group began recording with a mini home studio at the church basement of St. Antoninus Catholic Church of Newark, New Jersey. In 2002, Nwakego went to Nigeria and recorded in a professional studio. "When I returned to NJ, I listened to it over and over again. I decided to re-do the work sometime in future."

Baby Chizaram's inspiration resulted in a new album with nine songs --- eight are Igbo. Nwakego's intention is to clear and her call-to-action to parents of Igbo children is compelling. She says to them:

“Let us begin to speak Igbo, eat and drink Igbo, wear Igbo, SING Igbo and BE Igbo! It is our birthright and ebere emegbuorelam onye tufuru birthright ya!"

IGBO: Spawned, sustained and graduated on a stalk of HOPE
As I've listened to the beautiful sounds, voices and the call of the African drums, I am reminded of Nwakego's dream come true. Perhaps it is the example of the Igbo people that makes their sounds so precious. If you are like me at one time, you may not know that the Igbo people survived The Biafra-Nigeria Civil War that lasted 3 years back in the 1960's. A dear friend of mine, Igbo visionary, Dr. Oguchi Nkwocha from Biafra/south-eastern Nigeria, shared these insights with me to help me appreciate the strength being Igbo people; it also has made each of Nwakego's songs be an echo of strength and hope of the Igbo people: |

"While the world watched or stood by the Nigerian government made a decision that "starvation was a legitimate instrument of war" --- at least two million Biafran people starved. However, in the years that followed, they emerged from the hope to start again. The Igbo lifted themselves up from nothing. Many Biafrans alive today were spawned, sustained and graduated on that stalk of hope. Today, I look at the pictures of starving Biafran children from that era. Perhaps, it's me, but I can still see that lingering ray of hope hiding in their faces... ' ...give me hope. Any hope at all, and I can sing a song for you..." Learn more from Dr. Nkwocha

With Dr. Nkwocha's mentoring, I have learned to see the power of DREAMING and also to more fully appreciate Nwakego remarkable new gift to the Igbo children, mothers, families and the people of the world. For in each song --- in the sweetness of the voices and each beat of the African drum is Nkwakego's calling ---- her DREAM come true ---- her personal contribution with the potential for sweeping influences on the lives of others.

WON'T YOU SHARE IN THIS GREAT WORK?

Nwakego
MMA-MMA in Thanksgiving and Love
Visit Nwakego's website
BUY a copy; listen to MMA-MMA in Thanksgiving and Love
Let it move you...and its proceeds to benefit Igbo children all over the world.

To You, My Love
A Collection of Love Poems
by Nwakego Ihenacho Ezeanuna
Buy at Amazon.com

A beautiful collection of life and love, expressing the feelings we long for as humans.

I listened to MMA-MMA while I was writing this message to all of you. Imagine this coming as a gift to Igbo children all over the world, emerging from that distant stalk of hope. ...and for Nwakego, bless your contribution as a woman in the lead!

With love and gratitude for this work...and its inspiration at a new time.
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center 
Home of Women in the Lead
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work

The Power Within

 

“ I had been raised to assume all power was outside myself, but they (men) had been raised to place power almost nowhere but within themselves.  Often, they were suffering, too.  Just as the fantasy of no control was the enemy of my self-esteem, the fantasy of total control was the enemy of theirs.  For both of us, the goal should have been a point of balance in between: a back-and-forth between the self and others, uniqueness and unity, the planned and the accidental, our internal selves and the universe.  As wise women and men in every culture tell us:  the art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us.”

Gloria Steinem  “Revolution From Within”

When we think about our influence and our sense of self, the idea of power becomes a central theme.  Women have been a part of cultures that place power over her, as opposed to power with or next to her, for far too long.  We need to realize that only if we recognize and claim it will our personal power becomes truly enlivened in our lives.  This sense of strength manifests through our competence, our voice and our excitement towards living.  Use your past experiences to guide your strength going forward.  Never be victim to the challenging days that have passed but as Gloria says, use them to your benefit and advantage today. 

Maureen Simon

www.Maureensimon.com

www.womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com

WOMEN: Reaching Inside to find the COURAGE...

These challenging times call for the power we all have to reach inside to find the courage to be a star in our own right. Quite by chance, I again came ran across a message and video from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1965 when he spoke at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, known for opening its doors to be a place of dialogue for all faiths and a house of prayer for all people. Dr. King's poignant message is powerful visually and in its timeless wisdom. It seemed to speak right to the heart of what we are all called to contribute as leaders, as citizens, as women. Below is a brief excerpt that spoke to me:

Message from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
"It is a struggle to establish a reign of justice and rule of love..."

"...It is a push of life forward...
If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill, be scrub in the valley, but be the best little scrub on the side of the field. Be a bush if you can't be a tree.
If you can't be a highway, just be a trail.
If you can't be the sun, be a STAR.
For it isn't by size that you win or you fail.
Be the best of whatever you are."

This is our calling as women. To be the best of whatever we are.

What gifts are you bringing to your part of the world?

How will you be the best of whatever you are?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

View Dr. Martin Luther King's Speech:
Below is the link to the description of that day at Grace Cathedral and with links to the video with his full speech:
http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/crypt/cry_20021002.shtml   

Life Force is Vitality

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate *you*.

Keep the channel open . . .

No artist is pleased . . .

There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.

There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

Martha Graham

In order to create influence and to take action, your life force needs to be fully enlivened and expressed.  Notice what motivates you and inspires you.  Never judge yourself by perfection or you will never experience joy.  In your unrest, realize the newly conceived possibilities.

 

Maureen Simon

[email protected]

http://womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com/

Imagination and Creativity

When the intellect overrides all in the workplace – what’s missing?

John O’Donohue writes in his translation of the Anam Cara:

            “When the will and the intellect are brought as deliberate forces into the workplace, this only makes the bland similarity even more entrenched.  When the imagination, the force of illumination in the soul, is allowed to stir, it opens up the workplace in a completely new way.  You should not be neutral or indifferent to your work or workplace.  It is very important to have a careful look at the kind of work you do.  You should try to establish whether the work you do and your workplace is actually expressive of your identity, dignity, and giftedness.  If not, difficult choices may need to be made.  If you sell your soul, you ultimately buy a life of misery.”

The world needs so much more imagination.  As we begin to trust our inner judgment and see the world with creativity and potential our worlds will open up.

Maureen Simon

www.maureensimon.com

http://womeninfluencingnow.com

The Living Ancestors

“When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this.”

Philip Carr-Gomm “The Druid Tradition”

“Theoretically, we each have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on, back in time.  In practice, though, if each person alive continued that exponential progression for, say, thirty generations, we would come up with more people than were on earth at that time.  Genealogists tell us that if we each went back about seventeen generations, we would find many family relationships between ourselves and people of our acquaintance.  It follows, then, that we are all intimately related to each other, that our personal ancestors are shared with many thousands of people alive today.”

I love our Celtic way of thinking as it natural encourages the Laws of Interconnectedness.  The word interconnectedness has become almost a cliché these days as we look at the news and see how the markets are.  The same is true of the web of life.  I believe that our ancestors hold nuggets of wisdom that are important for us to understand at this time.  What do you know about your ancestry?  Does a family member have a particularly important message for you.  Begin to listen.  The web of life is precious and we are all interconnected.

Maureen Simon

Being Fully Present

“When we take in more than we can absorb and integrate, the information drips off our minds like water off a duck.  Few of us stop to soak in the ideas and implications of what we experience and get really  ”wet.” Distracted and mentally moving fast, we don’t have or make the time to be fully present, to ponder things deeply, or take our studies to heart.”

Joel Levey & Michelle Levey “Living In Balance”

I think this is one of the greatest lessons of my life at the  moment.  I’m expanding and growing my business as I learn to work with time, pacing and presence.  The greatest challenges I experience occur when my mind is over busy and over stimulated.  Many see these times as an opportunity to re-group, re-position and re-invent.  If we could learn to be fully present in these times of transition, so many things would become clear.  We really don’t need to fill every minute.  We need clarity, time and a good pacing of our lives to absorb, integrate and create.

Maureen Simon