GATHER THE WOMEN NEWSLETTER ~ JUNE 30, 2010
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From: Jeanie D.
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 11:46 PM
Subject: Gather the Women Newsletter ~ June 30, 2010
ID: 270293

JUNE 30, 2010 NEWSLETTER

Dear Gather the Women community,

As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill continues to bleed into the Gulf of Mexico, many of us are feeling an intensity, a call to do something. Many initiatives inviting unity around the Gulf or the earth’s waters are making the email circuits, and Gather the Women is pleased to be sharing two important opportunities to come together as well.

There is something new being asked of women, something that has to do with clarity about our value as women and our feminine perspectives, our growing Sisterhood, and how we may contribute to the well-being of our mother, the earth. Please listen to your heart in the days ahead to see where your place is in these times of change. It will take each of us participating, all of us working together, to unfold the new possibilities inherent in the crises we face today.

Gather the Women's Journey into Deepening, August 19-22, 2010

This August we will have our third annual GTW Gathering for GTW Coordinators, potential collaborators, and anyone who hears the calls and feels the "yes" within. This year GTW's "Journey into Deepening" will be at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, California, August 19-22.

Our invitation:

Inspiring women to greater expansion and collaboration, we invite you to share your unique gifts into our circle. Not only is this an opportunity to reclaim our deepest roots, it is a time to realize our passions, take action and activate our divine oneness through collaboration.

Go to www.GathertheWomen.NING.com to learn everything you need to know to attend our August 19-22, 2010 Annual Gathering. Click on EVENTS for the invitation, FORUM for the details, and BLOG for FAQ's. Check out our FACEBOOK page, too!

Your presence is vital to the outcome. Come for the weekend or join us for the day on Friday and/or Saturday. Click here to see the full invitation.

Sole2Soul: Women Walk the Land - An event big enough to rewrite the future
(www.sole2soulWalk.com)

Humanity is awakening to the understanding that women are the solution. A world lead by masculine energy has created an imbalance. Leadership that draws from feminine qualities such as inclusion, inspiration, creativity, intuition, nurturing, and beauty will, as Dr. Deepak Chopra said, “. . . bring sanity, peace, harmony, laughter and love to a world that desperately wants to awaken to a new way of living and being.”

Sole2Soul Walk is a Living Mural of Courageous Actions Converging to Rewrite the Future. Gathering this energy to accelerate sustainable outcomes will occur from International Woman’s Day March 8th through Peace Day September 21st 2011.

Step out with us. In America, sole to soul, we are walking from California to Washington D.C. that is 2,639 miles. The extreme distance of that walk allows us time to be the banner for what is already taking place and to talk deeply about what else is needed. Some courageous women will walk the entire way; others will join for whatever time is right for them and others in America and abroad will create their own form of “walking the land.”

Humanity has made wondrous strides. Yes, that is absolutely true, and it is not enough. Living from half of humanity’s brain is fatal to our species and our planet. There is no need to list the ills; the list is not missing—women are missing. Women are the glue of civilization and we are missing from the conversations and the decisions.

Step by step—sole to soul—women of all faiths, all races, all ages and level of means will gather. We will walk together, holding space for our differences, while sharing our commonalities. We will awaken one another. Over the miles we will go back and learn the deep story of women’s history, we will stand together and share our current stories, and with each step we will change the story of humanity’s future.

• To understand—we listen without judgment.
• To be heard—we speak without hostility.
• To be in partnership—we acknowledge and invite the support and protection of men.

We will not waste a single breath on assigning blame or denigrating our brothers. Over the miles a new dialogue will evolve establishing women’s full participation in the conversations and decisions that shape the future.

Join us; leave YOUR footprints on this chapter in history. We know YOU are strong enough and ready enough. Because the future needs us NOW—RIGHT NOW—Sole to Soul Women Will Walk the Land. (For more information, contact Marilyn Nyborg at marilyn@nydow.com.)

What is the message of the water (and oil) today? In some ways it is the same message that Gather the Women has been sending out since 2002. Come together. Come together as One. Lift one another up. Radiate hope, unity, and love to one another and to the earth. Now is the time to be as One, to act as One.

Here compiled by our sister organization, www.wayswomenlead.net, are some of the initiatives around water that are issuing calls to moments of unity or unitive prayer, ceremony, or meditation.

www.waterconvergence.com Inviting all initiatives to be in conversation. The time has come to speak from the bottom of our hearts. We welcome individuals, circles and organizations committed to the healing of the planet's water to come together as One. As with any community, we gather in fellowship with a common purpose, yet keep our authentic paths and passions. We gather in pure sacred space to learn, share, and grow as our actions blossom into a way of life.

www.waterblessings.org With messages from the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. Water is the first foundation of Life. Without it there would be no life upon our Planet Earth. We have been brought together through Spirit as a dedicated voice for our waters. Our mission is to teach, to support and to be a unifying force for ceremonies to bless, purify and restore our planet’s waters and natural water systems, that there will always be clean and fresh water for all.

www.grandmothersspeak.com offering a beautiful meditation at www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn-rW2HBY2c "We ask you to cast, anchor, and hold the Net of Light steady for the Gulf of Mexico," the Grandmothers said. "This crisis is affecting the entire world, and humanity is asleep. Wake up!" they cried. "… think of magnifying your union with us. We, the Great Council of the Grandmothers, are with you now… There are thousands, even millions now connected in light," they said. "Think of, cast and magnify the presence of the Net of Light in the Gulf of Mexico."

www.handsacrossthesand.com/press-hi-res-footage On Saturday June 26, 2010 thousands of people joined hands on beaches around the United States, drawing a line in the sand to embrace a clean energy future. Their message was amplified by many networking partners, including www.moveon.org and www.350.org.

www.masaru-emoto.net/english/dr.emotos_message_2.html. Masaru Emoto, May 9, 2010, offering a prayer of Hawaiian rightness Ho’oponopono. “Now let’s give energy of love and gratitude to the waters and all the living creatures in Mexico Gulf by praying like this:
To the water, whales, dolphins, pelicans, fishes, shellfishes, planktons, corals, algae and all creatures in our Gulf of Mexico
I apologize.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.”

www.circleconnections.com invites us into meditation at noon of every day, bringing our inspirations and intentions together in a focused way.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1-BazjLRKI&feature=related An extraordinary meditation with our fellow earth Beings, the dolphins.

www.evolutionaryleaders.net/gulf Inviting us to join the Gulf call to Sacred Action. The people you may know who have been speaking in service of conscious evolution for decades, Deepak Chopra, Jean Houston, Lynne McTaggert, Michael Beckwith, Gregg Braden, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Debbie Ford and dozens more, are joining forces for a series of free telecalls, setting a sacred intention, activating the power of sacred prayer, and the heart of sacred activism. June 26, July 6, July 13.

Across the world in diverse cultures, women find themselves held, and indeed hold themselves and their feminine qualities as less than those of men. In this way women are very much like earth itself… not honored properly. Now is the time to take stock within ourselves, note where we may hold this imbalance, and grow ourselves up, together, for the sake of the whole world. Barb Belknap of GTW’s Convener’s Circle, shares her insights about change on the horizon for the ancient cultural mores of China…

The Myth of Genesis Exists in China

As a feminist, I observe much of the world through the lens of how women are perceived and treated. My husband and I were in China from May 26 to June 14, and I went thinking I knew about the One Child Policy and how girls are treated in an ancient civilization. As they say, "travel is broadening." My preconceived ideas were only half right.

From the beginning of our tour, we heard about the important influence on Chinese thought called Yin and Yang. This evolved around 300 years BC, a period known for the growth of intellectual growth in China. We were given a handout with Yin and Yang on one side and Feng Shui on the other.

I was struck by two sentences in particular: "Yang is the male, active energy in heat, daylight, and life. Yin is the female, passive energy, existing in coldness, night, danger, hardness, evil and death." These are strong words. Further on in the handout, Yin foods were described as "cool foods that calm and nourish the system." Yang foods "are hot and stimulate the body but deplete energies, and neutral foods combine the best features of Yin and Yang for a perfect balance."

Feng Shui is practiced extensively in architecture, including the ultra modern skyscrapers going on in all the major cities. In cosmopolitan Hong Kong, a city built between the China Sea and mountains, apartment buildings had square openings or huge sections of glass in the middle to allow the dragon spirits to get through. (Dragons can pass through glass.)

If modern day architects believe in dragon spirits, how are women to escape the Yin status bestowed upon them at the very beginning of their country's intellectual foundation? There is an irony in China right now. An enormous shortage of females (up to 30 million) is predicted by 2020. Perhaps women and girls will be seen as "daylight and life" when the national Feng Shui gets seriously out of balance.