JULY 4, 2010 NEWS - THE FLOW OF WOMEN AND WATER
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From: Jeanie D.
Date: Saturday, July 3, 2010, 9:07 PM
Subject: July 4, 2010 News - The flow of women and water
ID: 270316
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WAYS WOMEN LEAD NEWSLETTER, July 2010 Dear Friends of Ways Women Lead,
Ways Women Lead is joining many other groups to hold a special field and concern for water at this time... to support and celebrate others who are working on solutions for all the issues that we face globally around water… to move toward a place of unity around the earth’s water.
With you we carry deep concern for the well-being of the Gulf of Mexico, its surrounds, and all the areas that may be touched along the Eastern seaboard, concern for the watershed of the Andes and rain forests, concern for areas of scarcity and areas of floods, and we ask that all this may come into alignment and balance. We ask also that water be understood as a basic human right, and celebrated for the gifting and abundance that she brings to all of life on earth.
We are keenly aware that the free flow of life-giving water is a beautiful metaphor for the local-global movement of women today, and for the new economic strategies that are being called forth, as old ones crumble away. Water has so much to teach us about resilience, creativity, innovation, flow…
Below please find our announcements, windows on the many ways women are flowing into leadership in these times of crisis.
- Rivers of women moving forward, on the Internet, in government, at the UN
- Economic creativity as a focus for Ways Women Lead
- Each woman's heart as the wellspring of life in a new documentary: The Heart to Lead: Women as Allies for the Greater Good,www.imaginethegood.com
Also below you will find some of the initiatives that are gathering momentum around water concerns, and we invite you to experience the gathering unity of these initiatives. As we become more united, we make brighter the Net of Light that the grandmothers speak of…
Please bless the waters with us, and all those touched by its message. We are One Flow, one evolution forward…
Suzanne Simmie-Stier and the team at Ways Women Lead
[... and from this Canadian to her US sisters and sisters everywhere... Happy 4th of July!
As Ann Smith would say to us all... Happy Interdependence Day!!!]
A RIVER OF WOMEN
Even as contemporary issues around water call us to realize our unity, they intensify a call many women have been hearing for some time, a call that has gathered women around many foci in many locations. Ways Women Lead doesn’t see this as a new convergence, but rather as a growing momentum toward cultural change.
For those of us who attended the UN World Conferences on Women, each one growing in size and attendance until over 35,000 women gathered in1995 in Beijing, www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/index.html the awareness of women as a distributed and collective force has also been growing. Many new women’s organizations were formed after Beijing, with another wave catalyzed by the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and more and more as the Internet becomes a coalescing environment for women.
Grassroots currents emerging on the Internet: We’ve noticed that in the last 6 months, women’s teleconferencing has drawn over 65,000 women from over 100 countries into two major learning contexts, www.womenontheedgeofevolution.com and www.inspiringwomensummit.com, with another recent launch to promote international communications between grassroots women of action worldwide, www.globalroomforwomen.com.
Currents in government: At the same time, a growing number of women are being elected or appointed as heads of state, including Julia Gillard who became the leader of the Australian Labor party at its leadership election and was sworn in as prime minister on June 24, 2010. Trinidad and Tobago also recently elected female prime ministers, to total 19 women heads of state, with Slvakia and Finland likely to follow. Some consider this trend to be changing political culture as well as bringing women’s issues forward (See more here.)
Currents at the United Nations: On Friday July 2, the General Assembly voted unanimously to create a single United Nations body tasked with accelerating progress in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – or UN Women – will merge four of the world body’s agencies and offices: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). The “historic” action taken by the Assembly today “will do more than simply consolidate United Nations offices,” Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters in New York today. “It will consolidate United Nations strengths.” (More at www.wayswomenlead.com).
Ways Women Lead evoking
Women's self-empowerment, connectivity and economic exchange As we pay attention to our own experience of the growing momentum at Ways Women Lead, the connections arising in many countries, Bulgaria, Nigeria, South Africa, Peru, we are becoming very aware of the role women must play in nurturing new economic practices. We believe that women are already bringing forward local solutions to the failure of our global economic systems (see. e.g., www.bulgarusa.com, the heart child of WWL partner Donna Hadjipopov, located in Bulgaria), and that WWL, by nurturing women’s empowerment and connectivity, can cultivate this trend toward economic innovation and experimentation. Watch for more details in the weeks to come.
WWL partner Imagine the Good launching DVD:
“The Heart to Lead: Women as Allies for the greater good”
in mid July
WWL is very aware that each woman’s wisdom is vitally important in the months to come, along with the need for local shifts to keep the global picture in mind. We were delighted to bring forward our partner Imagine the Good’s new documentary at our 2010 UNCSW workshop. And we are delighted again to be the first to announce its formal launch to take place in mid-July. As its title so beautifully expresses, the call to make a difference is arising in women at many levels, all of them necessary to effect real change:
- The Heart to Lead: I listen within for guidance, to grow myself into a global citizen acting in every context with the highest integrity.
- Women as Allies: Women follow the call of our hearts together, learning to collaborate effectively and allied in our commitment to a better world.
- For the Greater Good: Now is the time for our “self” interest to include what is needed for the earth as a whole, for our communities, families, relationships, all important levels of survival as we unfold a new way of being together.
Please visit www.imaginethegood.com to taste the DVD that is being offered there that each woman may realize her unique role in the great unfolding.
NOW IS THE TIME TO KEEP UP THE FOCUS ON WATER
Little by little the traumas and crises that happen in world, both personal and global, can become routine. Our bodies absorb yet one more unhealthy situation and our minds numb to it. Please stay focused on our waters. There is a message there about our unity, one flow of water around the world. Stay in gratitude every day about the flow that comes to you as you drink your water, and feel the water in your own body joined with our global waters. Our unitive experiences will form the basis for new systems of economic and cultural flow. Below are some initiatives anchoring this opportunity to be of One mind and heart, and to act from that awareness.
From the Grandmothers: To be as One, to support one another 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."
Most recently… a woman packed up her car last week and went to the Gulf to help in anyway she could. Now she is asking for our help. She is a Cherokee dream walker, so besides witnessing the devastation to the environment, including the loss of animal and sea life, she is feeling the pain of the land, the death of the swamps, and the suffering of all the beings there, humans included. " The grief is strong," she says, "but I can manage it for a time. I am getting weaker daily, my heart is so heavy it feels like an effort to keep going. My only request of you is a prayer for the strength to finish this, a prayer for me and all the others that have been called."
Certain ones have been called to the front lines of this catastrophe--to bear witness and hold their hearts open in spite of the most devastating pain. Each of them needs 100 of us to stand behind her, to hold her and the situation in the Net of Light. Some stand in front. Some stand behind. Each of us is needed and is in our perfect place. If you have been called as a subtle activist, to work on the inner planes, stand steady, pray unceasingly, and hold the Net of Light, please think of and hold this woman and those like her. We are one family. We are of one heart. Hold all beings involved in this tragedy in the Net of Light. Do this many times a day. Please share this message.
Out-picturings of our movement toward water unity 
www.handsacrossthesand.com 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. The visual is a powerful message, amplified by many networking partners, including political advocacy groups, such as www.moveon.org and www.350.org. www.ussf2010.org On June 23, 2010, the opening of the US Social Forum in Detroit, included a “Water is Life” ceremony. Attendees from the four directions of the United States offered water from their homes into a collective vessel, witnessed and blessed by a circle of women, to raise awareness of how, we, the human beings on this Mother Earth need to know, and take care of our precious resource - the water of all life. More than 15,000 people from Detroit, from rural and urban areas across the nation, and from countries across the world including South Africa, Palestine, Honduras and Nepal, attended the Forum.
More subtle activism opportunities, for each of us and together
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. 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. A Prayer, A Meditation For The Water
Water Is life
May we join in ceremony and blessing and dance
May we shift our thought forms from fear to appreciation and gratitude, that in that gratitude,
That in that gratitude we remember to hold water as sacred
That we remember the teachings of life
That as we hold water we hold life
So let us hold it with our hearts, our mind, our souls
In gratitude may we remember
May we celebrate the way she assists us
The ways she brings joy and beauty, magic and wonder
In our mediation, our walk, our work
May we drink from her the grace of her abundance and envision her always free and ever flowing
Gently moving, guiding us through the challenges of the times
That in these times may we ask for all to join us
That in gratitude we find truth and alignment and spaces and opportunities to celebrate and nurture our differences
A prayer, a meditation for the water
Water Is Life
----Suzanne Simmie-Stier
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