It seems that we have been participating in a natural unfoldment of women everywhere, and that step by step our work has joined the work of others to reach a moment of great potential. UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, is officially launched this month. Both a 5th World Conference on Women by women, and our circle program to evoke self reliance and leadership in grassroots women, UN Women's Circle Campaign, are coming to the fore in partnership. We are most grateful for all that you have held and done to move our projects forward and womankind to this moment…

WAYS WOMEN LEAD NEWSLETTER, February 2011

Dear Friends of Ways Women Lead,

Jean Shinoda Bolen, Ann Smith and many others invite you to join us during the UN Commission on the Status of Women 55 Session (CSW), February 22 – March 4, 2011, New York City. You can connect through Facebook, LightPages, e-groups, hosting a circle gathering, prayers and the Water Ceremony found in this Newsletter.

As many of you know, Jean and supporters have been holding the intention for a 5th World Conference for Women throughout this decade at the CSW, while Ann and team have been holding the vision and anchoring the practice of circle at the UN over many years of CSW engagement as well. These two mighty intentions have been mutually supporting one another and weaving themselves through many circle conversations, and this year they are both coming to another level of visibility at the UN. We ask your support as we move toward this year's CSW gathering in New York.

Never in the history of humankind has there been a greater chance for women and girl’s leadership to become empowered both locally and internationally through the United Nations. And with the new UN Women’s entity just being developed and the leadership of Michele Bachelet, the former president of Chile as executive director, we have the greatest opportunity to influence the United Nations toward the use of circle, circle principles and the spirit for a UN 5WCW. [Click here for a list of circle-related events at the CSW this year.]

Letter from Jean:
Love and prayers are such that the more you give, the more you have, and the more there is — when we are in circles with a spiritual center, energy, spirit, authenticity grows in each and in the circle. It is this energy that supports activists in the field - -it matters if others at home know what we do and want to accomplish at the UN CSW.

My participation in this newsletter began when Ann asked if I’d want some prayer-support for my phone appointment—first contact, with Michelle Bachelet this Friday, February 18, at 11 am EST, 8 am PST. Yes, I would! I think that space and time are bridged by the heart and that heart-connected activism taps into a sacred field that supports making this world better for everyone. Prayer, ritual, meditating, visualizing—however it is done, we nurture each other’s soul and spirit through this... the giving, receiving and adding.

So yes! I would like your invisible support for each small step that can lead to a potential synergy of UN Women with Michelle Bachelet at the helm and a UN NGO 5WCW, which I see as a huge step toward a global women’s peace, equality, and empowerment movement. I also believe that there may be one to two degrees of separation between some of you and a person with influence and a vote on the CSW. Read “Convening a UN Fifth World Conference on Women” on www.5wcw.org, and the list of 45 countries represented on the CSW.

A Fifth World Conference on Women
Please sign if you have not already the 5WCW petition and read the 5WCW Statement to the CSW and the CSW Membership this year. Reading them adds to the positive thinking/prayers being sent out around the world.

• Become informed: www.5wcw.org
• Sign 5WCW petition: www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-a-un-5th-world-conference-on-women.html
• Register your organization as 5WCW supporters: www.5wwc.org/organizations/org_listing_form.html
• Urge support of 5WCW and the UN Women Circle campaign via links, Facebook, Twitter, personal emails, newsletters.
• Use your connections and influence to further this effort at the UN.

We will be in conversation about the Fifth World Conference on Women at CSW on Wednesday, February 23rd, 4 - 5:30 pm EST.

Letter from Ann:
I want to thank everyone involved for being part of all the loving 'leaderful' circles over the years, for saying YES to Circle and being with us in person, heart and spirit around and at the UN CSW. So many of us have dreamed, planned, co-created, laughed, organized and produced in Circle. Brava to us!!!

Now we are almost ready and packed to go to New York for the 55th UN Commission on the Status of Women, where so many connections will be made. Thanks to Anele Heiges of the International Public Policy Institute, one connecting moment will be on Thursday, February 24 at 10 am EST, 7 am PST, when we will meet with UN Women Staff to share our vision of UN Women's Circle Campaign. Please include this date, the same day our Workshop is scheduled, the same day the official launch of UN Women takes place, in your prayers and holdings.

I see us together as a beautiful flight of pelicans, those ancient and wise birds. They fly in formation and share the point position. Their flight is one of the most amazing sights to behold. They flap their wings and glide sometimes so close to the water that you wonder how on earth they can do this without actually touching. When the lead pelican starts to flap her wings, the next one starts and the next one until they are all flapping together; then she starts to glide and the rest follow with the most magical timing.

We are the pelicans coming from different parts of the world and flying in formation at CSW. We will flap our wings and we will glide. We will care for one another as we care for our mission to tell the world about UN Women’s Circle Campaign and about 5WCW. Just imagine this world gathering where all the circles can meet either in person or through Internet connectivity. Imagine the tipping point of Circle and Circle Principles happening now and becoming the preferred structure for humans. We are ready.

UN Women's Circle Campaign
UN Women’s Circle Campaign is distributing a free downloadable workshop process to help empower grassroots women and girl’s leadership in their communities and to bring their community issues and solutions to the attention of the UN in developing policies, programs and funding sources. The use of circle principles to engage women who would not otherwise be in the flow of UN policy-making opens the way for better communication of the many diverse perspectives needed now to resolve our collective issues.

• Stay informed about CSW activities and UN Women's Circle Campaign at www.circleconnections.com.
• Read our Statement describing the Campaign, submitted to the UN CSW.
• Download and pass on the instructions for a UN Women's Circle Workshop at www.circlecampaign.net.
• Spread the word about this potential channel of communication with the UN.

The UN Women’s Circle Workshop is being given at the CSW on Thursday, February 24th, 2.30 to 5pm EST. [See our flyer here!]

Water Blessing
The following Water Blessing Ceremony is an integral part of the UN Women’s Circle workshop. We invite you to join us any time convenient to you or at the same time as the workshop using your own cultural, religious, spiritual blessings/prayers, songs and dance that honor you and your sacred circle and the preciousness of water in bringing us together as One. Bringing water from our home area, each woman and girl pours their water into a communal vessel, stating their name, where they live, their organization if applicable and a hope for their UN Women’s Circle gathering and UNCSW.

Bless this Water, Bless each one of us as co-creators of a new Earth, One Circle, One Connection, One step at a time. Bless this water, Bless all the water of Earth, transforming pollution into clean and safe water for all. Bless this Circle and all UN Women’s Circles who together will bring justice and peace for all Creation.

Thank you for being with us on this journey and please pass on to others, ever widening our circles and growing our collective influence.