Categories Menu

Girl Scouts Take the Stand of Inclusion

While on my morning walk listening to Beth and Friends, KEZ 99.9 fm, on my iHeart Radio app, disc jockey Beth played a portion of the YouTube video, below.  It is a talk given by a 14 year old Girl Scout advocating a boycott of Girl Scout Cookies because they allow transgendered individuals in the troops.  Beth’s response was something along the lines of “I will buy MORE cookies this year because I want to support a compassionate organization.”  I agree with her.  It would great for hate toward others unlike us to end in our generation. Listening with an open heart to the full YouTube video I remember how sheltered and naive I was at her age.  And, I applaud this young woman for having her voice heard and making an argument utilizing the written tenants of the Scouts.  Bravo.  However, the lack of understanding and compassion spoke louder than her argument.  The bigger question, I believe, is not how do we extricate individuals who are different than...

Read More

Surrendering with Singer Songwriter Larisa Stow

Surrender is the mac-daddy of spiritual practices. It requires us to Trust the Unknown and the Invisible (Love, Grace, Compassion, Right Action, Presence) so deeply we are willing to relinquish our mental prowess to enter into an experience which is beyond the mind. and then act from that place.  The Bible would call this “listening to the still small voice.”  For me, I learned to trust control (the antithesis of surrender)  in order to maintain safety.  Trusting The Invisible and leaning into it has been a long and gradual process. My writing partner and I get together regularly to review and comment on each other’s work.  As a former reporter, she is always telling me to add more sources to my writing, to include more voices into my work.  I have taken her suggestion and in addition to source references throughout my book-in-process, I have taken to interviewing individuals who embody the theme for which I’m writing.  Larisa Stow embodies surrender. She actually embodies Love.  Yet the Love emanating through...

Read More

My God is Love

I sit today with more questions than answers; rich in potential revelations open receptive slightly curious recalling. An Indian guru this week said with reverence “God is really feminine in energy as She creates, giving birth all of the time.” I wonder, why then, are women diminished hated, brutalized, used throughout the world I occupy. Is it a statement really toward God and potency, not women? I pick up a book by Alice Walker Anything We Love Can Be Saved, its title. I decide I will love all that is feminine, masculine, and alive. My world will change. My God will be Love. I change the tense to the present. My God is Love. I have a new prayer. Bonnie Barnard,...

Read More

Bringing Love to It All

Most mornings for me begin with a several mile walk to a coffee shop, sitting in an overstuffed chair with an herbal ice tea in one hand and a book in the other, and then walking back home.  Throughout this “me” time I am provided with an onslaught of insight about my life.  I may remember who I’ve been or I experience being pulled into who I’m becoming.  More often, I am practicing being present with each step and each breath. This year I turn fifty.  I see this as permission to strip away and shed all voices except my One True Voice.  Maybe they aren’t stripped or shed, but they certainly are encouraged to take second place to the One True Voice.  She comes forward on occassion with some brilliant recognition, more often then not, she comes forward with a deep love and I translate that well of feeling into words. I have been working on a book, well several to be honest, and I haven’t liked the “voice” I’ve...

Read More