"No More Smalling up of Me" by Jean Wilson

	No more meekly saying 'yes' When my heart is screaming 'no' No more taming of my feelings So my power won't show No more hiding my exuberance From disapproving eyes No more watering down myself So my spirit won't rise No more 'smalling up' of me Pretending I am not here No more running from the music And the spotlight's glare No more living in this prison Barricaded by my fears No more turning and retreating In the face of new frontiers Even as I am speaking I am taking shape and form Harnessing my powers Like a gathering storm There's no obstacle so bold As to dare stand in my way I am taking back my life And I am doing it today. Jean is a Jamaican writer, workshop leader and performance poet with a special interest in inspirational creative expression. No More 'Smalling Up' of Me is the title poem of her poetry book published by Ian Randle Publishers Ltd., Jamaica.

Voices of Women ~ Amelia Earhart ~ Birthday, July 24, 1897

Amelia Earhart

Today we celebrate the 115th Anniversary of the Birth Amelia Earhart...
Earthbound Blessings being sent to you in the Heavens, this day, Beloved One...

Born July 24, 1897, disappeared July 2, 1937, took off on last airplane trip June 1, 1937

Occupation: aviator

Known for: aviatrix, flyer, lecturer, writer -- setting records in aviation, and her 1937 disappearance in an attempt to fly around the world

Also known as: Amelia Mary Earhart Putnam
About Amelia Earhart:

Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas. Her father was a lawyer for a railroad company, a job which required frequent moving, and so Amelia Earhart and her sister lived with grandparents until Amelia was 12. She then moved around with her parents for some years, until her father lost his job due to a drinking problem.

At age 20, Amelia Earhart, on a trip to Toronto, Canada, volunteered as a nurse's aide at a military hospital, part of the World War I war effort. She made several tries at studying medicine and she worked at other jobs including social work, but after she discovered flying, that became her passion.

Amelia Earhart's first flight was at an airshow with her father, which motivated her first to learn to fly -- her teacher was Neta Snook, the first woman instructor to graduate from the Curtiss School of Aviation.

Amelia Earhart then bought her own plane and began to set records, but sold the plane to drive East with her newly-divorced mother.

In 1926, magazine publisher George Putnam tapped Amelia Earhart to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic -- as a passenger. The pilot and navigator were both men. Amelia Earhart became an instant celebrity as a woman aviator, and began to give lectures and fly in shows, again setting records. In one notable incident, she flew First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt over Washington, D.C.

In 1931, George Putnam, now divorced, married Amelia Earhart. She flew solo across the Atlantic in 1932, and in 1935 became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the mainland. In 1935 she also set speed records traveling from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and from Mexico City to New York.
Purdue University hired Amelia Earhart as a faculty member to counsel female students on opportunities, and in 1937 Purdue gave Amelia Earhart a plane.

Amelia Earhart was determined to fly around the world. Replacing her first navigator with Fred Noonan, and after several false starts, Amelia Earhart began her round-the-world flight on June 1, 1937.

Near the end of the trip, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan missed their expected landing on Howland Island in the Pacific, and their fate is still uncertain. Theories include crashing over the ocean, crashing on Howland Island or a nearby island without the ability to contact help, being shot down by the Japanese, or being captured or killed by the Japanese.

Amelia Earhart and Women's History:
Why did Amelia Earhart capture the imagination of the public? As a woman daring to do what few women -- or men -- had done, at a time when the organized women's movement had virtually disappeared, she represented a woman willing to break out of traditional roles.

QUOTES BY AMELIA EARHART

About her first airplane ride: "As soon as we left the ground, I knew I had to fly."

"Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price."

"After midnight the moon set and I was alone with the stars. I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, and I need no other flight to convince me that the reason flyers fly, whether they know it or not, is the esthetic appeal of flying."

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it."

"I want to do something useful in the world."

"Please know that I am quite aware of the hazards. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others. [Last letter to her husband before her last flight.]"

"Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats. But, they also get more notoriety when they crash."

"The woman who can create her own job is the woman who will win fame and fortune."

"After all, times are changing and women need the critical stimulus of competition outside the home. A girl must nowaways believe completely in herself as an individual. She must realize at the outset that a woman must do the same job better than a man to get as much credit for it. She must be aware of the various discriminations, both legal and traditional, against women in the business world."

" ... now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done -- occasionally what men have not done -- thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action. Some such consideration was a contributing reason for my wanting to do what I so much wanted to do."

"My ambition is to have this wonderful gift produce practical results for the future of commercial flying and for the women who may want to fly tomorrow's planes."

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward."

"Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do."

"Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done."

"Anticipation, I suppose, sometimes exceeds realization.'

"Worry retards reaction and makes clear-cut decisions impossible."

"I would rather face a watery grave, than go on living as a fraud."

 

"The Holy Bitch"

Thoughts On, About and by Women featuring Denise Linn

"I love my women friends. They comfort me during the hard times and celebrate with me during the splendid times. They are wonderful, passionate, compassionate and kind...and some of them are also occasionally considered "bitches". People have said to me, "Denise you are so nice, why do you have friends that act like bitches?". After hearing this comment, a number of times, I realized that I was subconsciously drawn to strong women who spoke their truth and weren't afraid to speak up for themselves....
The word "bitch" has an interesting history. It became a derogatory term in early Christendom because it was one of the most sacred titles of the goddess Artemis, who led a pack of hunting dogs. "Holy Bitches" were also found in ancient India as the revered Bitch Goddess Sarama, who led the Vedic dogs of death and rebirth...
I have grown to cherish cherish the word "bitch" and I even use an acronym for a woman who is "Being In Total Control of Herself".
Of course, there are nasty bitches, but the woman I'm describing is a "holy bitch." She is self assertive while at the same time maintaining her humor, dignity and grace. A holy bitch speaks for herself, yet she still has love, joy, and creativity in her life.
The greatest thing I learned from these friends is that you can communicate your truth clearly and compassionately without having to package it with a pink bow and "niceness."

~ Excerpted from "Secrets and Mysteries" by Denise Linn (This sub chapter entitled "Holy Bitch", is among one of my favorites in this book:)

Today's Featured Voices of Women ~ Joan Baez

TODAY'S FEATURED VOICES OF WOMEN ~ JOAN BAEZ

Women have often been key leaders in working for peace. Joan Baez is known for her pro-peace positions in the Vietnam era.

"My concern has always been for the people who are victimized, unable to speak for themselves and who need outside help." ~JB

Dates: January 9, 1941 -
Occupation: folksinger, activist
Known for: part of the 1960s folk revival; advocacy of peace and human rights
Also Known as: Joan Chandos Baez
About Joan Baez
Joan Baez was born in Staten Island, New York. Her father was a physicist, born in Mexico, and her mother of Scottish and English descent. She grew up in New York and California, and when her father took a faculty position in Massachusetts, she attended Boston University and began to sing in coffeehouses and small clubs. Bob Gibson invited her to attend the 1959 Newport Folk Festival where she was a hit.

Vanguard Records signed Baez and in 1960 her first album, Joan Baez, came out. Baez was known for her soprano voice, her haunting songs, and, until she cut it in 1968, her long black hair. Early in her career she performed with Bob Dylan, and they toured together in the 1970s.

Subjected to racial slurs and discrimination in her own childhood because of her Mexican heritage and features, Joan Baez became involved with a variety of social causes early in her career, including civil rights and nonviolence. She was sometimes jailed for her protests. Joan Baez married David Harris, a Vietnam draft protestor, in 1968, and he was in jail for most of the years of their marriage. They divorced in 1973, after having one child, Gabriel Earl.

In 1967, the Daughters of the American Revolution denied Joan Baez permission to perform at Constitution Hall, resonating with their famous denial of the same privilege to Marian Anderson.

Early in her career, Joan Baez stressed historical folk songs, adding political songs to her repertoire during the 1960s. Later, she added country songs and more mainstream popular music, though always including many songs with political messages. She supported such organizations as Amnesty International and Humanitas International. Joan Baez continues to speak and sing for peaceful solutions to violence in the Middle East and Latin America.

Martha Graham on the reponsibility of Creation

Martha Graham - on the responsibility of "Creation"

by Linda Living Joy Lorenzo on Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 2:04am

 

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening,
that is translated through you into action.

And because there is only one you in all of time,
this expression is unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist again through any other medium,
and it will be lost forever.
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 any other expression.

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 do have to keep open and aware,
to direct the urges that motivate you.

Always keep the channel open.
No artist is ever pleased.
There is no satisfaction, whatever, at any time.

There is only a queer Divine Dissatisfaction,
A Blessed Unrest...
That keeps us marching at what makes us more alive than the others."

-Martha Graham

The Mixing Bowl by Gunilla Norris excerpted from the book, "Becoming Bread"

The Mixing Bowl by Gunilla Norris

The Mixing Bowl by Gunilla Norris
excerpted from the book, "Becoming Bread"

Here on the table
is the mixing bowl.
Brown and ordinary,
turned on the potters wheel,
it has an umber rim
and glazed cinnamon-speckled sides.

Its task is to be open,
a simple space.
This bowl is clay, earth, matter.
Particular.
We are like it.
Clay, earth, matter.
Particular and vast when we are empty...

When life can fill us
to the rim, brimming.

We are the mixing place,
where terror and hate,
where love and hope,
the way we move,
our smiles and uncertainties,
our courage and stupidities
are all embraced.

We are the body bowl...
the forming space,
the home of possiblity.

Standing by Gunilla Norris

Standing

by Gunilla Norris

This morning as I put my feet on the floor
Let me remember how many thousands of years
it took for this act to be possible--
The slow and painstaking development
so that a human creature could rise,
could stand on two feet, and then walk.

From the very beginning, from the very first explosion
Your precise and patient love has been creating us.

The wonder is that now my hands are free
even as I walk or run or stand or dance.
The wonder is that now that I am upright,
my eyes can gaze at the ground,
along the ground, and beyond to the horizon.

I know You have made me
and all creatures for Freedom...
an ever-increasing, evolving freedom.
I am filled with awe by this.

It requires that we face the unknown,
that we rise to it.
You are still exploding in us,
and I am scared.
My trust is so small.

But You are near. You are here
even as you have been from the very first.
You are the vast time and space
in which life is happening. You are Life itself
providing us with centuries to become
Your conscious image.

With wonder at what You have entrusted to us,
help me to know that You are both
the ground and the being
apart from which there is nothing.

Help me to stand up
in Your Freedom.