Monday, December 14, 2009

one of O's favorite things: empowering women.

I heart Oprah. No big surprise there.

Her famous "Favorite Things" lists are hit-or-miss for me. Some of the stuff she/her staff suggests is adorable and affordable, some not, some OMG sooo not.

Regardless, at the beginning of December - the start of stuff season - Ms. O dedicated her show to dramatically disenfranchised women worldwide. Women beaten for trying to go to school, girls sold into sex slavery, mothers dying as a product of pregnancy. Women for whom the term "women's rights" is just an imaginary figment, a cruel joke.

Naturally, Oprah also profiled people who are helping. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pledging women's rights will be one of her signature issues and a higher-than-ever American diplomacy priority. Husband-wife Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn talking about their new book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression in to Opportunity for Women Worldwide, and the movement it has created.

So here's the bottom line: It's the season of giving. Please give to empower women and girls globally.

Here's how:
  • Buy the above-mentioned book. It's "a passionate call to arms, from two of our most fiercely moral voices, against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation."
  • Give to Mercy Corps, which facilitates microloans to poor women to launch their own businesses, support their families and boost their economies.

Still iffy? Consider this: While American women earn 80 cents on the male dollar [unfair, for sure], more girls in developing countries have been killed in the last fifty years- just because they were girls - than men were killed in all the wars of the 20th century.

Help a girl stay above-ground today. Give to empower women.

Monday, December 7, 2009

believe.

december ... when it is the holiday spirit of the heart that puts the holiday spirit in the air ...

believe in yourself.

believe in the magic of Christmas.

believe that it's better to give than to receive.

believe in enough.

believe in the goodness within all people.

believe that it will be OK.

believe the Universe will deliver.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

celebrate the everyday - december.


It's December, 2009. How will you celebrate being a woman?

December 15Cat Herders Day
December 18Underdog Day
December 21Winter Solstice, Humbug Day & National Haiku Poetry Day
December 31Blue moon [December's first full moon was the Cold Moon], World Peace Meditation Day & Universal Hour of Peace

Remember, where there is connection, there is power.
Where there is power, there is hope for change. For ourselves, and for our world.
We are all connected. We are all powerful.

Until my next post, be well, be happy & be hopeful.