International Women's Day

Today is the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day!!!  Can you believe we are where we are today, because of the Ancestors of our Past
who paved the way for us right now?  We all need to stand in solidarity,
proud and tall for the great and many achievements we've made over the
years...The Right to Vote, to work in environments which lend to our health
and well-being, the right to choose to nurture ourselves in whatever we
endeavor to do, the right to gather under any banner and know that we
can no longer be silenced or punished for our beliefs.  We've come a long
way baby!

All across the world today women are gathering and sending out the clarion call that we still reach across barriers to bring about change.  Change in
listening to the changes of Mother Earth, Global Warming, Poverty, Hunger,
Reproductive Rights, Peace, and on and on....the list is endless.

Now is the time for all of us to listen to the inner voices within us, to recognize the Paradigm Shift happening in our world, whereby All Peoples are waking up to realize the changes that are coming for a better world, that we are all connected in this web of life, through life experience, struggle, joy, grief, belief systems, religion, ethnicity, etc.  Let us not stop there.  As I sit and write this there are many things happening across our planet...

1)  http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

2)  http://www.internationalwomensday.org/

3)  http://www.rightsofmotherearth.com/

4)  http://soletosoulwalk.com/

5)  http://www.imaginethegood.com/

6)  http://www.5wcw.org/

7)  http://www.themillionthcircle.com/

8)  http://www.womenofspiritandfaith.org/

9)  http://www.waterblessings.org/

10)  http://evolutionarywomen.com/

And many, many more...so if you have a passion to make a difference just get out there and see what interests you...and then go for it!  Together we can bring the changes the world needs so desperately right now.  We are ripe for the fruit of Peace and Love to Prevail on Mother Earth, to protect her Living Things...All Living Things, to protect the Sacred Lands and Waters which she so freely shares.

And as we remember we are where we are today because of the women (and yes, the men who had our backsides), send up a Prayer of Thanks to our Ancestors who made this all possible for us!  I leave you with this beautiful poem written by James Oppenheim entitled "Bread and Roses" and was used and associated with a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusettes during January-March of 1912, now often known as the Bread and Roses Strike.  The slogan appealed to fair wages and dignified working conditions.

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,

A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,

Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,

For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"

As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,

For they are women's children, and we mother them again.

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;

Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead

Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.

Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.

Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!

As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.

The rising of the women means the rising of the race.

No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,

But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

Let the Voices of All Women Everywhere Ring Out Across the Lands!!!
May those same voices be heard in every heart on every continent, in every nation and in Every Prayer lifted up this day!!!

A'HO!