Mikaela says:
What a beautiful event. I admit that as it drew closer and closer, I was actually wishing I could just call in sick. I was totally exhausted and had no idea where I was going to get the energy for this. Then it looked like no one was going to come. I was ready to go home.
All of a sudden, we were started, the energy flowed through the room, and we had 40 people in our audience, feeding fuel to the fire.
These women were amazing. All different, all individual, yet somehow as we heard story after story, the picture of women's pivotal role in social change, in our communities, came into focus. There was a fabulous discussion, too. The audience was right there with the hard questions -- "You've taken on such big issues. Most days do you feel optimistic or depressed?" and "Given that so much has actually gone backward from the 60s, how do you still keep working and pushing to move forward?"
Here were some of the great lines of the night (some may be paraphrased, I admit):
- "Consciousness creates choices." -- Joann Bejar
- "I ask myself three questions about the way I spend my money, my time, and my relationships: 1) Is it giving me as much fulfillment as I put in? 2) It is in alignment with my values? 3) Is it in alignment with my purposes?" -- Margo Ganster
- "We ask our teens: How can you cause social change? How can you get beyond limitations? What are your core beliefs that hold you back?" -- Myra Murphy-Jacobs
- "Working for Corporate America is a little like jumping in with the wolves, but it's giving me the tools that companies have used for years to get ahead." -- Dory Wegryzn
- "I'm driven by desperation. But you have to do what you can with two small hands. You just have to keep flailing them until people see." -- Naomi Natale
- "I had dreams of my own, but for 27 years in an abusive relationship, I could not see people, even though I like being with others, or leave the house, or do anything. When I divorced my husband, it was like I was reborn again." -- Sandra Montes
- "Non-profits have a problem. They're too territorial about their projects. As long as they're fighting each other over crumbs, they will never succeed. And until we face the issues of race and gender -- which I've seen in every non-profit -- we can't move forward together." -- Dory Wegryn
- "We're in a better space than we ever have been before. We're at the tipping point, and we're right there where we need to be when this system stops working." -- Joann Bejar
- "I've faced a lot of hardships in my life. I ask myself: How do I harness this energy of sorrow? I have a promise to myself -- a dream, a vision: That we can powerfully and effectively communicate to the extent that we wake up the compassion for each other that will energize us to work for change. We teach a workshop to teens that focuses on 'awakening the dreamer, changing the dream.'" -- Myra Murphy-Jacobs
- "I've made a choice to read success stories." -- Margo Ganster
- "I focus on our successes. I refuse to think about everything that still needs to be done. That's overwhelming. I'm stubborn. If someone says I can't do something, I do the opposite." -- Sandra Montes
- "Be silent and notice what interests you. Follow that until you know what you need to know. Then move on to the next thing." -- Margo Ganster
- "We've faced lots of barriers, namely politics and men." -- Sandra Montes
- "In our organization, we have no hierarcy. We share the same title. When there's a problem or someone's uncomfortable, we talk about it. When somebody hears you, frequently nothing has to change." -- Margo Ganster
And that, dear friends, is exactly the power of events like last night. Sometimes when you make the space for people to tell their stories and be heard, nothing has to change. Sometimes, that's all that has to happen for change to begin.
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