{Messages from Within}

Listen to those messages from within your quiet mind and open heart:

{In Love and Sisterhood}

An Open Letter to the Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, and My Sorority Sister from College:

Dear Kay:

When I learned, only recently, that you are the governor of Alabama, I had the thought: What an amazing opportunity to shift the focus of leadership of modern politics from personal ambition and narrow-minded ego to a larger vision. A vision based on love and honor, respect and equality—indeed, a focus you and I pledged years ago during our college days, the essence of the sisterhood we share: “To hold truth inviolable, sincerity essential, kindness invaluable.”

I no longer live in Alabama, but memories of growing up there are dear to me, as are the family and friends who live there. Therefore, I was moved to write when I read your statements in an article from the Washington Post about Alabama senatorial candidate and accused sexual predator Roy Moore saying, if you were quoted correctly, that you would vote for the candidate because “we need to have a Republican in the United States Senate.” In other words, it’s “politics” first—before “truth, sincerity and kindness.” And although you were quoted as saying that you have “’no reason to disbelieve’ any of Moore’s accusers”—women of various backgrounds who shared their personal experiences as teenagers of being inappropriately pursued and harassed by Moore—your words suggest that you place less value on the lives of women and children than on ‘politics as usual.’

If my Alabama mother and grandmothers were still alive (women with core values of hospitality, beauty and humanity), they would not only have been appalled that this man could be representing their state and their families, but, in addition, they would have been horrified with the election last year of a self-professed sexual predator as U.S. president—a crude bully also known to be less than honest and trustworthy in his personal and business life. They would have raised the old-fashioned question of moral responsibility: How could we allow men accused of sexual misconduct on multiple accounts have the power to make decisions that will affect the lives of millions of women and children?

Men (or women who defend such abusive behavior) can no longer hide behind “Oh, that’s just how men are” or “Oh, that’s just locker-room talk”—it’s not and women aren’t putting up with that conceit anymore! Nor can we accept mean-spirited “girl talk” as the norm for women if we want a respectful and safe world for our daughters and granddaughters. I hear many people profess their “Christian beliefs” while judging or disrespecting another. How thin can someone slice their so-called “Christian beliefs” before their words and actions have nothing to do with being “Christ-like”?

“Love one another” is not always the easier thing to do; but it’s simply the right thing. When we have the courage to speak and act from our heart, then everyone wins. If we speak and act from fear and exclusion, resentment and hate, then we get the toxic world we have today. If the only remedy to fear is love, then each of us have a lot of loving to do!

Thank you, Kay, for your service. Please make it count for the well-being of all of us on this fragile and glorious planet we call home. (And I believe there is a place for our pledge of “truth, sincerity and kindness” even in the world of politics!)

In love and sisterhood,

Cornelia Powell

[Published on the Huffington Post December 7, 2017]

{Gratitude Kisses}

Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart 

and not in the mind.

-Lionel Hampton

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

-Aesop

{Meghan Markle: An Activist Since Age 11}

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle love many things about each other I'm sure...and one of those attractions is compassionate activism!

Meghan learned, with support from her father, that even at age eleven you can make a big difference in the world!




I love her speech at the United Nations Women's Conference in 2015 (in her role as UN WOMEN ambassador) where she shares the story! Enjoy....

...and remember, you don't have to be a princess to make a positive change in the world!

{Think Big & Strong & Beautiful}

{Choose. Love What You Choose. Move On.}

{Fierce Love}

"For a long time haters spoke and too many of us just rolled our eyes. Now, when hate speaks, it's very important that fierce love speak back."

~Marianne Williamson

author of 

A Return to Love, The Age of Miracles, Tears to Triumph

  

Marianne Williamson

{It's Your Day!)

Celebrating the United Nations' "International Day of the Girl"....every day!!

Enjoy these inspiring words and lovely artwork in "Girls Speak Out on Inequality" from the United Nations Population Fund website.

Hear these amazing voices of girls speaking out about "Girl Power" ... thank you, United Nations!

And I love the message of the Right to Play website. One of the girls featured is Khansa ... her love of playing soccer gave her the courage to say 'no' to any early marriage and to convince her parents to let her stay in school!

Go hug a little girl today!! xoxo

{Wake Up to Wisdom}

Wake Up to Wisdom quotes from Sadhguru...mystic, poet, globetrotter, mountain-climber, activist, man-on-a-mission: 

"If the youth of the world stands up for raising inclusive consciousness, we can address every problem on the planet."

"The mind is a powerful instrument. Every thought, every emotion that you create changes the very chemistry of your body."

"The planet is not in peril—only our lives are."

"Passion can choose. Compassion cannot choose—it includes everyone and everything."

"Intelligent ones wonder—idiots are dead sure."

"If we cannot keep our minds peaceful, how can the world be peaceful? The world outside is a reflection of the human mind."

"Love is not an act—it is a quality."

{Choose Your Heroes From Your Heart}

What to tell our daughters?

Have women like Louise Hay as your heroes!

"In the infinity of life where I am, all is perfect, whole & complete." 

~Louise Hay

{Sun & Moon & Harmony}

On this day of the "Great American Eclipse"—a total Solar Eclipse that spans an area across the entire continental United States (the first since the country's birth in 1776 when a total Solar Eclipse was visible only in the continental U.S., according to astrologer Steffan Vanel)—is a great time to consider "appearances." 

In a blink of a moment, the small Moon only "appears" the same size as the huge Sun, obscuring its light. Or as Steffan explains: the more unconscious Lunar energy—"instinctual programs of childhood—extinguishing the conscious Solar light of the Soul's essence." (However, it's only for a moment; so keep watch over your own heart!)

Where else in our lives are "appearances" having a great consequence? What's really "real" anyway? Stay awake, aware, conscious; fill yourself with your own light for those hazy, dark moments...and breathe your attention within, even as you gaze heavenward!

Sound shaman and clairvoyant Norma Gentile shares this about staying "true" to your best self:

The August 21st eclipse that passes over the U.S. is about breaking the societal enthrallment with what is now centered around politics. It is about breaking the entrainment that is drawing people away from seeing what else is happening in their lives. This eclipse opens our heart space and our own body of integrity, to whatever is true for each person to express into their lives and hence into our shared world.

And there's this celestial delight! Maria Popova's "sun and moon" post on her always-inspiring "BrainPickings" website is a lovely reminder about "ancient allegorical reflections on the universal themes of life, love, time, harmony, and our eternal search for a completeness of being." 

Gazing heavenward in cosmic wonder is always a fun way to expand our imaginations, connect with our essential self, and bring a sense of harmony to our lives! Maria features the charming book, Sun and Moon: Folk Tales by Various Artists, that will do just that:

“The dark body of the Moon gradually steals its silent way across the brilliant Sun,” Mabel Loomis Todd wrote in her poetic nineteenth-century masterpiece on the surreal splendor of a total solar eclipse. Nearly a century earlier, in his taxonomy of the three layers of reality, John Keats listed among “things real” the “existences of Sun Moon & Stars and passages of Shakespeare.” Indeed, the motions of the heavenly bodies precipitated the Scientific Revolution that strengthened humanity’s grasp of reality by dethroning us from the center of the universe. But, paradoxically, the Sun and the Moon belong equally with the world of Shakespeare, with humanity’s most enduring storytelling — they are central to our earliest sky myths in nearly every folkloric tradition, radiating timeless stories and parables that give shape to the human experience through imaginative allegory.

Thank you Maria Popova and Steffan Vanel and Norma Gentile!

{The 19th Amendment....}

On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting American women the vote.
"May we never forget the plight," reminds Maria Popova of 'Brain Pickings'....who also shared these anti-suffragette postcards from the early 20th century (yikes!) ...which she calls "a brief pictorial history of socially sanctioned sexism."

And may we never forget the courage of so many women.... Thank you!   

{Life Is Love....}

"Life is love. All else is imagined confusion."

-Byron Katie

{Love comes more naturally...}

Thank you, President Obama, for reminding us!

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

-Nelson Mandela

(On August 12, 2017, after the racists events in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Obama tweeted this quote; it became the "most liked" in Twitter history.)

{Hey, Girls.....}

"Let's Make AMERICA Smart Again." 

-Neil DeGrasse Tyson

{First Girl President!}

I was visiting family in Alabama last November; I arrived a few days before the election (I had voted early in North Carolina) and my four great-nieces were so excited about the first woman president! Just turned 18, Ella was thrilled to be voting for the first time—and what a landmark time to vote. Six-year-old Ina showed me all the things she had written in her school notebook like: "Hillary! Our First Girl President!" drawn inside a big, pink pendant! 

When we all awoke that Wednesday morning to the heartbreaking news, I told Ina that Hillary didn't win, so "YOU may be the first girl president!"

I thought of that today when I read in Vogue, "In the Aftermath of Hillary Clinton's Loss, More Women Want to Run For Office Than Ever Before"—so maybe little Ina will not be first, but the 3rd or 4th woman president! (She won't mind!)

Senator Kamala Harris of California 

{If only our eyes....}

If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies how very different out ideals of beauty would be.

-Unknown

{A Revolution in Tenderness}

My article about a princess and a pope, "A Revolution in Tenderness," published on Huffington Post. 
(Everyone needs to 'try a little more tenderness'....) Enjoy! 



[The article is an excerpt from my book-in-progress, tentatively titled, From Princess to Goddess & the Rebirth of Love.]

{Be Kind}

Amen.

{Born A Crime}

A remarkable story of childhood....and the courageous mother who braved his path! Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah.

{Girls & Sex & Peggy Orenstein}

When writing about the "princess myth" in my books and articles, I have often quoted the wonderful Peggy Orenstein who has been chronicling the lives of girls for over 25 years. I first discovered her insightful work in her 2011 book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter. 

Peggy's latest book, Girls & Sex, "looks at how pop culture and pornography affect the sexual expectations that girls put on themselves and that boys project on them." Read her interview with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air"...where Peggy shares when her "daughter was heading toward adolescence, it put her in a bit of a panic because she'd heard so much about how girls were treated in the so called hook-up culture."  

Peggy's work, and these illuminating interviews on NPR, are not just for parents, but for all of us who have received "mixed messages" about self-esteem and appearance, sex and pleasure....

{Tread Gently with Love}

{Deeeeeep Breaths, Everyone!}

{Springtime Magick}

My friend Elizabeth Locey (Priestess Extraordinaire), shared about this first day of Spring Equinox magick:

"Today is the beginning of a new cycle, the new astrological year as the Sun crossed from the last sign of the zodiac (Pisces) into Aries, the first sign, this morning. In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the first official day of Spring, but traditionally (before Julius Caesar imposed his calendar with a random January 1^st new year, and even well beyond that for the agrarian people who were more connected to the cycles of the Earth) this was celebrated as the new year. In modern Iran, it is still the New Year, the Persian calendar having its roots in Zoroastrianism.

"Today is a High Holy Day, one of the 8 spokes in the Wheel of the Year, made up of the 2 equinoxes, the 2 solstices, and 4 cross-quarter days. If you are located in the Northern Hemisphere, I encourage you to take some time today to go outside to commune with the Earth, and celebrate Spring. Look for shoots of new growth in nature, and let your heart overflow with gratitude at the bounty that is provided to us. Remember that we always have everything we need, if we only look hard enough and connect to Gaia’s infinite energy."

I love that we share this history, this ancient wisdom, this mythology of life with our daughters and sons! Connecting to the heart and soul of life connects us more deeply to each other, yes? 

Abundant Springtime to us all...and enjoy a bit of out-of-doors every day!

{Celebrating Women}

Celebrating International Women's Day is a celebration for the well-being of everyone, for the vibrancy of the planet, and the beauty of it all!  

“If the world can be saved, it will be women who do that.

And they do not do it with wars. They do it with words.”

-Vigdis Finnbogadottir, the world's first democratically elected female president (Iceland 1980-1996)

Let your brilliance shine...in word and deed! xoxo

{Charlie Knows...}

{Be Here Now}

Spiritual teacher and author of "Be Here Now," Eckhart Tolle, shares the key to inner joy, the one thing you should know about guilt, and more essential advice! Or as fan Oprah Winfrey calls this list of some of his most famous quotes: "Eckhart Tolle's 13 Rules for Happiness." Here's one....read them all!

{Women Rule!}

Women in the World recently featured "Anna Wintour discusses women, politics, and a year of firsts for Vogue"...highlighting the Vogue editor's recent interview in the Wall Street Journal and Vogue's March 2017 "Women Rule!" cover. (All part of the magazine's 125th anniversary fete.)

Pop Sugar celebrates the cover celebrating "beauty in all forms" with: "Vogue's March Cover Is a Powerful Push in the Right Direction." And Fashionista adds: "Vogue Taps a Bevy of Diverse Supermodels for Its March Cover" ...quoting one of the models: "With all that's going on in the world, this covers makes such an important statement."

{Power without Love....}

Amen.

{Women on Women and the New Feminism}

Charlotte Hays, in the Independent Women's Forum ("all issues are women's issues"), asks: "Was the Women's March the New Face of Movement Feminism?" Her essay is an analysis of Amanda Hess' article, "How a Fractious Women's Movement Came to Lead the Left." Hays, who doesn't seem to be a fan of what the Women's March was truly about (and it was not about Donald Trump), writes:

"Amanda Hess has a long piece on the Women's March in the New York Times magazine. Hess of course is a big fan of the march, but her story has some background information that will be interesting to those of us who would not be caught dead in a pink pussy hat."

Whether we're "for" something or "against" something, we can always come from love. Otherwise, it's just a stand for fear and hate. Deeeeeep breaths, everyone!
Read on....