Hardiness Zones for Women
Sometimes it’s really lonely being a woman leader, isn’t it? I have found this to be true in my own experience and hear it echoed time and time again among the women leaders in my practice. And it’s no wonder why: we live in a society that tends to be …
Read MoreSpine a Shotlight
You know when someone says something by accident? And it turns out to be this profound statement of truth? I witnessed one of those recently. It happened during a conversation about leadership with some other women at the Maine Women’s Fund. The essence of the conversation was about women stepping …
Read MoreA Quiet Revolution
I recently attended a conference for mothers of boys. The keynote speaker, Kate Stone Lombardi, spoke about our society’s deep cultural belief system that suggests boys need to be pushed away from their mothers, lest they become “mama’s boys” (and therefore feminine…which would somehow be undesirable.) She also made note …
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Riding Two Horses
I’ve come to appreciate a delicate balance. And I assure you, I do not mean “balance” in the typical sense – that droll and droning work-life balance conversation that saturates most women’s media these days and bores me to no end (I’ve officially given up on that term, preferring “integration” …
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Witnessing
There is a line from one of my favorite movies that never fails to stop me in my tracks. It reminds me of our primal need to be seen…to be witnessed in our lives. Susan Sarandon portrays the wife of the main character played by Richard Gere. In this scene, …
Read MoreThe Woman in the Mirror
I had a terrifying experience last year (well, relatively speaking…). I encountered myself and didn’t recognize me – at all. In that split moment, I felt so many conflicting emotions – shame, pride, an acute sort of dislocation from myself and a renewed commitment to improving the accuracy of my …
Read MoreSpare the Spider
Want a wake up call? Listen to this story, and see if you can hear your own story in it. Okay, so there is this spider that, after laying her eggs, lays down in the center of them and slowly begins to decompose. By the time her eggs hatch, she …
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The Women
Last July, in a sea of 3,000 women, I experienced my first all women’s sprint triathlon. The Danskin Triathlon – the longest running women’s triathlon series in the US (celebrating its 20th anniversary this year )- was designed with women like me (“the newbie”) in mind. The hook that got …
Read MoreWake Up
Recently, I was asked to write a piece about activism on my blog. Sure, I said. No problem. In this time, this economy, this political and environmental state…what could be more important, right? But then something happened. I dragged my feet. I kvetched, bemoaned the pressures of writing under a …
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We Can Do This, Ladies
Can you hear it? At first I thought it was my imagination or perhaps wishful thinking, but now I’m absolutely certain: it’s a rally cry. A call to the women of the world to move to action. I’m hearing it in so many different arenas – economic, political, spiritual, organizational. …
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