Tag: mother

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Mother’s Day Gift



We are all born to be a blessing, writes Rachel Naomi Remen.

As Mothers ....

~~~ and please remember that we do not need to be biological mothers to be mothers in the broadest sense ~~~

... when we gift ourselves by claiming our Beauty and "blessing-ness", we give those gifts to the world and particularly to our collective daughters.

Tania Wursig

Would you please pause and drink that in?  

For it is truer than true.

Then give yourself a Mother's Day Gift by repeating these lines to yourself:

I am a blessing to this world.

I am full of Beauty. Ravishing, astounding Beauty.

I delight the Universe.  My presence brings Joy.

I offer gifts to everyone in my life.

I am a blessing to this world.

Melissa Harris

Many of us did not receive this mirroring as children. The adults around us did not reflect back to us our indescribable Beauty, our limitless delightfulness, our unique gifts.

And then our Beauty becomes hidden and silent and unknown.

Tania Wursig

Often we unconsciously turn to other people, hungry for that mirroring and hoping (usually unconsciously) that they will heal us.  

We find, inevitably, that they can't heal us.

But we can heal and whole ourselves.

We can mirror back to our Young Selves
and our Whole Self
the breath-taking, heart-stopping Beauty
that is us.

Richard Davies

As your Mother's Day Gift to yourself: Take up the way of mirroring back your own Beauty to yourself. Daily. Seriously, spend 5 minutes a day, 10 if it feels good.  Use the phrases above or create your own.  Continue for 4 weeks - and keep going, if you like.  

Notice how you feel before, during and after this practice. Notice how the flow of your life evolves over time with this practice.  As well, how does your view of your Self and the World shift?

This practice can be truly world-shaking.  We return to our innate
Beauty and Blessing-ness.



May all mothers, daughters, sisters, fathers, sons and brothers be blessed with these gifts.

Sisters, would you please share you respond to this?  That would be one more gift.

Donna Iona Drozda

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Coming of Age Ceremony for Girls Filmed

Under the light of the Full Moon, I am trembling to share my enormous gratitude to everyone I have ever circled with.  It is thanks to my friends, students, colleagues, teachers and family that I stand here with the capacity to celebrate and share with you that there is a practical path toward toward the vision that every girl on the planet can be mentored in the lore of womanhood.

Fort Collins Coming of Age  Ceremony Filmed 

Most especially I wish to thank the women and girls of Maiden Discovery Circle, Fort Collins, Colorado, who invited Journey of Young Women and Warrior Films to their Coming of Age Ceremony for Girls last weekend.  We captured some amazing video footage of ceremony under the open sky as well as interviews with moms, mentors, and the girls.

Coming of Age Ceremony

Coming of Age Ceremony, Fort Collins, CO, 11-21-15. Photo by Lillian Krueger

It took my breath away when this community agreed to open up their coming of age ceremony to be filmed - a courageous act of vulnerability in service to vision. These woman and girls are on fire to show the world what it looks, sounds and feels like to usher girls into womanhood with intentionality, joy and mentorship. To show moms what is possible for their daughters, and for themselves. To remind everyone that girls thirst for mentorship and for circling with women and girls....and that every woman has gifts to offer girls on their journey to womanhood.

Co-led by Gina Loughrige, a graduate of the JOYW Mentoring Girls Certificate Training, this Girls' Circle has been meeting every other week for two years.  I cannot wait to share some of the video footage of this coming of age ceremony with you and to tell you more about their story.

Warrior Films

I am delighted and grateful beyond measure to be working in collaboration with Frederick Marx and Warrior Films whose pioneering work in mentorship and rites of passage is already shaking the world and on whose Board I am proud to serve. 

Frederick will use the footage from this Coming of Age Ceremony as well as the interviews of participants to support his World Wisdom Library on the subject of youth rites of passage and mentorship. He may also use it in his long form film on the same subject.

Opening a Flow of Resources into Girls' Mentorship 

What's next?  How can we bring coming of age ceremonies, mentorship, and girls' circles to every girls on the planet?  How can we make this happen NOW rather than in some hazy future?

We are going to gather the women. We are going to welcome all ages and all genders. We are going to work together collaboratively to spread the good news about rites of passage and mentorship for girls, and to empower women locally, globally and online to mentor girls, lead Girls' Circles, and offer Coming of Age to Girls. 

We are going to open a flow of resources into Girls Mentorship!

A Collaborative Process 

We'll create this together in collaborative process that is also online, global and local and that empowers and nourishes everyone as we move forward.  Once the collaborative process begins, much practical inspiration and resources will emerge, which we'll translate into do-able actions steps in the real world and online. We are moving toward the truly possible future of impacting the lives of ten million girls over the next five years.

This process will be bigger than Journey of Young Women, and we'll be partnering with and supporting others to fulfill their own complementary visions. We will be giving away power and empowerment and resources as fast as we can. 

Please stay tuned for news about how you can freely participate in the powerful process that is about to unfold.  If you can't wait, simply contact me to let me know you want information about how you can participate, locally or online, as our project moves forward.  We'll be in touch with you!

Full Moon Gratitude

So, community, now you know why I am trembling with gratitude. Look what is before us!  One short video (and more to come) that tells the simple but powerful truth that women can work together to help girls step forward as strong leaders and wise women - and in so doing create massive beauty, deep healing and vibrant community. In these troubled times, we can change the world and we will.

That is something to celebrate. We can sing, dance and weep to sky and earth with joy and gratitude.  

We are enough and we have enough to co-create this! 

If you're not feeling it yet, stay tuned! This is going to happen.

Look for more news with the next New Moon.

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Should My Daughter Be Wearing A Bra?

"Should my daughter be wearing a bra?" is a question that some parents never pose to themselves.  Other parents are unsure. "Listen to your daughter" and "Let go of the idea that breasts are something that need to be hidden" suggests Meagan Murphy in this pithy, powerful guest post.  ~ Katharine

Does my daughter need a bra?

The decision to wear a bra or not wear a bra, or in the mother’s case, whether to buy a bra for your daughter, is one that merits careful consideration.

Breasts are emblems of nature, little buds that grow into unique flowers. These flowers are part of a woman’s body for the rest of her life, and will change as she gets older.

The impulse that these flowers should be tamped down, that breasts should be hidden by bras from a young age, is the same impulse that drives humans to disconnect from nature.

Tips to help you and your daughter make a choice about bras:

  • Decide whether or not bras are something that make you feel comfortable by either trying one on or letting your breasts be free.
  • Listen to your daughter as she discovers how she wants to cultivate her own “flowers” (breasts). Young girls hold a wisdom that has yet to be touched by societal influences.
  • Interact with nature.
  • Interact with your breasts 

The culture says we need bras to disguise our breasts

Let go of the idea that breasts are something that need to be hidden. These thoughts are one imposed by our culture, and while it is necessary to work within societal norms in some contexts, the home you share with your family can be a place of growth and comfortability.

~ Meagan Murphy 

Meagan Murphy is the producer of The Breast Archives (to be released this fall). She brings 20+ years of experience in film and broadcast, including 12 years with PBS. Meagan earned a Communicator’s Award for her work with teens and a Medical Journalism Fellowship. She also completed a 2-year women’s mystery school and Journey of Young Women's Mentoring Girls Certificate Training.

Find The Breast Archives on Facebook. Watch the trailer.

Art by Emilano Ponzi and Daniela Uhlig

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Tell Her About Her Body

Tell her about her body.

To be grounded and confident in her Whole Self, every girl needs to know her Whole Self, and that starts with her body.

Everything begins with the body.

When a girl lives in her body, understands her body, honors her body, she is able to stand up for herself, love herself, tune into her emotions, listen to her intuition, and connect with Spirit.

She's never too young to hear you naming all her body parts, including vulva, labia and anus. They are all sacred.

She's never too young for you to affirm that self-pleasure is good - and that it's private (e.g., bedroom or bathroom with door closed).

She's never too young to know that she is a sovereign being and that her body belongs to her. For example: She gets to choose who touches her and how and when. That includes tickling from Uncle Jorge and hugs from Aunt Ethel.

She's never to young to observe you practicing self-care, including honoring and taking care of your menstrual cycle, if you bleed.

Demonstrate honor and respect for your body and hers.

Over time, tell her the story of a woman's sexuality and fertility and the changes of puberty.

From these, all good things arise. 

Digital art by Kelly Tan.  Photo by Quim Fàbregas


I want to teach girls to understand and honor their bodies
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Your Daughter’s Body-Love Begins with Yours

Show your daughter how to love her body!

Alongside self-care and refraining from speaking "body-shame," one of the most powerful things we can do for our own daughters and for our collective daughters is to tune into our feelings and beliefs about our own body.


In this culture, for many of us, truly loving our body is a daily spiritual practice.

Shining the light of awareness on our own thoughts and emotions about our body is a ginormous step toward releasing body-shame and embracing body-love.

Tenderly ask yourself questions like these. As you do, tune into how your body-mind responds, and treat each response with empathy and love.

  • What about your body do you dislike, hate, judge or criticize?
  • How did you learn to feel/believe this way?
  • In what ways do neglect, ignore or harm your body?
  • If you aim to change or camouflage part of your body that you see as ugly or unacceptable, in what ways to you do this and what are your feelings and beliefs about this?
  • How do you nurture, tend and rejuvenate your body?
  • How do you evaluate or interpret the appearance of others?
  • How would you like your daughter (or your young self, or all young women) to feel about her body? How would you like her to treat her body?
  • What steps would you enjoy taking to have a more beautiful and healthy relationship with your own body?

Sisters, do you see how your own inner work will open the way for your daughter to love and honor her body?

Suggestion:

Print out the list of questions.

Reflect on each question for at least a day, perhaps a week.

Much healing for you, and much body-love for your daughter, lies ahead on this path.

Thank you, sisters, for reading and reflecting.  Stay tuned for more posts about the inner work you can do for yourself and on behalf of our collective daughters.

May we together expunge from the face of the earth the body-shame that has debilitated us for generations.  May the global sisterhood once more love and honor our amazing, sacred bodies.

Much love and many blessings,

Art by Shirokova Inna and Tam Austria

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Mentoring Girls Certificate Training

JOYW's Mentoring Girls Certificate Training  is open for enrollment!

You'll enjoy new content, new resources and new collaborative opportunities in addition to an extensive interactive resource platform offering post-graduate support beginning in 2017. 

Deeper partial scholarships are now being funded by the Mary Krueger Scholarship Fund.

Learn more here.