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Month: October 2018

Evolve

By the Light of the Moon

Reading Time: 5 minutes Each of the moon’s phases supports specific actions we can take to move towards our goals, helping us balance our health, relationships, spirituality, creativity, even our finances. For instance, the “dark moon days” just before the new moon are wonderfully supportive for self-care, pampering, and introspection. The new moon is a great time to start something new, to begin a course of learning, or launch a creative project. When the moon is full it’s a great time to socialize and celebrate.

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Elevate

Entertaining: Simple Yet Stunning

Reading Time: 4 minutes One of the best-kept chef secrets to hosting the most memorable at-home parties is keeping the food simple and adding small details to make it special. After all, a host who isn’t hard at work in the kitchen is a host who can spend more time with guests.

One way to make every minute in the kitchen count and provide crowd-pleasing food is by using wholesome, quality core ingredients like olive oil, fresh bread, cheese and artisan chocolate to create flavorful dishes that are easy to prepare, and leave you with more time to enjoy what matters most: moments with the ones you love.

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Informed

Possibilities: From Tokenism to Community

Reading Time: 8 minutes Veterans of racial justice work have discovered that tokenism is often coupled with assimilation. When a person gets chosen to “break the glass ceiling,” implicit in that selection is the message that “We invited you into our exclusive group. You represent (x) (x=marginalized group). You must act like us, speak like us, behave like us and be loyal to us, what we stand for, our values, our ways, and our foundations.”

This action of tokenism is done as “the method of limited access that gives false hope to those left behind and blames them for ‘not making it.’ Tokenism is a form of co-optation. It takes the brightest and best of the most assimilated, reward them with position and money (though rarely genuine leadership and power) and then uses them as a model of what is necessary to succeed, even though there are often no more openings for others who may follow the model.”

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ElevateThrive

I Want to be a Woman of a Certain Age

Reading Time: 2 minutes I want to be a woman of a certain age.

I want to earn my laugh lines. I want to cackle like a madwoman who doesn’t care who’s watching. I want to laugh until I cry or maybe even pee my pants, just a little. I want to find humor in things that only someone who’s seen some things come and go, can find. I want to giggle with children because I’ve learned what they already know; nothing is ever that serious.

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Engage

Women Crowned Trump and Now They Need to Uncrown Him

Reading Time: 4 minutes “Grab ’em by the pussy.” The words will live in infamy for a very long time.
I don’t need to tell you who’s words those were, because we all know.

More shocking than the words themselves was the fact that after that audio was broadcast on national television for all the world to hear, women went to the polls days later and voted for him. White middle-class suburban women didn’t seem to care that our now President bragged about sexual assault. They followed their husbands to the polls, coasting on their privilege and voted for a man many of us think is a monster.

That one inescapable fact set us up for a Presidency with unthinkable consequences. Donald J. Trump believed he could run the board without the checks and balances that most presidents have to work under. Those checks and balances aren’t about the legislature and the courts. I’m talking about the checks and balances politicians have to ride based on a representation of the people.

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Informed

Kavanaugh, Rape Culture, and the Time for an Important Course Correction

Reading Time: 6 minutes What if there were a groundswell of not just women but men, all calling out the entitled mentality that normalizes the displays of dominance included in every assault? There are those who lament that every small physical gesture is scrutinized and labeled, these days. I think this is a small price to pay as we try to change a worldwide culture where rape is a weapon and a silent epidemic rages, in the form of the indelible, excruciating memories of the victims, without any real consequences for the vast majority of their tormentors.

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