Happy Thursday, dear friends. Boy, did my day take a detour yesterday! I have a very full week and so I was trying to plan ahead and get tasks completed so that I could really enjoy a few fun things I had planned. Life had other plans, and I had to go with the flow.
My youngest didn’t feel well, and she is up at college, but because of more snow, her classes were canceled for a few days. She wanted to come home and be with momma. Not a big deal to pick her up in general as she is close, but it had snowed again.
Out to shovel the driveway, then check on my parents and their feral cats. By the time I got going it was already dark and my driving glasses were broken, so I had to drive even more carefully than usual. We got home well past dinner time and thank goodness my dear husband brought home take out.
I was pretty happy to have remained peaceful and focused throughout the day. You might say I was even feeling smug, but then my other daughter decided to come home and stay the night. This normally would be a simple thing, but her bedroom wasn’t made up, I still needed to do some work, make a bagged lunch for my husband, wash and iron shirts, take a shower and plan my day for tomorrow. Sigh. I stayed focused.
Others didn’t. They wanted to complain. They wanted to vent. They wanted tending for being sicky, or for me to spend time relaxing with them before they went to bed. It was hard for me to stay balanced between what I needed to do, how I wanted to feel and the feelings of others.
Sometimes, there comes a point, where we can’t do it all, and a well of overwhelm starts to surface. We can choose to shove it back down, allow it to surface and blow, or we can ask for help.
I simply took a deep breath and told everyone that I knew it was stressful to change direction in a day, but we were well underway and let’s all just relax. At first they were taken aback, but I persisted in asking them for their help in keeping everything on an even keel and they eventually came around.
It seemed pretty unusual to ask others to assist in helping me to keep my balance, but the outcome made me realize what an awesome tool this can be in any situation. Simply letting other people know how things are for us, and how we want the energy to flow, can certainly help bring about a positive outcome.
A brutal attack and murder in Turkey spurs women into action against gender oppression.
As the mother of two daughters, I intend daily for a world that will support their blossoming. The anchoring of the divine feminine in our evolving world is a monumental factor in balancing the energies, and thus, keeping the feminine down is a constant battle ground.
In the wake of the brutal rape and murder of Ozgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old psychology student, Turkish women have had enough. They are coming out en masse and on social media against the shocking gender inequality and violence that exists within their nation.
In direct contradiction to traditional funeral ceremonies within the country, the women attending Aslan’s memorial would not allow men to touch her coffin or lead the procession. They are tired of keeping silent and allowing men to take away their safety and rights as human beings. Since 2003 domestic violence has increased by an astounding 1,400% but the services provided to women and families are wholly inadequate.
The country is significantly divided both politically and religiously. Over the last several decades the rights and protections afforded to women have eroded, as politics have increasingly turned in favor of more traditional and patriarchal mandates.
Women have led the way in protest, and about half the protestors at the Gezi park demonstrations were female. They are struggling to find a voice in a country that has turned away from them, as the rest of the world seems to be moving into more equality. Turkey is considered a modern country but it is ranked 125th out of 142 in the UN Global Gender Gap study, with politicians publicly stating that women should only focus on motherhood.
I hope that bringing light into this shadow world of repression and subjugation will assist in shifting gender inequality in this nation. Social media has made significant inroads into the darkness. Many stories are being brought into the world view that may not have made it out of the country, were it not for the efforts of internet based activists, many of whom are Turkish women.
A group of young girls takes the top prize in an international Future City design competition.
A group of middle school girls from Michigan took the top national prize in the annual Future City engineering contest. Groups competed from all over the world designing future cities. The cities were based on the SimCity computer program, but with a twist. They must be designed to include urban agriculture, where the products would support the nutritional requirements of the community.
They also had to build their scale models entirely out of recycled materials. The girls modeled their city for placement in Haiti and they named it “Lekol-la-fre,” which means Fresh Town in Creole Hatian. The city produced sweet potatoes and chickens to feed the population, and the girls wanted to focus on how urban agriculture could be supportive to a devastated country.
I love the idea of getting kids interested in how the cities of the future will be created. These types of competitions, which allow young people to use their imagination and creative skills, outside the strict regimens of the current public education system, can spawn some amazing out of the box ideas that will eventually change the world.
I am also thrilled to see young women taking an active role in skill sets that have traditionally been the purview of men. It will take a balanced energy to create the new, and that means the more creative beings from both genders focused on all issues, the more forward movement will be possible.
Kid Geniuses Win Top Prize Designing a City of the Future by Alexandra Dukakis for ABC News
And finally…
Otters, the lovers of the animal kingdom.
Enjoy this adorable compilation of otter couples enjoying each other’s company. I have always adored these furry little water creatures, and they really do seem to exude love and care for their families.
Otter Love by Oliver Noble for Huffington Post Good News
That’s the news for today. Have a heart-centered day. I hope to see you back here tomorrow for more news.
Be Well. Be Joy. Be Love!
Alex