Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the world! This is a fun video, but just so you know, the women break dancing are NOT really pregnant, just the women watching. I was a little worried when I first watched it wondering how one could be pregnant and break dancing!
Here’s to having fun on our special day!
My brother sent me an email about job titles for moms:
A woman, renewing her driver’s license at the County Clerk ’s office,
Was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.
‘What I mean is, ‘ explained the recorder,
‘do you have a job or are you just a …?’
‘Of course I have a job,’ snapped the woman. ’I'm a Mom.’
‘We don’t list ‘Mom’ as an occupation,
‘housewife’ covers it,’ Said the recorder emphatically.
I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself
In the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall.
The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised,
Efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like,
‘Official Interrogator’ or ‘Town Registrar.’
‘What is your occupation?’ she probed.
What made me say it? I do not know.
The words simply popped out.
‘I’m a Research Associate in the field of
Child Development and Human Relations.’
The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and
Looked up as though she had not heard right.
I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words..
Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written,
In bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
‘Might I ask,’ said the clerk with new interest,
‘just what you do in your field?’
Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice,
I heard myself reply,
‘I have a continuing program of research,
(what mother doesn’t)
In the laboratory and in the field,
(normally I would have said indoors and out).
I’m working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family)
And already have four credits (all daughters)
Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities,
(any mother care to disagree?)
And I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it).
But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers
And the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.’
There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she
Completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.
As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career,
I was greeted by my lab assistants — ages 13, 7, and 3.
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model,
(a 6 month old baby) in the child development program,
Testing out a new vocal pattern.
I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy!
And I had gone on the official records as someone more
Distinguished and indispensable to mankind than ‘just another Mom.’
Motherhood!
What a glorious career!
Especially when there’s a title on the door.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
VITAMIN D, the SUNSHINE VITAMIN: It’s that time of year in the northern hemisphere when there is cloud cover about 70% of the time, and many people begin to feel dreary.
I started taking 5000 international units of vitamin D3 every day exactly one year ago in January 2009. I wrote the first of 4 posts about the amazing healing properties of Vitamin D3. My main purpose was to offset this feeling of gloom that I feel in the depth of winter.
After only one week, my mind became clearer and that clarity has lasted. I didn’t expect that result, nor did I figure I’d notice any changes that quickly. It was as though a light had been turned on. (more…)
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
A very simple way to be happy is to join a group of like-minded people. If you are a member of a church, it’s usually easy to find fellowship. If not, you may have to search for the group that you feel a kinship with. You could join Rotary Club in your town–a group comprised of people from all walks of life whose purpose is to support each other, and give service to the community. If you’d like to build self-esteem and meet interesting people, join Toastmasters International, a club that teaches you to how to lead and speak more confidently.
Or if you like to dance or ride bicycles, join a dance class or bike club. I have fun with my walking group, becausee we walk several miles together while engaged in great conversation, and then share light food and chat afterward. There are people who get together to write, cook, knit, discuss investments, or read books. (more…)
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Every Thursday I post a quote or thought for all of us to ponder. Today’s quote is from humanitarian, Lynn Twist, pictured on the right with me in Fairfield, Iowa.
“When a tree falls in Brazil, there is less oxygen in Ohio.”
Lynn is the bestselling author of The Soul of Money and co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance. I had the privilege of taking a long walk with Lynn and my visiting friend and New York Times best selling author, Marci Shimoff, on the walking trails along the lake in my hometown of Fairfield, Iowa. Lynn was visiting our town because she was receiving the Mayor Malloy’s humanitarian award. I found Lynn to be the most genuine down-to-earth yet global thinker I’ve ever met.
Lynn has spent more than three decades working in positions of leadership with many global initiaves including: ending world hunger, protecting the woldks rainforests, empowering indigenous peoples, inproving health, economic, and political conditions for women and children, and advancing the scientific understanding of human consciousness.
She has had many teachers in her life. In addition to being trained by Mother Theresa, some of Lynn’s great teachers are the people she meets in third world countries. For instance, she traveled to Ethiopia during the 1984 famine that killed 1 million people. (more…)
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Thoughtful Thursday: Every Thursday I post a quote or thought for all of us to ponder.
“The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” – Charles Dubois
I noticed that “Blogher of the Week” Award was given to Tangobaby2 for the article about the young mother and 3 children who were homeless on the streets of San Francisco looking for a safe place to stay, escaping from domestic violence. My questions immediately were, “Where is HER mother, grandmother, extended family? How did she end up so alone? What happened to the city shelters?” Aren’t you confounded that this happens in the United States? I am.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Each Thursday I’ll share a favorite quote or thought. Have one you’d like to share? Please do so in the comment section. Author Dr. Christiane Northrup has said: “The state of a woman’s health is indeed completely tied up with the culture in which she lives and her position within it, as well as the way she lives her life as an individual…healing cannot occur for women until we have critically examined and changed some of the beliefs and assumptions that we all unconsciously inherit and internalize in our culture.”
We get conditioned just like the kittens in the Nobel Prize-winning experiment who were raised by scientists in an environment that contained only horizontal lines on the walls of their cages and in the rooms where they were kept.
Once they grew into mature cats, they were placed in a normal environment and proceeded to run into anything with vertical lines. The cats literally didn’t “SEE” anything vertical. Many of us also cannot “see” options or choices outside of our past conditioning either, UNTIL WE CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSE to change the patterns.
Question the validity of our conditioning. What thoughts do you have that limit you?
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
I just returned from two days at the Beyond Rubies 30th annual Women’s Conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It’s a conference for women of all generations and backgrounds to learn practical ideas on how to succeed. Each participant has the chance to network and attend 4 keynote speeches plus 6 of the 100 workshops. I presented one of the breakout sessions with my workshop called Beyond Belief.
5 Main Points Learned at the conference to improve our happiness and success.
1.) Start your day with humor (that’s why women are wearing the red noses in the photo). Keynote speaker, Jim Jewlinski, entertained us and gave us all noses, so we could be silly and laugh when we looked at each other. A day started with increased endorphins is a day set on the right course. (No, we didn’t wear them all day, only for a minute or two).
2.) Each day ask, “What can I do to be on purpose today?”
3.) Start your day with music and dancing.
4.) Insure networking readiness: Always have business cards with you. Keep cards in your glove box, and add business cards to the pockets of your clothes in your closet, so you have them when you go out.
5.) Improve communication: Ask: Is this what you mean? Are you saying? What do you mean?
How do you start your day off on the right foot? How do you network?
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
I love it when science discovers what we already intuitively know. Women are different than men! In this particular study, explained in an article by Ellen Michaud in Prevention Magazine and reprinted on Learning Place Online, it was found that women do not have the usual fight or flight response to stress. It’s not a surprise to me that they instead meet together to bond and communicate. (more…)
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Continuing with the subject from my last entry about women’s rights in the US and Iran…
There is a matriarchal society on a paradise island in the Arabian Sea off the Malabar Coast of southern India, called Lakshadweep. Women enjoy a lofty status on these islands. Property is passed from the mother to daughter and men can only be caretakers. Husbands are supposed to give a salary to their wives on a yearly basis, and if they fail to do that, the women can and do ask for divorces. I find it interesting that the islanders are Muslim, but the women are honored and in charge. Their manner of dress is simple and similar to the Muslims of Malabar coast.
I’d just be curious to visit a matriarchial society, even though it’s a very long and arduous journey to reach these 36 teeny islands off the coast of Kerala, India. The water is clear blue and the beaches sandy.
If you know of other matriarchial groups, send me a comment
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Obama signed the Fair Pay Bill on January 29. I don’t know why, but I’m always surprised when I hear about women’s rights still being an issue, especially in the United States. Of course, I personally feel lucky to have been born here because we have more rights and opportunities than in most other countries. However, I’m grateful for women like Lilly Ledbetter, who fought for her rights, that will benefit our daughters and granddaughters because Lilly actually won’t benefit from the Fair Pay Legislation. Her story is that she worked for Goodyear Tire for 19 years before she found out that she was getting paid less than her male co-workers who had similar experience and education in the same job. (more…)
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
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