Thursday, February 28, 2013

One Woman Spends Her Currency of the Heart Energizing the Global Woman's Movement





Available at Amazon.com
Finding Your Assignment
and Moving Towards your Circle!

Our Currency of the Heart story is about Jean Shinoda Bolen, author, Jungian analyst and activist. Jean spends much of her currency of the heart as an advocate for a fifth UN sponsored world conference on women (5WCW).

 Next week she will speak in New York, at parallel events of the 57th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. More than 5,000 women from many countries of the world have registered and will participate.


"Moving Towards the Millionth Circle: Energizing the Global Women's Movement", Jean's new book, is an invitation to advocacy and action. This book will be given as a gift to many at the conference by Jean and her publisher Conari Press.

Introducing you to my dear friend Jean Bolen is a delight. Jean is one of the most hopeful and inspiring people I know. She speaks often about "assignments" and seems certain about hers. Watching her tend to her assignment gives me the courage and determination to tend to mine which is sharing stories of Currency of the Heart.



"A friend is someone who remembers the song in
your heart and reminds you of it when you have forgotten."
Kenyan Proverb

Jean Bolen is this kind of friend.  Here in her own words is her story.

I continue to take my “assignment” as a message carrier to heart. I believe that critical-mass, grassroots activism transforms consciousness which in turn, changes history. I believe that humanity is at a crossroads and that what women do in the next few decades will determine the fate of life on this beautiful, abundant planet.

I’m an advocate for a UN sponsored 5th World Conference on Women (5WCW) as a rallying point that would raise consciousness, network women worldwide and at a time of transition, could be the tipping point

Activism and individuation (to find a meaningful, inner directed, chosen life-path) come together when the choices we make express who we are. There is a soul purpose to life. Be centered, and archetypes, dreams and synchronicities provide depth and direction. As one phase of life shifts into the next, energy becomes free to take on something that is personally meaningful, fun, creative and motivated by love—my definition of “assignment.”

The author copies of Moving Toward the Millionth Circle were delivered on January 21, 2013, Inauguration and Martin Luther King Day!  Such an auspicious beginning and such a delight to hold the little book in my hands. In this author-mother’s eyes: she is gorgeous! My publisher provided 2000 copies to give away at the UN during the CSW meetings. They will be given to NGO delegates by other delegates who volunteered to help gift the books in one-to-one conversations. A random method that invites synchronicity. After March 1, the book will be released for sale through amazon.com

I wrote this sister book/sequel to The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World for heart centered activists who are motivated to act by compassionate action, a sense of sisterhood, or fierce mother bear protectiveness which is a combination of love and outrage. I wrote it when efforts for a 5th World Conference on Women (5WCW) encountered obstacles and resistance even after the UN Secretary General and President of the General Assembly issued a joint statement in strong support on International Women's Day, 2012, and I turned to writing as an expression of my activism. The last UN women's conference was in Beijing in 1995 --before widespread use of the internet, way before the millennial generation entered adulthood.

I wrote it to inspire you to act out of consciousness and choice to step up and take on what is meaningful, fun--even when difficult, and motivated by love, which only you can know to be true. Activism is then an individuation step and soul work. I wrote it so more circles with a sacred center would form and groups in existence might transform into circles. I wrote it with the hope and intention that it would be in print when the UN Commission on the Status of Women met the first two weeks of March 2013 and that I could gift copies of the book away to NGO delegates and UN people. This became possible because of exceptional support from my publisher (Conari). Synchronicity, serendipity and grace helped all along the way.




I wish now that I had included how an idea spreads geometrically with the example of the 3 to the 19th power (it is in the Preface to the paperback of Urgent Message From Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World.)  If three women speak of something each believes is true to 3 others, and they in turn speak to 3 others, in 19 steps the message will reach 1,162,261,487. When a critical number of people change beliefs in what is possible, then perceptions and actions follow.  This Inauguration Day was a reminder.  Remember history? Slavery and denying women the right to vote was once what was. These expressions of patriarchy were transformed. Compassion and courage grow in a circle of equals with a spiritual center--as members of AA know. In the consciousness-raising groups that became the Women’s Movement in the 1970s, equality was a sacred mission.


I believe that the feminine principle is rising into consciousness through women and exceptional men and that the fate of planet and humanity depends upon each of us believing in the possibility of transformative change in our families, communities, institutions, countries, and the world. To believe leads to action which changes us as well what we want to change--when done with love, hope, perseverance, courage and optimism



Activism is a personal choice. It is a passion for a cause expressed

through actions, funding, communication, as well as prayer, rituals, and art.

Listen to Jean Shinoda Bolen recite her poem "Untapped Source of Peace"

The written words to "Untapped Source of Peace can be found on 
Jean's website http://www.jeanbolen.com/



Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D,Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and an internationally known author and speaker. She is the author of The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, The Millionth Circle, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don't Whine, Urgent Message from Mother, and Like a Tree with over eighty foreign translations. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, a past board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women and the International Transpersonal Association. She was a recipient of the Institute for Health and Healing's "Pioneers in Art, Science, and the Soul of Healing Award", and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She was in two acclaimed documentaries, the Academy-Award winning anti-nuclear proliferation film Women—For America, For the World, and the Canadian Film Board's Goddess Remembered. The Millionth Circle Initiative (www.millionthcircle.org) was inspired by her book and led to her involvement at the UN. She is the initiator and the leading advocate for a UN 5th World Conference on Women (www.5wcw.org), which was supported by the Secretary General and the President of the General Assembly on March 8, 2012.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Currency of the Heart Comes to Norwalk, CT


One woman, One good idea and a Few good Friends was the recipe for a new community project. Today there is a vibrant, exciting new ESL(English as a Second Language) center in Norwalk, CT started  by Patricia Krause, a longtime Norwalk, CT resident.



“Do your little bit of good where you are.
It’s those little bits of good put together 
that overwhelm the world.”
Desmond Tutu

You have to be careful when talking to Pat she can spin a good story and intrigue you with an opportunity in a  minute. With a smile on her face and blue eyes twinkling, she will announce a new idea.  You’ll notice yourself getting excited and eager to say “I’ll help”. You must be on guard, she will pull you in with her enthusiasm. She’ll make the project sound so exciting and such fun you will say yes before you know it.  This is how the new English classes got started and now 27 volunteers have all said yes and teach the classes every Tuesday and Thursday nights.

How did it begin?

Pat often drove by the long line of immigrant men, on the Lowe St. Bridge, in Norwalk . They were mostly Spanish speaking abd stood in line, waiting to be hired early every morning.  Pat wondered – how do they manage with only a few words of English.  She stopped one morning and talked to the men. Asking them directly, 

Do you speak English?” 
The day laborers, replied “un poco
Pat speaks Spanish and continued with her questions.
Would you like to learn English?
Would you come to a class?
The men answered  “Yes.” to both questions.


Pat has a love for Spanish speaking people which developed over time when she lived in Brazil and later when she worked with women weavers in Guatemala.

For more than  20 years, Pat created a market in the US for products woven by Guatemalan women’s cooperatives. She befriended the women, started a micro lending program, a clinic and an education program.. She eventually founded Mayaworks, a fair trade, nonprofit organization that brings the Mayan women’s hand-crafted products to market.

With a knack for noticing a need and the courage to begin to fulfill the need Pat began the ESL program. The  positive response from the men on the bridge, was all Pat needed to moved into action. She decided to start the classes  called some friends, set up a table, under a canopy, on the bridge, and began early one morning. 

Last night I went to the class and was amazed by the joy , laughter and the energy level in the room. Everyone was engaged and smiling and happy. I wanted to be a part of this. Could I teach English to these Spanish speaking immigrants I found my self asking this question before I realized I was becoming involved. That is how it is there. Just being there makes you want to a part of the process. I became the person everyone had to introduce themselves to and then find another friend to begin the introduction all over again. An English lesson in progress.

Everyone seems to be having fun. Lessons are taught with calendars, maps, newspapers, role play and white boards.Every student has a notebook and is diligently writing new words in the notebook.

Now 13 months later the classes are in full swing, meeting in the basement of Calvin Reformed Church on Tuesday and Thursday evenings with 27 volunteer teachers and attendance of 25 or more day laborers, every evening.

Pat Tells me, “Since September, our new school year, we have focused on "Attendance Persistence," that is, emphasizing the importance of maintaining good attendance once students walk in the door.  We are doing this by rewarding good attendance:  Each student buys a book for $10 when they begin the classes. Once a student comes 10 times, he/she receives his/her $10 book money back...with applause and fanfare.  


In Pat’s words, “Their goal - and ours - remains as it was in December 2011 :  for the day laborers to increase their work opportunities through improved conversational English.”.  
The students are bringing their friends and new neighbors and the class is growing.

One volunteer said to me It is all about love and relationships.

From the community, "Pat,Most of the things we have left behind have begun to recede into the background, but the ESL at the bridge is one thing I would dearly love to be a part of! What a great idea to give them a real reason to use their English!"   from SP











Pat and her friends, the volunteer teachers of the ESL class at New Day Center of Norwalk are spending their “Currency of the Heart” in their home town.  

Where are you spending yours?


Rosemary

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Why Currency of the Heart?



In my dream an angel shrugged and said, 
“If we fail this time it will be a failure of imagination.” 
and then she placed the world gently in the 
palm of my hand.



This message was on a Story People card. (www.storypeople.com) It captivated my imagination. I ordered hundreds of these cards and sent them to many over the years. Perhaps I influenced a few but mostly I was influenced by the message myself.

It is time now, for me, to tell the stories of kindness I see in the world, hoping that the kindness in these stories will become contagious and spread like a virus.


What Does Currency of the Heart Mean?
Watch the Valentine's Day Montage and find out.

*(Click the [  ] box on bottom right corner of video to play as full screen)



 The kindness in my community during the flood this fall was outstanding. When friends of mine heard my neighborhood was being evacuated they called and said, “Pack your bags and come here – stay as long as you need to stay”. My neighbors offered me keys to their homes, telling me to come in any time - make coffee, tea get warm, rest. Someone put a Christmas wreath on my house when I wasn’t able to live there. Someone else left a bag of oranges and grapefruits for me. Another friend offered me her condo for as long as I needed it, saying, she wouldn’t be there all winter.

 Choose Kindness is the Fairfield Public Library’s theme for the one book one town effort and a blue T-shirt is on display and for sale with the words - Choose Kindness. That is the idea behind Currency of the Heart. May we all be inspired to Choose Kindness. In large and small ways kindness is the Currency of the Heart.



Today is Valentines Day we are launching the Currency of the Heart Blog today. The following week we will post the first story.  At the UNCSW 57 in NYC on March 2, we will distribute a Currency of the Heart nondenominational bill as a request for stories.

We believe that by telling stories of kindness and generosity that we will increase the kindness we see in the world by spreading the currency of the heart.

The stories will be as simple as a woman in the supermarket saying to me “Here take my chicken” after she heard me asking if there were any more cooked chickens. Or a girl growing her hair for Locks of Love, Or Bill And Melinda Gates starting the Gates Foundation or Women Moving Millions or my granddaughter crocheting hats to raise money for the local animal shelter.

All these acts of kindness or generosity and everything in between is an act of spending currency of the heart. The heart moves us to do kind things and heart energy creates an electric magnetic field that is contagious. When we witness an act of generosity, we smile and when we smile we feel better and people looking at us smile too and they feel better. Kindness is contagious. Why not spread something that creates good feelings in our homes and communities. Maybe it will catch on and be good for our world.

Rosemary

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Introducing

Currency of the Heart
An Act of Generosity

Stories that with inspire you 
and touch your heart

Coming Feb 14th, 2013