empowering women and girls

A Wish For All Girls

My seven year old brought this home in her backpack. She had two wishes for the beginning of the year. One was to not be mean to her brothers and sister and this was the other one. Both brought me incredible joy. A friend posted on Facebook how incredible it is when a child can […]

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Why causes? Why compassion? Why?

On More. And No More. Is it guilt? Is it a sense of over-arching privilege that compels us to reach outside of ourselves? Is it selfish, even self-righteous and narcissistic? Or is it pure, born out of the deepest well of charity, of true compassion? We give because we feel better when we do. Because […]

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Shaping the Future of Your Family

Mothering with intention and deliberateness is embedded in the ethos of my friends April Perry and Saren Eyre Loosli. They live it and breathe it, which is why I became a Power of Moms trainer and affiliate last year. I love these women and I love what they do for mothers. For any of you […]

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A Birth Story for All Mothers

Baby boy is three. Fiesty, mischievous and finally (it took til the fourth child) introducing us to the joys of permanent marker on the walls, scaling impossible-to-climb surfaces and the shortest alpha male you’ve ever seen. His birth was eagerly awaited. We knew he was our last, and I’d lost two pregnancies prior. I honestly […]

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How do you speak about yourself as a mother?

I got some amazing advice a few years back. Watch your language! And I’m not talking about having a potty mouth! Watch how you refer to yourself. We so flippantly “write-off” this part of who we are. Whether it’s “oh, there’s my ‘mom brain’ again!” or “I’m ‘just’ a mother” or “I’m such a bad […]

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Why Does My 7 Year Old Think She’s Fat?

There is steam coming out of my ears this morning (and this right after a post on struggling with my temper). The anger is not directed at my children, nor anyone close to me. It is aimed squarely at our culture. An amorphous shape-shifting enemy that at this moment I don’t know how to fight. […]

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Eat Your Dinner!

My daughter threw a huge tantrum over dinner the other night. An out of control, screaming, monumental tantrum. I did what any tired over-wrought parent would do, and screamed back. I know. It was over food. You know, healthy nutritious food I had lovingly cooked that was delicious as well. She hated it. Made it […]

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What Pregnancy Taught Me About My Body or Shhh, Your Body Is Talking…

I’ve been pregnant six times and have four children. My last pregnancy (with our fourth child) ended 6 years, 51 weeks and 5 days after the first pregnancy (with our first child) began. That’s a heck of a lot of intense physicality to put your body through in a short time. But there you have it. Call […]

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When Mandela Asks…

  Have you ever been with Mandela and he asked you to do something?” Archbishop Desmond Tutu on forming The Elders council. Mandela asked me to do something once too, along with 1,000 others crammed into St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia where he was honored at an ecumenical service. He called us to action, […]

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