A Perfect Storm of Events

With all the economic, political, social, and environmental events going on in the U.S. and abroad, it's easy to buy into the doom and gloom that's being thrown at us everyday. Our pockets (or retirement accounts) may be a little leaner, we may have lost faith in our political leaders and system, we may fear our safety, and wonder what type of world our children will inherent, since their forefathers took such bad care of it.

We've been given the gift of taking care of this world while we're here. I believe our inheritance lies in taking care of each other, our earth, and ourselves by nurturing our talents. As women and mothers, we have a large responsibility on our shoulders to make this world better.

But, by not knowing our true value we women have stepped aside. Unfortunately, throughout history and throughout most cultures, we've been told that we don't bring much to the table. To our detriment, woman's value has largely been linked to domesticity. The following definition for domesticity was taken from http://www.socialpolicy.ca/d.htm .

"a factor affecting the changing nature of the family, the belief that biology is destiny, that women's capacity to reproduce and that they are smaller than men in size means that men are and should be superior to women. The belief that family and individual life is most fulfilling when experienced in a private household where women are chief homemakers and caregivers. Also associated with the idea that women have moral and temperamental qualities that are best expressed in the personal and domestic sphere of life."

This definition speaks clearly of what societies throughout the world have deemed as male and female "roles". Seldom is this thought spoken publicly. Heaven forbid, if someone says it, then they're classified as sexist. But, haven't we all fallen in line with our "roles", depending on our sex. So, rather than chastising a man for vocalizing this thought, shouldn't we also look in the mirror to see if we subscribe to the same way of thinking.

So, herein lies my point. We women, as a whole, are sexist against ourselves. We've bought into the propaganda that men are dominant and are supposed to be in charge. This in turn, has led the world down its tumultuous path. Where we are right now, with all the chaos that's going on in the world truly is a perfect storm of events for us. We have to regain hold of what we're supposed to be contributing to the world. Surely we can effectively raise our children and lead this world to a better place at the same time.

So, how do we do this? If each woman would take the time to commit to working on at least one effort in her lifetime, amazing results would take place. We can focus on helping out locally, nationally, or internationally. Pick what's close to your heart or that you'd like to learn more about, whether it's economic, political, social, or environmental. Your efforts can be small or large, just know that every bit helps. Our leadership will get this world on the right track. Now is definitely not the time to play small.

A Long-Term Assignment for You:

1. Find an area that you'd like to place your efforts. Again, choose areas dear to you or areas you'd like to learn more about.

2. Research the best ways you can help. Investigate companies committed to your same area of interest via the Internet.

3. Make contact with your chosen organization/group. Or, launch your own organization.

4. Decide how much you can help now. For example, it can be one hour a week or one hour a month (but make a habit of contributing at least once a month).

5. Look for opportunities for leadership within whatever effort you've chosen.