Yes, YOU Have Something to Say

Act #181:  Find your voice, no matter what it sounds like:  loud, quivering, soft, or even the one that lies deep within you.  Trust in it. Embrace it.  Listen to it.  Use it.

 

Six months ago, I wrote the below inaugural blog, not fully understanding just how transformed one might become after waking up at 5 a.m. for 180 straight days (yes, that includes weekends and holidays). You see, it took me 40 years to find my voice - 40 years to find the courage to believe that I mattered.  And the funny thing is once you learn to trust in your voice, no one can take it away.  Sometimes people start listening.  And if you're really lucky, you might actually inspire someone else to find theirs. 

 

Thank you for listening.  I think there were a good 30 or so people who read my first blog.  These days about 800-1000 of you visit with me every day and share your personal journeys as you too, struggle to make small differences in the world.  I am inspired by your collective will to do good.  I am inspired by your belief in a world that is good...and just...and fueled by the best part of human kind - love.  I am inspired by your voice.  Here's to 180 more days (at least) of speaking up and speaking out.

How It All Started: Add Pink to Your (Son's) Closet

To be an activist is to "act" in support or opposition of a worthy cause.  I've never seen myself as an activist.  Like many of you however, I often get completely and utterly overwhelmed with the suffering and injustices that seem to be multiplying all around me - in humanity, in our environment, in our spirits.  As a Generation-X female juggling a career, motherhood, a 2-hour daily commute, and aging parents - for years I struggled with the question:  Can a 5-foot-one, painstakingly average, already-stretched, 40-year old woman living in Berea, Kentucky really make a difference at all?  This blog is an attempt to commit to one small act each day that supports the principles in which I believe - fairness, a violence-free world, cooperation, diversity, respect for the earth, and basic human acceptance.  You're probably already demonstrating "activism" in your daily life without even realizing it.   Trust me, if a regular 'ol gal like me can call herself an activist, so can you.  It's gonna take all of us.

January 1, 2013
Act #1:  Adding pink, glass slippers to my 5-year old son's dress-up trunk. Allowing my kid to be a kid, to imagine and create freely without the confines of gender stereotypes.