Give yourself a platform to stand on, something to call your own, a reason to stand firm and strong on your own two feet, in your own beautiful skin.

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Energy Emanates Essence

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A Woman of Valor

Twenty years ago, my father gave my mother a beautiful diamond ring for their 15 year wedding anniversary. I’ve always loved that ring and have felt deeply excited to inherit it from my mother. I was talking to my husband about it and how I adore the myriad ways my father has demonstrated his love for my mother. I wrote a quote in my journal at 16 that said, “The best thing a father can do for his children is love their mother,” and I am now remembering it, because my father has never failed to show me the love he has for his wife. This ring tops all the gifts I’ve seen him give my mother. Well, besides the pajama t-shirt he once gave her that had a big smiley face on it and said “Girlfriend.” It was the funniest gift he ever gave, because it coincided with his goofiness to always answer her phone calls and greet her by saying, “How you doin’ girlfriend?” as if they were a pair of girlfriends ready to get their gossip on. I still laugh about it to this day. So, I began to share the ring story with my husband and was expressing to him my desire for the same life long love affair in our marriage and on this particular day, my mother happened to be visiting. I asked her to take off the ring so I could show it to him. Of course, she could have modeled it herself, but I just HAD to wear it, needed to feel it against my own skin. As I placed this luscious multi-diamond ring on my finger, my mother said, “You’re wearing it upside down. It’s suppose to be worn the other way so it can be seen as the crown that it is.” This was news to me! All along I’d been thinking the ring was two leaves coming together, but then my mother enlightened me and hubby by taking us back to her anniversary day…My husband left this ring for me on our bedroom night stand with a note next to it. Along with his own message, he shared this biblical verse, “A woman of valor is the crown of her husband.” My husband said that the ring was a symbol of that truth for him; that I was his jeweled crown. Whoa! I was blown away. What strikes me as romantic, also strikes me as being profound, because here I am, years later, all grown up, and recently, a beautiful stranger came across my blog and shared this bit of powerful knowledge with me as she said it “fit well” with this Convivial Society for women:

From the inside emerges a story of men manipulated by potent women and nurtured with feminine values…a story that reveals the inner quality of womanhood that transcends the minds of men. The inner light of womanhood is of an essence-quality, of a place the mind cannot touch .This is the secret of the words of Solomon’s wisdom, “A woman of valor is the crown of her husband.” As a crown is above the head and beyond it, so the inner light of womanhood…of the most lofty, enlightened souls, many had wives greater than themselves…this is because these great men, in their personal lives, were already tasting of the World to Come…

Upon having a stranger turned spiritual friend share Solomon’s wisdom with me, I felt the instant connection and synchronicity of that convivial moment in time between two people in love, two people whose love gave me life, and its new connection to this Convivial Society. Perhaps it isn’t new; maybe it’s been something in the making all along…a full circle experience finally coming to fruition. I close by saying, Off with your heads! It’s all about the heart and what it moves you to do. Mine is luring me to go polish my inner crown. Gonna make it sparkle, make her shine, ever so bright.

For more reading on those lofty, enlightened men’s souls, go here.

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On Being Completely Transparent

While online this morning, I went to click out of a window my hubby had open and saw he’d been listening to yet another TED Talk. I didn’t catch the speaker’s name, but in that brief moment, I heard him say, “Be completely transparent…” I turned off the laptop and walked away hearing that line echo in my ear. I’ve since been contemplating it and what has come to mind is what Dr. Wayne Dyer once said, “We’re spiritual beings having a human experience.” I hear various truths floating around in my head that tell me I am already transparent, but have simply lost my way. I’ve followed one too many humans, have learned and lived their worldly ways, acquired their carnal thinking and eating patterns, and have taken a detour from my original, light-weight, naturally, transparent self. I’ve allowed negative thought patterns and experiences to weigh my spirit down, causing me to have a heavy heart and act out of nature. I am only reminded of my transparent self when I have practiced pure love and forgiveness. It is then that I feel light again, as if able to fly…then that I feel anything is possible, that nothing can stop me…penetrate me…a sense of invincibility…transparency. Sounds superhuman. Yes, that is my true nature. In one dimension or another, perhaps it is a form of flight, of floating, that much talked about, yet misunderstood “out of body” experience. What does that really mean, out of body? It’s the flight of spirit and witnessing it. Could it be like seeing God? What a feat! The spirit is formless, therefore non-conforming; it’s capable of going anywhere. Like vapor, like God. Our goal is to be like God, no? Uh oh, the conservative voices in my head are warning me about that sort of phrasing. Sounds blasphemous. Well, somewhere tucked away in this brain gem of mine, certain messages I heard growing up are starting to creep to the surface and make sense. Like the scripture I once heard that said God made man in his own image. What does that mean? It’s not for me to say, but I have faith in knowing that it’s a matter of linguistics and everything is open to one’s own interpretation. Back to being transparent- its original Latin translation keeps things simple- to show oneself. I see this word in a whole new light today. It’s about spirit…mine and yours. It’s about freedom, courage, liberty, to simply be as we were meant to be, how we were all born to be- vulnerable…open…unknowing…flexible…superfluous…enthusiastic…in spirit…completely transparent.

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A Force to be Reckoned With

I find myself reading a brief, well-written biography on the notorious tattoo artist of the popular TLC show L.A. Ink, Miss Kat Von D. It seems more like the foreword on a book. As I read the piece, written by a close friend, what stood out to me most was when the writer mentioned how Kat was “incredibly loyal to her family.” Instantly, I could relate and found something in common with the beauty. She’s not your everyday girl, choosing the body she was born with as her art canvas-something many people wouldn’t comprehend or agree with- and being of somewhat Latino descent, as well as beautiful, I couldn’t help but wonder what her family thought of her work- if they saw it as art or if they simply saw a tattooed body. Did they agree with her chosen way of life? I know how my Mexican mother would view her lifestyle, and the assumptions that would be made about her as a person, but I can’t do that. I respect her work, admire her person. The fact that she is spoken of by friends as a dedicated and loyal member of her family, to her family, tells me perhaps that her family may have supported her aspirations all along. What a huge feat for a woman. To go for what she wanted and be fully backed by the members of her tribe. It’s no wonder she has turned out so successfully and my hope is that she is completely happy. It’s funny how people can be hypocritical. They can smile in your face and then when the time comes to offer up an opinion about you, they chicken out and go with the negative flow of thoughts they may have been harboring about you or your lifestyle or even simply the poor choices you’ve made in your life. People don’t deserve to be judged. Women play a huge role in judging others, one another, themselves, and this is because they are constantly under a watchful eye that doesn’t really exist. It’s all in our mind. And the strength of our heart has the power to combat it. If we could break free from concerning ourselves with what others think of us, stop defending who we are and how we want to live our lives, then we can break the cycle of prejudice and put to rest that hurtful voyeur who dwells within. She is not of your true being. Love your fellow woman and support her art. We all have a desire to create. Women, if given the freedom to be who they want to be, can show the world their wonders. Our place as the bearers of life to this dependent, ever evolving mother earth proves we are the epitome of creativity and a force of nature to be reckoned with.

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To be…to be…never a question.

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Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions and Cash

This is a great book for all the convivial ladies to check out. Money and women make the world go round, but the disconnect between the two is definitely apparent. How’s your relationship with, thoughts about, management of, money?

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Embrace Your Inner Girl

I’m capable of telling it like it is and capsizing boats that merit sinking, but I haven’t always gone “there” for fear of how I might be perceived or no longer received. GASP. An image-conscious, convivial woman?

I wish I could say it isn’t so, but it’s one of the biggest challenges for women (raising my hand) to overcome before reaching

The convivial promise land of “This is who I am, this is how I live…take it or leave it.”

Thankfully, we have a TED talk like the one given by Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues (pictured above) to remind women how important it is to (more…)

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The Ever Inquisitive Bohemian

Bohemians…aren’t they always questioning?

Not only questioning. Defying, rebelling, transgressing, transforming, embracing risk, excess and the idea of Utopia. Bohemians have backbone. They’re willing to suffer for their beliefs, their art. They don’t sell out. They are iconoclastic, incendiary, bombastically volatile and gracefully volatile, sometimes surreal. They have poetry. The Bohemian is drunk on words…

-Excerpt from Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge by Lauren Stover

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Open Your Eyes…Follow Your Heart…Act, Doubt, Act, Doubt, Act, BE.

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Not being treated right? Take your cue, smile, and move on. One less person to worry about.

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Take time to reach God, reach creation, reach you.

(God. Creation. You.)

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