The Women Moving Millions campaign aims to inspire gifts of a million dollars and above in support of women’s funds across the globe.

The campaign is a partnership of visionary donors and Women’s Funding Network, a global movement of 150 women’s and girls’ funds that invest in women-led solutions to critical social issues like poverty and global security.

In May 2009, Women Moving Millions announced that more than $181 million has been raised through partnerships between 101 donors and 41 women’s funds! This groundbreaking achievement exceeds the original goal of raising $150 million!

To read more and view an informative video, CLICK HERE

A story about Conscious Leadership at work
from The New York Times, February 1, 2010

By Cornelia Dean

This is a story about a waterfall, the World Bank and 4,000 homeless toads.

Maybe the story will have a happy ending, and the bright-golden spray toads, each so small it could easily sit on a dime, will return to the African gorge where they once lived, in the spray of a waterfall on the Kihansi River in Tanzania.

The river is dammed now, courtesy of the bank. The waterfall is 10 percent of what it was. And the toads are now extinct in the wild.

But 4,000 of them live in the Bronx and Toledo, Ohio, where scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Toledo Zoo are keeping them alive in hopes, somehow, of returning them to the wild. This month, the Bronx Zoo will formally open a small exhibit displaying the toads in its Reptile House. Read the rest of this entry »

Join us every Monday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific/3:30 p.m. Eastern we will come together in a bold way to connect women, evoke action, and inspire us all to create a New Earth… one circle, one connection, one step at a time.

To listen in, listen to archived shows, or to learn more, log in at:
http://www.blogtalkradio/circleconnections

To be a part of the conversation:
Call-in Number:                (347) 215-7136

February 8th, 2010 ~ Grandmother to Grandmother
John Ankele and Anne Macksoud, from Old Dog Documentaries are two “old dogs” who are worried about the state of our world and saddened by the suffering we see all around us. They join us to share about their documentary, Grandmother to Grandmother.

Anne Macksoud taught literature, music, and photography in the NY Metropolitan area during the 1960s and 70s.  She left teaching in 1979  to start Leonardo’s Children, Inc., a Slide and Video Production Company.  In 1988 Anne had the opportunity to collaborate with John Ankele on a documentary about various religious traditions, and they have been working together ever since.  In 2008 they formed Old Dog Documentaries, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) video production company whose mission is to create films that  inspire dialog and action on social, economic and environmental justice.

They join us on our show to share about their documentary, Grandmother to Grandmother. This film introduces two outstanding projects – one in the Bronx, one in Tanzania. The founders of these projects are finding simple and effective ways to support grandmothers who are raising grandchildren. Children who were “at risk” are now thriving. Grandmothers who felt hopeless are beginning to hope again.This film introduces two outstanding projects – one in the Bronx, one in Tanzania. The founders of these projects are finding simple and effective ways to support grandmothers who are raising grandchildren.

Important Information on Segue below!

Join us every Monday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific/3:30 p.m. Eastern we will come together in a bold way to connect women, evoke action, and inspire us all to create a New Earth… one circle, one connection, one step at a time.

To listen in, listen to archived shows, or to learn more, log in at:
http://www.blogtalkradio/circleconnections

To be a part of the conversation:
Call-in Number:                (347) 215-7136

There are so many of us ready to match the depth and calling in our hearts to the power of our conscious actions to create meaningful change.

Join us for our next show as we explore expanding the power and authenticity of our leadership through the Seque method:

January 25th, 2010 ~ Transforming Leadership with the Seque
On this show, Hamilton Hayes, co-founder of Collective Intelligence Solutions, joins us to talk about transforming leadership with the Segue. Ham has been working on easy-to-learn and use processes for conducting highly effective group conversations, collaboration and transforming leadership. Community groups, government and business are all facing increasing challenges in how they create, communicate and sustain collaborative, creative and coherent efforts. The Segue, developed by Collective Intelligence Solutions co-founders, Hamilton Hayes and Robert Bystrom, is a group communications protocol designed to meet those challenges. Our mission is teaching people how to think together better and utilize the full capability of their combined intelligence.

***To enhance what will be presented on Monday’s show, have the following reference information in front of you.

Spread the word for what we know will be a an valuable show… Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, it’s a new year and I have been reflecting on what I have to contribute to Circle Connections to expand its meaning and relevance in the sea of women’s communities. Ann, my dear partner, is the outer-activist, and I tend to be more of the inner-activist. The composite of our gifts offers an exciting balance, and playing together inspires a sum bigger than its parts. Our tenacity and committed intention swirls together to reveal the power and define the purpose of women as leaders. We attempt through Circle Connections to inspire, bump into action, and provide a community container to question as we evolve.

An many of you know, for now my life is devoted to the healing journey of my grandson from autism. His inability to connect in the ways we have valued as important have sparked my curiosity. Somehow there is a key gift hidden here in the unexpected world about the power of redefining our ability to listen, tolerate, celebrate, and imagine. Autism isn’t easy to befriend and leaves very little room for the writing that I love, so most of my meditation is done on my feet. Occasionally, and usually when I have no energy left, I am able to grab my computer and blog. When I can, I capture and post an insight or two that tugs at me or touches me as being of value to our journey as the conscious women of the Circle Connections community. I intend to do this more for your benefit and my sanity. Admitting my dreams and intentions in the presence of a creative and talented loving community is an act of holding myself accountable. Read more about my Womanifesto… Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know about you, but I continue peek into my heart to redefine my old thinking and recreate my new and improved relationship with money. As a consciously evolving woman wanting to make a difference I am aware that if I want peace to prevail in the world, I must find peace with my regard of money, hand-in-hand with my belief in my own worth.

As I was snuggling in to a cozy chair in a local cafe for a much needed respite day away from my grandson’s autism, I stumbled upon (by no accident) this valuable Lynn Twist excerpt about money from her amazing book, Soul of Money, which I apparently need to re-read.

This compelling and fundamentally liberating book shows us that examining our attitudes toward money… how we earn it, spend it, and give it away (or don’t) offers surprising insight into our lives, our values, and the essence of prosperity.

Lynne Twist is a global activist and fund-raiser who has raised more than $150 million in individual contributions for charitable causes. Through personal stories and practical advice, she demonstrates how we can replace feelings of scarcity, guilt, and burden with experiences of sufficiency, freedom, and purpose.

Prepare for an ‘ah-ha’ or two, and let me know what this awakens in you…

“We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mind-set of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don’t mean a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn’t two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn’t a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.

In our relationship with money, it is using money in a way that expresses our integrity; using it in a way that expresses value rather than determines value. Sufficiency is not a message about simplicity or about cutting back and lowering expectations. Sufficiency doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive or aspire. Sufficiency is an act of generating, distinguishing, making known to ourselves the power and presence of our existing resources, and our inner resrouces. Sufficiency is a context we bring forth from within that reminds us that if we look around us and within ourselves, we will find what we need. There is always enough. [...]

I am not suggesting that there is ample water in the desert or food for the beggards in Bombay. I am saying that even in the presence of genuine scarcity of external resources, the desire and capacity for self-sufficiency are innate and enough to meet the challenges we face. It is precisely when we turn our attentions to these inner resources – in fact, only when we do that – that we can begin to see more clearly the sufficiency in us and available to us, and we can begin to generate effective, sustainable responses to whatever limitations of resources confront us. When we let go of the chase for more, and consciously examine and experience the resources we already have, we discover our resources are deeper than we knew or imagined. In the nourishment of our attention, our assets expand and grow.”

It is my intention to read this at least once a day, week, or until I really ‘get it’. Care to join me?

Rhonda
rhonda@circleconnections.com

What do Circle Connections, the Creative Ways Conscious Women Lead and Mushrooms have in common?

Paul Stamets believes that mushrooms can save our lives, restore our ecosystems and transform other worlds.

Take a look at this and let us know what it awakens in you (and what you intend to do about it):

rhonda@circleconnectons.com

Ann passed along to me this insightful video of Seth Godin found on TED.

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so. This provided me with juicy thoughts on how his insight applies to the Way Women Lead.

Grab a cup of tea and create about 18 minutes to watch this! With a sense of humor it will stretch you and you will experience some important ‘ah-has’.

I feel inspired, even called, to pass along to you quotes, videos, photos, and experiences that touch me along my path of being a consciously evolving leader and woman. I hope not to think too much before I post them, but rather intuit what is important to share.

That being said, Carole, a dear mentor, artist, mother, friend, sister-grandma, birthing colleague of mine (who dared to jump out of a cake on her 75th birthday surrounded and cheered on by family and friends, brought to my attention this bold  passage written by Mary Daly…

“Ever since childhood, I have been honing my skills for living the life of a radical feminist pirate and cultivating the courage to win. The word ‘sin’ is derived from the Indo-European root ‘es-,’ meaning ‘to be.’ When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a woman trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, ‘to be’ in the fullest sense is ‘to sin.’”

“Women who are pirates in a phallocratic society are involved in a complex operation. First, it is necessary to plunder–that is, righteously rip off gems of knowledge that the patriarchs have stolen from us. Second, we must smuggle back to other women our plundered treasures. In order to invent strategies that will be big and bold enough for the next millennium, it is crucial that women share our experiences: the chances we have taken and the choices that have kept us alive. They are my pirate’s battle cry and wake-up call for women who want to hear.”

And so Daly would like to say:

“I urge you to Sin. … But not against these itty-bitty religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism — or their secular derivatives, Marxism, Maoism, Freudianism and Jungianism — which are all derivatives of the big religion of patriarchy. Sin against the infrastructure itself!”

To read more about Mary Daly, CLICK HERE

Thanks, dear Carole, for daring to be a ’sinner’ and friend. I wish that more women could have dear friends and mentors like you, reminding all women they must give themselves permission to ACT-IN, ACT-UP, ACT-OUT, ACT-TOGETHER and ‘SIN’!!!

Ann and I have been sharing an ongoing reflection about circle process, the role of women in leadership, and the ways women are called to lead.

Ann lives in Florida and sent me an incredible clip about the type of dolphins she sees off her shores.

A pod of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida have developed a remarkable hunting strategy in order to catch fish. Another awesome thing about this technique is that only one female in the pod can create this ring, and it’s always counterclockwise.

Reflecting on this this video clip with me, Ann wrote, “These are the kind of dolphins that we have–they come down the canal, usually just 2 & 3 at a time, and “herd” the fish into a spot.  This is right in our canal intersection or up one of the inlets, then swim really fast in a circle & feed.  All the water fowl (pelicans, herons, cormorands, gulls, etc) take advantage of the easy pickin’s & follow them around, so it’s quite a sight–and noise, with the wings flapping, water sloshing, birds squawking, etc.  This usually happens only in the “winter”, from December through February.

I don’t have any answers, but I have an inkling that women are following a similar process as we circle. Keeping in mind we are not hunters, but nurturers, we create an energy field of creativity, compassion and connection that allows for and fosters transformation of what has been into what is has the power of becoming through our feminine touch.

Take a look and share your reflections:

rhonda@circleconnections.com