Poem: Women Who Love

Treasure Cave by Lou Jordan

Manifesto: Let Us Be Women Who Love

by  Idelette McVicker on shelovesmagazine.com

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women willing to lay down our sword words, our sharp looks, our ignorant silence and towering stance and fill the earth now with extravagant Love.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women who make room.

Let us be women who open our arms and invite others into an honest, spacious, glorious embrace.

Let us be women who carry each other.

Let us be women who give from what we have.

Let us be women who leap to do the difficult things, the unexpected things and the necessary things.

Let us be women who live for Peace.

Let us be women who breathe Hope.

Let us be women who create beauty.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be a sanctuary where God may dwell.

Let us be a garden for tender souls.

Let us be a table where others may feast on the goodness of God.

Let us be a womb for Life to grow.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us rise to the questions of our time.

Let us speak to the injustices in our world.

Let us move the mountains of fear and intimidation.

Let us shout down the walls that separate and divide.

Let us fill the earth with the fragrance of Love.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us listen for those who have been silenced.

Let us honour those who have been devalued.

Let us say, Enough! with abuse, abandonment, diminishing and hiding.

Let us not rest until every person is free and equal.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women who are savvy, smart and wise.

Let us be women who shine with the light of God in us.

Let us be women who take courage and sing the song in our hearts.

Let us be women who say, Yes to the beautiful, unique purpose seeded in our souls.

Let us be women who call out the song in another’s heart.

Let us be women who teach our children to do the same.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women who Love, in spite of fear.

Let us be women who Love, in spite of our stories.

Let us be women who Love loudly, beautifully, Divinely.

Let us be women who Love.

Quote: Lifting People Up

Mother Mary

Of Dvorak's Mother and Child by Kay Eniem

As a woman and a mother, I am always drawn to Mary's story this time of year. I wonder what she was thinking and feeling. I love this painting as I think it captures her contemplative spirit as well as the holiness of the Christ child.

Others also seem to be thinking of her as well and there were two beautiful posts about Mary this week on Rational Faiths:

A Christmas Search for the Divine Feminine

The Only Gift

Quote: Real Things

Quote: Educating the Heart

Quote: Possibilites

Reading List 2015

LDS History and Plural Marriage 

In Sacred Loneliness 

by Todd Compton

The Persistence of Polygamy 

by Todd Compton

Eliza

by Karen Davidson and Jill Derr

Revelation, Resistance and Mormon Polygamy  

by Merina Smith 

Religion and Sexuality

by Lawrence Foster

Mormon Polygamy

by Richard Van Wagoner

Religion and Feminism 

Jesus Feminist 

by Sarah Bessey

Rebirth of the Goddess 

by Carol Christ

Man's Dominion

by Sheila Jeffreys 

At the Root of This Longing

by Carol Flinders

Women and Authority 

by Maxine Hanks

Faith Unraveled 

by Rachel Evans

Events: Single in the Borderlands 12/20/14 Salt Lake City, Utah

For More Information: 

Sunstone Event Registration

Facebook Event Page

Also read: "The Single Stigma" on Rational Faiths

Quote: Trying

Event: Council of Fifty Meet the Editor

More Information: Signature Books

Events: For the Cause of Righteousness Lecture and Book-Signing

ZION'S BOOKS is pleased to welcome historian Russell Stevenson, author of 'For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism 1830-2013,' for a special lecture, discussion, and book signing, next Tuesday, December 16th, at 7 pm at our store in downtown Provo. The event will celebrate the release of the book, and promises to be an informative and fun evening. Russell will present a short lecture on the intersection of Mormon history, global history, and black history, followed by a Q&A/discussion with the audience. Attendees will get a chance to meet and chat with the author, get a copy of 'For the Cause of Righteousness' signed and inscribed, and enjoy some light refreshments.

This event is free and open to the public.

This Week In Mormons Episode #254

Quote: Gratitude

Events: Wear Pants to Church Day 12/14/14

For More Information:

Facebook Events Page

pantstochurch.com

Faith and Doubt

Redeemed by Kelly O'Neill

“I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me—that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.”

- Anne Lamott

7 Christian Thinkers Who Wrestled With Doubt

Events: BYU Women's Studies Conference 12/11/14

For More Information: BYU Women's Studies

Quote: Healing

Healing by Shira Sela

"You can't go through a traumatic experience, 

return to life as usual and expect to eventually heal. 

You must pay respect to the event in a way that resonates with your spirit 

or it remains forever wounded. 

Ignoring is a complete dismissal of what happened 

and frankly it's disrespectful. 

But I would encourage you not to just be content to heal either. 

Step into your power and be empowered. 

Then go forward and give others permission to do the same. 

It is the ultimate way to honor your wounds." 

Holly Bowerman
hopehealempower.com

Events: Elizabeth Smart at UVU 12/10/14 Orem Utah

For More Information:

UVU Blog

Events: National Day of Prayer to Fight Against Pornography and Sexual Exploitation

For More Information:

Porn Harms

Events: LDS LGBT Suicide & Homelessness Awareness Day 12/07/14

For More Information:

Facebook Event Page

Poem: For My Daughter

art by Natasha Milashevich

FOR MY DAUGHTER

By Sarah McMane

“Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.” – Clementine Paddleford

Never play the princess when you can

be the queen:

rule the kingdom, swing a scepter,

wear a crown of gold.

Don’t dance in glass slippers,

crystal carving up your toes --

be a barefoot Amazon instead,

for those shoes will surely shatter on your feet.

Never wear only pink

when you can strut in crimson red,

sweat in heather grey, and

shimmer in sky blue,

claim the golden sun upon your hair.

Colors are for everyone,

boys and girls, men and women --

be a verdant garden, the landscape of Versailles,

not a pale primrose blindly pushed aside.

Chase green dragons and one-eyed zombies,

fierce and fiery toothy monsters,

not merely lazy butterflies,

sweet and slow on summer days.

For you can tame the most brutish beasts

with your wily wits and charm,

and lizard scales feel just as smooth

as gossamer insect wings.

Tramp muddy through the house in

a purple tutu and cowboy boots.

Have a tea party in your overalls.

Build a fort of birch branches,

a zoo of Legos, a rocketship of

Queen Anne chairs and coverlets,

first stop on the moon.

Dream of dinosaurs and baby dolls,

bold brontosaurus and bookish Belle,

not Barbie on the runway or

Disney damsels in distress --

you are much too strong to play

the simpering waif.

Don a baseball cap, dance with Daddy,

paint your toenails, climb a cottonwood.

Learn to speak with both your mind and heart.

For the ground beneath will hold you, dear --

know that you are free.

And never grow a wishbone, daughter,

where your backbone ought to be.

Events: Beehive Bazaar

For More Information: 

Beehive Bazaar

Events: We For She 12/04/14 Provo, Utah

We For She

Willing to be Dazzled

Still, what I want in my life

is to be willing

to be dazzled—

to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even

to float a little

above this difficult world.

I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.

I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—

that the light is everything—that it is more than the sum 

of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

–Mary Oliver, from “The Ponds”