Society

By Lauren Galley

As I travel visiting young girls I am reminded more and more how our society and social media can be toxic when it comes to being kind to others. It’s no big news flash that girls can be mean. This is not new to my generation either, it’s been going on for decades. My mom has told me stories of her school years and how girls can be caddy to one another. Bullying happened at slumber parties and lunchtime chats at school where girlfriends were talking one on one. Many times the bullied girl never knew…

My generation takes this to a new level with social media and the advancement of technology. An all out war has begun and you can be attacked as you sit in your room, minding your own business and visually witness the meanness of others as they attack with no warning. Bullies are allowed to attack and they are allowed to pick their weapon of choice. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Text Messaging and those that are bold will choose face to face combat.

With any war you have to be strategic on how you fight back. Bullies are looking for a response, whether it’s sadness, fear, or a traditional physical round in the ring. I tell girls to be confident and look above the bullies, or better yet compliment them… that tactic is always a weapon they don’t expect you to use. Some girls have the confidence to arm themselves in brutal attacks. Most girls do not possess the ability to shield themselves with “Girl Power” ending the bullies ability to harm which ends the war, and that’s where I come in.

I love spreading my “Girl Power” engaging girls in activities that help them learn the best weapon of choice… CONFIDENCE!! “A Piece of Me” signature Girl Talk teaches girls the effect of hurtful words and the tools to spread kindness and love. I incorporate T.H.I.N.K., a program designed by Rebecca Moore that reminds us all to THINK before we speak, type, or text, and ask yourself is it True, Helpful, Important, Necessary and/or Kind? These are amazing qualities for everyone to live by and the THINK portion of my Girl Talk has a great impact on these girls that influences them to end this raging war we face called Bullying. Whether you are 5 or 95 I encourage you all to THINK!!!!! Thank you Rebecca for giving me the power to spread the word ~
The photos below were taken at Camp Susan Curtis in Waterford, Maine
These Awesome girls loved our girl talk and the concept of T.H.I.N.K
Each girl painted their river rock with THINK. I encouraged them to keep their rock with them as a reminder to THINK and to share their rock with someone they felt might benefit from learning about THINK. These girls loved the idea and were excited to take their rock on a new journey….. My wish would be for these rocks to go on a long journey reminding us always to THINK ~

woman-you-are-goddess By April Dawn Ricchuito, D.D. & MSW

When I was a little girl, I loved school. I loved learning and reading and was fond of history, art, & humanities. It was only natural that I loved mythology- a beautiful blend of history, art, and storytelling. I knew all of the gods and goddesses by name and I knew their stories inside and out. They were friends that lived in the magical lands between the pages of books and I visited them often.

As I grew older and subsequently more serious, I had less time for fantasy and make believe. More time was devoted to scholarly studies and secular pursuits like finding a job once I finished grad school. Then the focus became working a 9 to 5 to pay the bills so I could keep going to work. My friends- the gods & goddesses- and I grew apart. But like any good friendship, when I found them again, time was of no consequence.

In our society, we have a neurotic need to categorize and label everything. We also have a tendency to think of everything as “separate” or think of ourselves as unique and “different”. The stories of the gods and goddesses are then dismissed as fantasy and make believe. We may find ourselves hard pressed to find any value in silly stories about make-believe people from our childhood- but that doesn’t mean the value isn’t there. It just means that we might not immediately recognize or understand the intrinsic value of make-believe.

We also tend to label anything before our highly technological time as “primitive”; certainly we associate the word “ancient” with being primitive. When we hear the stories of ancient civilizations, who no longer exist today, it’s all too tempting to dismiss them, thinking there’s absolutely nothing we can learn from an ancient culture with primitive ways- but we are far from accurate in this assessment. Although the times and technology have changed, the human psyche- our souls- have not. We love, we laugh, we cry; the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians did these same things. They were just like us. In fact, we are them.

While we may find their beliefs to be incomprehensible in today’s times, we should realize that the ancient civilizations understood their gods and goddesses to be archetypes- energies to be embodied; traits to be cultivated.

The world of mythology provides us an opportunity to actively explore the human psyche- indeed, some of the dramas would put even our raunchiest modern day reality TV shows to shame. In our masculine culture, the feminine energies are often overlooked and underappreciated. We learn about very few “strong women” in our Western history books. The accomplishments of most strong women come second to their sexual histories- it is the latter which is most often discussed. Marilyn Monroe, Queen Cleopatra, & Mary Magdalen are three great examples- society may not know a lot about all the great things they did, but it is common knowledge “who” they did!

The goddesses are more than just stories. They are chances for us to stand in our sacred feminine energy and embody the divinity that we are. They are not supermodels that bear no resemblance to the “average real woman”; they are role models. They are strong, powerful women who are mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends who live, laugh, love and cry- and just like our flesh & blood girlfriends, we can learn from them. We are them. Woman, you are a goddess!