in
this issue
Your Monthly Money Journey
This month, you explore alignment, the
process of bringing your financial life in line with your core
values.
Alignment doesn't necessarily show up as a glamorous
moment, but as the coming togther of intention and action.
Why are you focusing on money and spirituality at this time
in your life? Note some of your thoughts in your
journal.
The flow of money
You examined your
financial assets and liabilities in previous newsletters. Now you
will look at your cash flow, how your money comes in and goes out. A
cash flow statement gives you data on how you are spending
your resources.
Your checkbook, credit cards receipts, tax
returns, bills, day planner and computer files can provide the
information of your daily financial life.
To gets lots of
facts, review your finances for one complete year on our 12-month
cash flow form. Enter the money you receive and the money you
spend month by month, making estimates or assumptions where
necessary.
Here are some ways to make the work easier:
- Personalize the form.
- Use colored paper or colored pens and pencils.
- Choose a happy place to do the work.
- Plan a special time to do this work and reward yourself along
the way.
Before you start to uncover your cash flow, write down why you
are doing this work and what it can tell you. Review your purpose
often as you tackle this job!
What your cash flow
reveals
- How you take in money
- How you spend it
- Your true necessities
- What you care about
- Where your money flow and values are in harmony
- Changes you could make to bring your use of money closer to
your spiritual values
Next month:
Create alignment by integrating your
money facts, feelings and actions with your spiritual
core.
Can't wait till next month?
Speed ahead on
your Money Journey using A Woman's Book of Money & Spiritual
Vision. The book is featured on our
website, with links to booksellers and the publisher.
Want to share your money journey with others?
We
recommend forming a group of 12 to 15 members, and meeting for 6 or
7 sessions. To help you create a productive and enjoyable
experience, we're creating materials to assist group leaders.
Email us for study group details
Community Investing Links
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Welcome to our July newsletter on money and spirit. This
month our theme is community investment - a concept
that can be useful to you in building up your local community
as well as for all of us in envisioning a sustainable global
community.
As you read this newsletter, a Women's
Perspective travel group has just returned from Findhorn,
Scotland, after living and working in that intentional
community for a week. We'll update you next month on that
trip. If the idea of traveling to get new experiences of how
people integrate their spirituality and money, consider our
trip to Africa in November. More about that trip below in this
newsletter.
July 24-31: Aligning the Spiritual &
Financial Aspects of Your Life, workshop at the Chautauqua
Institution. Click
here for details.
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Profile: Embracing the Power of Your
Passion
 Left: Polly Simpkins
shows off her newly decorated Soul of the World Tea Room,
opening this fall in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
As Polly Simpkins' mother was saying goodbye to life during
a long battle with emphysema, she told Polly about her
unrealized dreams, including her passionate desire to visit
India and see the Taj Mahal. Polly promised to fulfill her
mother's dream "someday."
Eventually, Polly decided
that "Someday is now." This suburban wife and mother of two
young boys journeyed to India to work with dying and destitute
patients at Mother Theresa's hospice in Calcutta, visit a
Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas, and take her mother's
ashes to the Taj Mahal.
Today Polly Simpkins works to inspire and encourage others
to live their "somedays" through The Passion Project, a
grassroots organization dedicated to inspiring passion in the
lives of adults and young people. Currently The Passion
Project is developing a documentary film featuring young
people who are following their dreams.
Soul of the
World Tea Room, opening this fall in the Black Rock
neighborhood of Bridgeport, Connecticut, will be the home of
The Passion Project. The tea room will bring people together
for discussion groups, workshops, films and lectures, helping
people to live more authentically and true to their own life
passions. SOTW's opening event will be a reading with Prill
Boyle, author of Defying Gravity: A
Celebration of Late Blooming Women, on September 15 at
10 am. For directions, call 203-362-2306.
How do you finance your passion? Polly Simpkins said
she started very small, connecting her passions with the
dreams of others.
Email
The Passion Project & Soul of the World »
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Discover Community Investing
 (Left) Carolyn Whorley
at home.
In your personal investments, it's
possible to be "doing good" along with "doing well." Carolyn
Whorley's story shows how community investment benefits
others as well as the investor.
After a series of
personal setbacks, Carolyn was living in transitional housing
in Washington, DC. She joined the Homebuyers Club operated by
Manna, Inc., a nonprofit
organization that helps low and moderate- income residents of
Washington achieve home ownership. After working diligently to
clean up her credit and learn the skills of home ownership,
Carolyn saved the down payment and qualified for a mortgage on
an affordable condominium built by Manna.
"Lord have mercy. I was so happy when I went to the
settlement table!" she said when the deal was done. Today,
Carolyn is a proud homeowner, president of her condo
association and an inspirational speaker about her journey in
reaching her goal.
Founded by the New Community Church
in Washington, Manna acquires properties and provides interim
financing for housing through its Capstone
Fund. Upon sale of a home to a purchaser like Carolyn, the
proceeds revolve back into the Capstone Fund for continued
use. More than 60 individuals, religious groups and
foundations have money invested in Manna's Capstone Fund,
primarily in the form of low- interest term loans.
The Capstone Fund is one example of a community
investment fund, in which capital is directed to
underserved populations or needs. The Capstone Fund invests
only in housing projects developed by Manna. In other models
of community investing, the fund may lend capital to projects
or businesses sponsored by a variety of qualified sponsors.
Still other funds and financial institutions pledge to place a
minimum percentage of their assets in community investments.
Whether you're a potential investor or a seeker of
capital, you can learn more about community investing by
clicking the links in the blue column at the left.
Community investing can be a great way to integrate your
financial life with your core values. If you're intrigued by
this concept, talk to your financial advisor about options
that may be right for you.
More
on Community Investing: The 1% Challenge »
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Now in Paperback: Jean Bolen on Feminine Archetypes
 Just in time for our
September 18-19 joint workshop with Jean Shinoda Bolen,
her classic work has been reprinted in paperback. Goddesses
in Everywoman describes the powerful archetypes for women
that influence what we do and how we feel.
Dr. Bolen introduces these patterns in the guise of seven
archetypal goddesses, or personality types, with whom all
women will identify. Goddesses in Everywoman shows us
how to identify our ruling goddesses (from the autonomous
Artemis and the cool Athena to the nurturing Demeter and the
creative Aphrodite). Each of us decides which to cultivate and
which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring
archetypes to become a better "heroine" in our own life
stories.
September 18-19: Joint Workshop with Jean Bolen
You can explore these themes with the author on
September 18-19, when Rosemary Williams and Jean Bolen will
jointly present a workshop, Goddess Archetypes, Money and
Women: Tapping into Our Financial and Spiritual Wisdom.
You will be supported in discovering your own deep archetypal
sources of wisdom and spirituality and learn how to integrate
your core values and financial life.
This workshop will take place in Darien, Connecticut, at
the Convent of St. Birgitta on 10 beautiful acres overlooking
Long Island Sound. Attendence is limited to 50 persons. The
cost of the two-day workshop is $250, and a non-refundable $75
deposit will reserve your place until September 1, when the
balance is due.
Click
for registration details »
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Money & Spirit Opportunities for You
Based on A Woman's Book of Money & Spiritual Vision
by Rosemary Williams and Joanne Kabak, our workshops help you
align your financial life with your core values.
Here's a comment from a recent participant:
"As a result of your workshop, my husband I are
visiting an estate tax attorney to redo our wills (at least
15 years old) and to get an overview of steps we should take
in order to be wise in money management and to enable us to
give to charity now and in the future ... Thank you!"
Click for details and register today:
Chautauqua,
NY: July 24-31, Aligning the Spiritual &
Financial Aspects of Your Life, Chautauqua Institution
Darien,
CT: Sept. 18-19, joint workshop with Jean Bolen,
Goddess Archetypes, Money and Women: Tapping into Financial
& Spiritual Wisdom, Convent of St. Birgitta
Westfield,
MA: Oct. 2, Life, Values, Money - Connecting Your
Wallet to Your Soul, Genesis Spiritual Life Center
Manchester,
CT: Oct. 9, Women, Money & Spirituality,
Manchester Community College
NEW! Tucson,
AZ: January 13-16, 2005; workshop on Money &
Spirit, offered during the Social Justice Biennial
Conference of the Presbyterian Health, Education & Welfare
Association (PHEWA). Click
here to request registration details.
Transformative Travel to Africa
Space is still
available on the Women's Perspective trip to Kisumu, Kenya
November 20 - December 6 to attend the International
HIV/AIDS Widows Conference. The Women's Perspective group will
share financial skills with the widows in a session on
"Financial Destiny." We'll also look for ways to share our
resources to help these women create a better future for their
families. To join our Africa trip email list, click
here.
Click for
the Women's Perspective calendar »
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