September 2004 Connecting your pocketbook to your soul
women's perspective newsletter
in this issue
 

Your Monthly Money Journey

Do you feel your dreams are blocked by a seemingly insurmountable obstacle: MONEY?

You can remove money as an obstacle and turn it into a comfortable companion to your spirit. Now that you have worked on your financial facts, it's time to link your finances with your inner dreams and outer actions.

Life, both the visible and invisible, happens in the moment. Right now. Here's what you can do in a moment:

Acknowledge who you are.
Acknowledge what you have.
Acknowledge your feelings.
Recognize your tendencies.
Hold the truth of yourself clearly.
Be aware of what you are currently doing.
Actively ask for guidance.

Discovering your call

In your private journal, write an inventory of your work history, for jobs paid or unpaid. Ask yourself questions about each job:

Did you enjoy the work?
What was your motivation for doing it?
Is there a pattern that stands out for you?
Did you ever create your own job?
Have you ever seen a need and designed a way to fill it?

Your spiritual history
When did your yearning for spirituality begin?
Where has that yearning taken you?
What life-changing experiences or dilemmas have you encountered?

Although some people may describe their "call" as coming in a lightning-bolt of revelation, most of us discover our call one step at a time, bit by bit. We have a sense, we pursue an interest, and in due time, our call beings to take shape. A call can be an embracing of what is truly available rather than a quest for what is more and different.

Take time now to write down what you are sensing for yourself as you focus on this idea of call or dream for your life. Allow yourself to be receptive to whatever comes to you, without judgment or qualifiers, without weighing the pros and cons, the reality vs. the possibility.

When you allow a dream to come to light, amazing "coincidences" start to happen!

Next month:

Develop your personal action plan, your roadmap to bringing your money into the service of your dream.

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

Links on Money & Spirit




Join our mailing list!

Welcome to our September newsletter on money and spirit. For the next few months, we will focus on themes of giving. This month, our topic is "giving to ourselves."

One way to give to yourself is by carving out the time to join our money and spirit book group, starting October 20 in Fairfield, Connecticut. Or you could give yourself our workshop with Jean Shinoda Bolen on September 18-19: Feminine Archetypes, Money & Women: Tapping into Financial & Spiritual Wisdom.

Participants in our workshops write their money autobiographies and share them with each other. Telling our stories, connecting with each other and creating community are all acts of giving to ourselves and of ourselves.


Ann Reeves to Share Photography with Children Orphaned by AIDS in Kenya

Photo: Ann Reeves (left) dancing with a woman she met on the 2002 WP trip to Kenya.

Ann Reeves is a licensed psychologist in private practice, a photographer and an AIDS volunteer. She will integrate all of these aspects in "Creating Positive Memories," the project she is bringing to AIDS orphans in Kisumu, Kenya, as part of the November 2004 Women's Perspective trip to Africa.

Thirty AIDS orphans at the Jehovah Shammah Restoration Center will use photography, writing, and art to explore their unique world.

Ann will guide the children through exercises to focus on their lives and give the children disposable cameras to photograph the images they want. In addition, they will makes collages and draw. The children will create personal booklets of their images, telling their personal stories through photographs, writing and artwork.

Transformational Travel to Africa
Ann's project builds on her previous WP trip to Africa, where she was deeply touched by meeting children orphaned by AIDS. The goal of our trips is to connect participants with the beauty and the struggles of people in the developing world and to encourage ongoing relationships. You're invited to join the Women's Perspective trip to Kisumu, Kenya November 20 - December 3. We will attend International HIV/AIDS Widows Conference and share financial skills with the widows in two sessions on "Financial Destiny."


Book Review: Faith & Feminism by Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD

In this empowering and life-changing book, Helen LaKelly Hunt tells her own story and the stories of five amazing women: Emily Dickinson, Teresa of Avila, Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott and Dorothy Day.

The stories spotlight the connections between faith and feminism, encouraging us to weave connections between our lives and the lives of these powerful women. Faith and Feminism is an enlightening and compelling read and an excellent choice for book groups.


Money & Spirit Workshops

September 18-19: Joint Workshop with Jean Bolen
In our workshop this week with Jean Shinoda Bolen (left), we will look at our own lives in light of some powerful feminine archetypes.

There are still a few spaces available in Goddess Archetypes, Money and Women: Tapping into Our Financial and Spiritual Wisdom. Rosemary Williams and Jean Bolen will help you discover your own deep sources of wisdom on the shores of Long Island Sound, in Darien, CT. The cost of the two-day workshop is $250, including lunches. For registration details, click here.

More Women's Perspective Workshops:

  • Fairfield, CT: Oct. 20, a new Money & Spirit book group begins meeting this fall. Click here to request book group information.
  • 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
  • Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX: Oct. 15- 17; Money & Spirituality workshop, part of Gather the Women - 2004 International Congress.
  • St. Pete Beach, FL: Nov. 30 - Dec. 3; Faith & Money: Breaking the Silence, Ecumenical Stewardship Center's 2004 Leadership Seminar.
  • Tucson, AZ: Jan. 13-16, 2005; workshop on Money & Spirit, offered during the Social Justice Biennial Conference of the Presbyterian Health, Education & Welfare Association (PHEWA).


  • November 2004 Haiti Trips and Events of Interest

    Bicentennial Delegation to Haiti
    The Lambi Fund invites friends of Women's Perspective to join its November 7-14 trip to Haiti. Participants will visit small-scale, grassroots economic development projects in rural Haiti and meet some of the Haitians who run them (left). They will also visit Haiti's most historic sites in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the first black republic. Click here for the trip flyer.

    More Than Money Trip to Haiti
    November 5 to 14 are the dates for a pilgrimage to Haiti, sponsored by More Than Money in collaboration with Beyond Borders. For information, contact Rosemary Diehl, 301-428-9560.

    Retreat on "Woman: Her Spiritual Journey"
    On October 29-31, Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center in Litchfield, Connecticut will offer a two-day program in which participants will share the spiritual journeys of women of several different faith traditions. Presenters for this enlightening conference include Fatma Antar, Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener, Carolyn Hannan, Ph.D, Sister Jane Silk, RSM, and Bonnie Myotai Treace. Click here to download the program brochure.

    The Gift Economy Inside and Outside of Patriarchal Capitalism
    Las Vegas, Nevada, is the site for this November 12- 14 conference on ways to offset the negative and exploitive aspects of global capitalism. Sponsored by The Center for the Study of the Gift Economy, international women speakers discuss how "the gift paradigm" envisions social change and peace. For details and registration, click here.



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