Women, Women, and more Women!
That is the season I'm in. Empowering myself as a Mujer, being intentional with my thoughts and actions, and pausing and seeing where they stem from. Recently, I took a trip of a lifetime adventure with the We All Grow (Latinas) Group to Palo Alto, California!
I will never forget when I made the biggest purchase for a conference in my entire life! I just got my new AmEx business card, and I decided this will be the investment I am making for myself and a dare. You see, my dare was that if I made this purchase, I would also be daring myself to make the sales needed to cover this credit card debt. I do not like to carry credit card debt for too long. I remember getting a client later that week and another one until I could pay back my debt!
Debt. Money, Traveling across the country. Indeed these are all things that my parents (my mother and grandmother) did as immigrants to come here, but they did it with so much pain and sacrifice. Because they didn't know how the system worked here, because of discrimination, they were never encouraged to go to their strongest skills or talents. All these reasons are why I went and deserved to party out in a different place and connect with myself and other national Latina leaders.
Okay, so what did you learn?
My inner child needs me to acknowledge her in all her ages, not just seven, but seventeen, twenty-three, and on. She or all of them need me to acknowledge who I was then and who I am now and how I overcameIntrigued all of the challenges of being a single parent, a survivor, an organizer, an advocate, a daughter, a neita, a bridge, an up-coming mujer. In all of my phases, I can't ignore who I was then, which matters to who I am now. I have all the answers to become this next new thing. PS the beginning circle time when I arrived was the bomb! Thanks, Aila Castane!
2. As a speaker, there are more things I want to develop besides talking about Equal Opportunity law, intersectionality, and inclusion. I want to talk about healing and authenticity and how targeting your skills and dreams can help you wash up on the depression that you feel. Journaling, mediation, circles, all of that helps us as Brown and Black women to find quietness in the storm.
3. Online communities work. But in-person exchanges are where women thrive in. Mix in music, motivational speakers, poetry, and healthy comida and you got yourself a movement.
4. I love the land, and the land loves me. Being near the mountains or the big hills of the desert was powerful and very special for me. I told her of my family's challenges, and she hugged me. I told her how racism affects my life, and she hugged me. I told her who I loved, and she hugged me. It was life-giving. I don't need to change my life; I need to listen to it more and spend more time sitting and listening and talking to it.
Intrigued?
Here is where you can join: