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Posts on Women’s Voice & Power:

6 Words that Change Everything

6 Words that Change Everything

You get to be 100% yourself, 100% of the time!  It's true: this is 10 words (plus the two %-signs). I'm getting to the...

Everything You Need

Everything You Need

In the midst of life's ups and down, I am grateful for that which is steady, familiar, and comfortable. I haven't...

It’s a relief to tell the truth.

It’s a relief to tell the truth.

"It’s a relief to speak the truth. I don’t have to pretend." ~ Karen Maezen Miller My thoughts about truth-telling are...

About Being Ordinary

About Being Ordinary

The desire, temptation, and lure to live an extraordinary life is strong; to figure out our “one thing;” to do,...

About South Stars

About South Stars

I was talking with a client a few weeks back who can honestly and confidently state that she is strong and powerful...

Rebellion as a Spiritual Practice

Rebellion as a Spiritual Practice

Most if not all of us battle with the tension between our own desires, our deep sense of what’s most true, our certain...

About Being In Control

About Being In Control

A few weeks back I was in a place I haven’t been for two-plus years: wearing a lavalier mic, standing in front of a...

I am NOT the Crazy One!

I am NOT the Crazy One!

No big surprise: I love books! A ton of them are on my Kindle and most of the time I’m good with reading the “virtual”...

About My Book

About My Book

It feels WAY too far away to actually talk about, let alone celebrate, but still, I’m naming it: On 10.3.23 my book...

“I’m so proud of you!”

“I’m so proud of you!”

I have had conversations with clients in past weeks where a sense of self-pride showed up . . . and then was...

For Days of Self-Loathing

For Days of Self-Loathing

I came across a poem a few weeks back by Nikita Gill. The corner of the page was folded down — evidence that I’d read...

About “someday”

About “someday”

You know of Lizzo, yes? Her music, her recent show on Amazon — Watch Out For the Big Grrrls, her incredible voice as a...

Stepping Into Fear

Stepping Into Fear

Every so often, when you’ve come into fear, you’ve walked away. What if today you held that tremble, and stepped into...

About the quiet and silence.

About the quiet and silence.

  So often, I talk about a woman’s voice and courage and sovereignty. Yours. Mine. Ours. It matters. It is what I’m...

About the Ocean and Anguish

About the Ocean and Anguish

I’ve spent a lot of time at the beach lately. As soon as we arrive, my 9-year-old niece Grace, runs to the water, her...

About Bridgerton & Romance Novels

About Bridgerton & Romance Novels

A couple years back I devoured every novel in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series within a matter of weeks — far before I...

About Being an Outlaw

About Being an Outlaw

Yes, about being an outlaw...but also archetypes and exhaustion and self-care and then some. The dictionary defines an...

Not practicing what I preach

Not practicing what I preach

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my desire. No. That’s not quite true. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my...

What Matters in a Broken World?

What Matters in a Broken World?

I’ve been sitting with a particular question lately that haunts me, in many ways: How are we to make sense of our...

1 quote and 3 (tiny) topics

1 quote and 3 (tiny) topics

The Quote: Re-vision–the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new, critical...

About hearing voices…

About hearing voices…

Yes, let’s talk about hearing voices…And (just a bit) about RAISING our voices and being countercultural!  Over the...

5 Ways to Have the Life you Desire

5 Ways to Have the Life you Desire

Here’s the quick version of this post: Hold fast to what you most desire. Name what you want. Acknowledge what’s bound...

The Voices in Your Head

The Voices in Your Head

As women, there are times in which we are nearly overwhelmed by the voices in our head, the subtle and less-so...

Wisdom from Dr. Sharon

Wisdom from Dr. Sharon

I came across a Facebook post by Brene Brown a few weeks back. She was talking about her recent conversation with...

3 Ways to be Determined & Wise

3 Ways to be Determined & Wise

There’s an ancient, sacred story told of a woman who had the capacity to influence a man of power, who was adamant...

Why I Left My Corporate Job

Why I Left My Corporate Job

My thoughts on fear, courage, and being an entrepreneur. In January of 2018 I left my 10-year-old online business for...

See yourself as a miracle

See yourself as a miracle

When I was 8 or 9, my newborn sister went into the hospital. I don’t remember the details. I don’t remember ever...

How to Trust Your Inner Wisdom

How to Trust Your Inner Wisdom

I could offer you a whole bunch of reasons why you can and should trust your wisdom, why it’s reliable, why it’s...

4 Way to Hear Your Own Wisdom

4 Way to Hear Your Own Wisdom

It’s taken me years (and years and years) to acknowledge that I had wisdom that was uniquely, distinctly mine, let...

Remember Who You Are

Remember Who You Are

I talk about sovereignty all the time. It’s a program I offer. But more than all else, it’s a reality, a truth, that I...

The Voices in Your Head

The Voices in Your Head

Maybe it's only me, but no matter how long it's been since some of my less-than-stellar stories took place, I still...

The Power of Childhood Stories

The Power of Childhood Stories

We rarely give a second thought to the stories of our childhood. Fairytales, religious myths, favorite books, legend,...

Your Wild Voice Within

Your Wild Voice Within

...the shadow of Wild Woman still lurks behind us during our days and in our nights. No matter where we are, the...

No imagination required…

No imagination required…

There’s a story I love to tell of a mostly unknown woman named Jael. She singlehandedly won a huge battle for a whole...

The struggle that IS worthwhile

The struggle that IS worthwhile

I love Leo Tolstoy’s opening line in Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in...

Wisdom does as Wisdom says

Wisdom does as Wisdom says

Women hold all the wisdom they could ever need, that the planet could ever need, that the world so desperately needs....

Hearing Voices

Hearing Voices

I am neck-deep in manuscript-writing these days. This book, my book, this thing I've been nurturing and holding and...

A late-night text

A late-night text

I’ve been thinking about the wisdom that has shaped much of my life. I’m grateful for some of it, to be sure. There’s...

The how-to’s of being “big”

The how-to’s of being “big”

In my last post I named the ways in which we have transmuted being small into our very DNA. This is not the kind of...

Go Deeper Still, Still…

Go Deeper Still, Still…

(I first published this post on 12/31/14. It seems to me to be as relevant as ever.) Go deeper still... You already...

Remember who you are

Remember who you are

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old; but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write. I love this...

She was a voice

She was a voice

I ordered and read The Book of Longings last week. Written by Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees and...

Militancy + Hope + Desire

Militancy + Hope + Desire

(A Sunday Sermon, of sorts - even though it's not a Sunday...) To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future...

Retrieving the Fragments

Retrieving the Fragments

Although women’s words have been censored or eliminated from much of [our] heritage, in the midst of the pain of...

The you you know best

The you you know best

Who would you be if you didn’t hold back? If all your power, compassion, love, and strength roared into any room, any...

Believing the Voice Within You

Believing the Voice Within You

A voice dwells within you that can be trusted, that longs to be listened to, that consistently speaks truth. I...

Stories that Still Speak

Stories that Still Speak

I’ve been awake for hours. Christmas tree lights on. Coffee made. Fire lit. Snuggled up on the couch. Laptop on. I’ve...

You’re Allowed to Run

You’re Allowed to Run

It is excruciating to be the victim of someone’s scorn, passive-aggressive behavior, or blatant harm. All of us have...

3 Verses and a Refrain

3 Verses and a Refrain

Verse #1: There is good news. Nothing about you is broken. Nothing about you is wrong. Nothing about you needs fixing...

4 Takeaways that Matter

4 Takeaways that Matter

I spend countless hours in the midst of the ancient, sacred stories of women - wanting and wondering how to tell them,...

I’m right about this…

I’m right about this…

Chances are pretty high that if your desire is strong enough, acute enough, and impossible to dissuade, others will...

When Things Don’t Go as Planned

When Things Don’t Go as Planned

I’ve been thinking a lot, even more than I normally do, about my daughters. About the trials and tribulations that, by...

As 2018 begins…

As 2018 begins…

Rebecca Solnit has written a book called, The Mother of All Questions: Further Reports from the Feminist Revolutions –...

These Stories Still Speak

These Stories Still Speak

I’ve been awake since 4:30 this morning. Uncharacteristically, instead of lying in bed and trying to tame my...

12 Years of Blogging

12 Years of Blogging

I find it almost impossible to believe that 12 years have passed since I meekly created a WordPress site and began...

Women Joining & Healing

Women Joining & Healing

I feel like I am drowning in a sea of opinions, disasters, tragedies, trauma, harm, violence, and misunderstanding –...

My Inner Critic = The Patriarchy

My Inner Critic = The Patriarchy

I was recently organizing files on my computer (something I do when I intend to write, but instead find busy work…)...

Charlottesville

Charlottesville

I feel a heavy, collective shame. I feel stuck, trapped even, between not knowing what to say or what to do and...

Why do you write?

Why do you write?

"Why do you write?" was a question recently asked of me.  Here’s my answer: I write because it is the space in which I...

My Left-Hand Side

My Left-Hand Side

I did a quick mapping of my body the other day. Here’s what I discovered – from top tobottom: Many mornings, I wake up...

Somewhere between Kali and Jesus

Somewhere between Kali and Jesus

I am Kali Ma.I stick my tongue out of my once silent lips.These eyes, no longer mild,Are furious daggers of fire.~ a...

Nevertheless, we persist!

Nevertheless, we persist!

On Tuesday, February 7, 2017, Senator Elizabeth Warren began to read a letter Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986 that...

For now. Not forever.

For now. Not forever.

I have felt more like a passive observer, than riled-up revolutionary since Donald Trump became president. Yes, I...

Goodbye, Twitter

Goodbye, Twitter

I cancelled and closed my Twitter account last week.  I’m almost hesitant to mention it; it was so undramatic But...

Yes, yesterday. Now what?

Yes, yesterday. Now what?

Yesterday, November 9, 2016, I did all the things I always do: I made coffee. I journaled. I gave my daughter a hug...

In line at Starbucks…

In line at Starbucks…

Although women’s words have been censored or eliminated from much of our heritage, in the midst of the pain of...

So, I’ve written a book…

So, I’ve written a book…

The subtitle is “A Braided Essay on Women and Silence and Shame.” And it’s published, printed, physical, able to be...

My Three-Graces Season

My Three-Graces Season

I went in search of Renaissance art today, remembering that there was a particular period in which women’s bodies were...

Bloodline

Bloodline

What if you claimed your legacy, your inheritance, your very bloodline? As a daughter of Eve – the best Eve, the...

Handless Maidens and then some…

Handless Maidens and then some…

Two weeks ago I spent 6 days in the coveted presence of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes. There were probably about 100 of...

Where the Women Gather (and why)

Where the Women Gather (and why)

How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you? A place for you to go ... a place of women,...

It’s all going to end badly

It’s all going to end badly

A few weeks ago, while talking to my therapist, I mentioned my ongoing and haunting hunch that the archetype of the...

The New Colossus

The New Colossus

By Tanya Geisler   For the last two years, I’ve been writing with a group of amazing women writers. Each week we...

Orlando: 2 words that matter

Orlando: 2 words that matter

Yesterday morning my daughter told me about the mass-shooting in Orlando. I had no words other than “I’m so sorry” and...

A Woman’s Story

A Woman’s Story

There is an ancient, sacred story told of a woman who was prophetess and judge. No other story like hers exists in all...

Why didn’t you just say so?

Why didn’t you just say so?

I’ve been binge-watching The Newsroom for the past week. This morning I woke up far too early for a weekend-day....

Desire for Desire’s Sake

Desire for Desire’s Sake

Desire is a tricky thing. To desire feels dangerous because we might not get what we want (and disappointment seems...

The Scent of a Woman

The Scent of a Woman

I’m not sure how he knew to gift me with perfume, this particular perfume – this man I’d been dating only 6 months. I...

What if you didn’t hold back?

What if you didn’t hold back?

Who would you be if you didn’t hold back? If all your power, compassion, love, and strength roared into any room, any...

Boom-Boom, Boom-Boom

Boom-Boom, Boom-Boom

I often listen to podcasts in the morning. Out of the shower, getting ready for my day. Today’s didn’t really offer...

Tidings of Great Joy

Tidings of Great Joy

It’s an early evening in December, 1966. I am six years old, standing on a stage, proudly fulfilling the prestigious...

A Woman’s Fight

A Woman’s Fight

There’s an old, old story told of the patriarch, Jacob, who wrestled through the night with an angel-man, the Divine,...

What a Healed Woman Sounds Like

What a Healed Woman Sounds Like

Once upon a time there was a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had been treated by...

Using a Pseudonym

Using a Pseudonym

I’ve been wondering lately what I would write if I had a pseudonym, if I wrote with some super-secret name. Countless...

Make your mark!

Make your mark!

Stop listening to the insipid internal and external voices that tell you you’re inconsequential, that you don’t really...

Letting Go is NOT Falling Apart

Letting Go is NOT Falling Apart

A wise woman tells me she gets this strong sense that I am unable to really let go; like I’m afraid of letting my hair...

The Wild Voice Within

The Wild Voice Within

There is a voice within that says more and edits less. It digs deep and dives down. It is impossible to embarrass and...

Channeling Etta James

Channeling Etta James

It’s just before 7:00 on Friday night. I sit in the high school auditorium, about the fifth row from the front, and...

Telling Myself (no more) Lies

Telling Myself (no more) Lies

I have recently uncovered an interesting belief I hold within. It’s not pleasant. And frankly, I’m not all that crazy...

The Day I Spoke Up in Class

The Day I Spoke Up in Class

For most of my life I’ve been a rule-follower. I am really good at figuring out what’s expected and then never...

Living in the in-between

Living in the in-between

Once upon a time, long before women had volition or will as to who they married, a search commenced for the perfect...

I am not shocked by you.

I am not shocked by you.

There’s a story I love to tell of a mostly unknown woman who singlehandedly won a huge battle for a whole tribe of...

The Stunning Story that is Yours

The Stunning Story that is Yours

I see the tears behind your eyes. I know about the lump in your throat. I hear the thoughts that swirl in your mind....

Chances are…

Chances are…

Chances are pretty high that if your desire is strong enough, acute enough, and impossible to dissuade, others will...

Get Out of that Kitchen!

Get Out of that Kitchen!

There is an ancient sacred story told of two sisters – Mary and Martha. It goes as follows: As Jesus and the disciples...

How to usher in the gods.

How to usher in the gods.

While at the movie theater last night, I sat enthralled through the trailer for Exodus: Gods and Kings. Out this...

The perfect way to stop a woman.

The perfect way to stop a woman.

"I’ve seen women insist on cleaning everything in the house before they could sit down to write.... and you know it’s...

Open the door. No matter what.

Open the door. No matter what.

Same thoughts. Same frustrations. Same choices. Different day. To open the door, or not... Your hand trembles on the...

3 Verses on Truth and a Refrain

3 Verses on Truth and a Refrain

Verse #1: There is good news. Nothing about you is broken. Nothing about you is wrong. Nothing about you needs foxing...

Maybe it’s (not) only me

Maybe it’s (not) only me

Maybe this sounds familiar: You are in conversation with someone. As they are talking you hear another entire...

Speak your mind. Tell your truth.

Speak your mind. Tell your truth.

She felt as though her life was some kind of hellish test; as though the universe was conspiring against her; like the...

The other woman

The other woman

Every once in a while, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse the other woman. She looks so much like me, but wilder...

Holding my Breath.

Holding my Breath.

I’ve been holding my breath lately. It’s a trying season as a mom. I feel heartache over a relationship’s end. And,...

I Am A Medial Woman

I Am A Medial Woman

The Medial Woman...is a representation of the strong-sighted and deep-hearted self who lives simultaneously in the...

Go Into the Darkness.

Go Into the Darkness.

Gazing into the mirror, I saw myself as I was – a black silhouette in the room, a woman whose darkness had completely...

A letter to myself

A letter to myself

Dear Me: Exhaustion. I see it. It’s down deep, far beneath the surface. A weariness that comes from holding on to your...

Letting Silence Speak

Letting Silence Speak

I can feel the silence within me. It is deep, strong, dark, passionate, swirling, boiling, pulsing. A witch’s caldron....

For such a time as this.

For such a time as this.

Sometimes if not oftentimes, the circumstances in which you find yourself are the last ones you want. You look around...

The 3 Secrets of the Gifted Soul

The 3 Secrets of the Gifted Soul

“Since you were born gifted, you will never lead an ordinary life.” “Eccentricity is the first sign of giftedness. You...

Standing Ground & Donning Crown

Standing Ground & Donning Crown

Yes, standing your ground and donning your crown. Or...maybe choosing to remove it altogether! Once upon a time – or...

Transforming Your Story (Part 3)

Transforming Your Story (Part 3)

Transforming Your Story – The “How” Part 3 of a series. 12 posts scattered throughout 2014 on Transforming Your Story....

Speak the language women speak.

Speak the language women speak.

“We must learn to speak the language women speak when there is no one there to correct us.” ~ Helene Cixous You know...

Because I Am Older

Because I Am Older

I could talk about what I have learned these past 53 years, about how my body doesn’t move or respond quite the way it...

Transforming Your Story (Part 2)

Transforming Your Story (Part 2)

Did you miss Part 1? Click here. Today, Part 2: Why would you want to Transform Your Story? When I say “Transform Your...