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Carol
Adrienne's work and teachings have been a great
inspiration to me! In August of 1998, about four months after my
father passed away, I read about one of Carol's
workshops in a Learning Annex catalog and
synchronistically found her book on a bookshelf at the
bookstore. The themes of her teachings were
familiar and comforting, as they confirmed the thoughts
and ideas my father had shared with me shortly before
his passing. Her books and workshops ignited my
spiritual curiosity, setting me on my soulful life path,
which led to the very creation of
SoulfulLiving.com! Carol's participation has been
an integral part of SoulfulLiving.com, at its soul
level! Thank you, Carol, with all my heart!
~Valerie, Founder and Soul, SoulfulLiving.com |
"What You Can Do"
December seems to bring out the
philosophical in many of us, when we aren’t busy shopping,
cooking, making lists, or generally scurrying. Writing this
column is a wonderful stimulus for me to review what has been
catching my attention in the past few weeks. I’m grateful
for this newsletter because it gives me a chance to integrate
some of the rich images in the flow of my daily life. What
about you? What are you picking up? Besides overdoses of
election-madness and assorted holiday commitments?
I’ll share two ideas that caught my
attention that remind me of how important it is that we show
up in life, and that we remember that simple measures and
small personal actions can have hugely profound long-term
effects, both personally and globally.
Educate Girls Globally
The first idea is from an article by San
Francisco Chronicle journalist, Joan Ryan jryan@sfchronicle.com,
entitled "In Countries Where Girl Power is
Nourished." She refers to a research paper written by
Yale economics Professor T. Paul Schultz, which proposes that
developing nations ought to spend more money educating girls
than educating boys because it produced a higher rate of
return. Schultz notes that "birthrates drop, infant
mortality drops, maternal mortality drops, overall health
increases, the incidence of AIDS drops, more women enter the
workforce, wages increase 10 to 20 percent for each additional
year of school, educated mothers are more likely to have
educated children—all of which contribute to a stronger
economy."
Economists from the World Bank as
well as the International Monetary Fund agree that educating
girls would vastly help to close the gap between rich and poor
nations. The Grameen Bank, an innovative Bangladesh
organization, is already committed to making
"micro-loans" to impoverished people who want to
start their own businesses. The bank director was quoted as
saying, "When men were given a chance, they started
dreaming about themselves. When women got a chance, they
started dreaming about their family and community."
Think-tank founder, A.Lawrence
Chickering, a libertarian-conservative in San Francisco, has
teamed up with Alvin Duskin, a liberal-leaning entrepreneur,
to create an international organization devoted solely to
promoting girls’ education in developing countries—Educate
Girls Globally (EGG). They launched their first program in
Pakistan, where EGG is developing a scholarship program for a
million Punjabi girls, and aim to expand into South America
and other countries.
If this is an exciting idea to you,
and you’ve been wondering what you can do to make a
contribution, why not see how you could get involved!
The second thing that caught my
attention recently is the movie, Billy Elliott, about
an eleven-year-old boy in a coal-mining town in Northern
England who has a flame within him that wants to dance. The
most important character to me, besides Billy, was the
raggedy, chain-smoking, local ballet teacher, who takes Billy
under her wing. It’s her gritty, non-compromising influence
that says to him when he’s ready to give in to the
small-town violence and repression which surrounds his life,
"Get up! I said get up! Do it again. Do it again."
The movie vividly reminded me of two
things. The first is that our life purpose lives within us,
often emerging at an early age, and that so often we must
depend upon the support of others to help us develop it. And
secondly, that even when people appear to have a not very
glamorous role in their own lives (Billy once called the dance
teacher a "failure and a has-been"), they may still
be a key element in the blossoming of another soul. We
can’t judge ourselves by our "covers." Everything
we do or say counts, and may have ramifications we never even
realize. Billy nearly forgets to thank is teacher for her role
in his life. Is there anyone you can think of, to whom you owe
a note of thanks for seeing to it that you’ve stayed on your
path?
So be well, my friends, during this
beautiful season. Give the gift of yourself to all those who
share some time with you.
***
Carol Adrienne, Ph.D., is an
internationally-known workshop facilitator and author whose
books have been translated into over fifteen languages. Her
books include The Purpose of Your Life: Finding Your Place
in the World Using Synchronicity, Intuition, and Uncommon
Sense; Find Your Purpose, Change Your Life, and The
Numerology Kit. She also co-authored with James Redfield, The
Celestine Prophecy: An Experiential Guide and The Tenth
Insight: Holding the Vision--An Experiential Guide.
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November
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October
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September
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August
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