Amanda's Musings

(Originally published 6 April 2011)  I’m reading The Spark [by Spark People founder, Chris Downey] and in chapter 2, CORNERSTONE: Focus, he says on page 20, “Locating your purpose and your deepest life intentions can help you move with greater clarity each day of your life.” This definitely struck a chord. As a budding radical, I gave a high school graduation speech on the themes of relevance and organization. Yet I have sensed for some time that my life has been lacking a sense of true meaning. Years ago in California, I was working with an alternative therapist who spoke of creating a statement of your purpose with an active verb. To illustrate, she quoted a friend’s purpose “to midwife the Goddess.” That phrase has stayed with me for well over a decade. Sometime later, I was walking across the street to my apartment building, and picked a penny up off the asphalt. I looked at it as I continued crossing, and for the first time ever, registered the word minted there: Liberty. My...

(Originally published 24 March 2011) (Don’t worry, I’ll get to the mirror part yet — I just have to work my way there!) I left off mourning the tendency of many people — especially women — to withhold love and approval of themselves until some possible future when they just might attain a level of improvement, if not perfection, that would entitle them to earn compliments instead of criticism, when they could delight in rather than denigrate themselves. And I grieved for the 20% of Spark survey takers who could not imagine ever being satisfied with/pleased by/loving their bodies (sorry, I can’t remember the survey wording), no matter what improvements they managed to make. I know there is a goddess in every woman waiting to be discovered, waiting to be celebrated, cherished, adorned, to be respected, and afforded the exquisite care she deserves. Are you ready to claim her? Do you remember reading The Da Vinci Code, coming across the words "sacred feminine" and feeling you...