Friday, November 18, 2016

Why Standing Rock Activism is Even More Urgent than I Realized

Photo attribution:  John Duffy via Wikimedia Creative Commons



For most of my life, as a science-based person, systems thinker and spiritual seeker, my worldview has extended to include the long-term and the subtle, interconnected impacts of any choice we are making as a humanity.  I cannot hold up blinders to those impacts once I know about them. When I do a risk/benefit analysis of tar sands pipelines with the information I have, cautionary flags rise up all over the place.  This is why, when I heard Van Jones recently framing the conflict at Standing Rock in terms of "Water is life. Oil is death," it immediately resonated. 

Energy is a huge sector of human activity, so our energy choices have global and long-term impacts we all should care about. Even if something is sold to us as "clean'" and "safe," we need to make sure we dig a little deeper to find out how clean and safe it really is during extraction, processing, waste and transport. I have, and what oil sands spell to me is death, not only to animals near the waste water trailing ponds, but in many other ways for humanity and planet both. Oil from tar sands comes with huge actual risks at every single step in the extraction, refining, transport and consumption cycle. 

It is convenient to ignore these "hidden" impacts until they begin to affect your daily life personally (which they are doing now as climate disruption, oil-spill contaminated water and rising cancer rates), but I simply don't think that closing our eyes to the bigger, longer picture is a luxury we can afford anymore. 

Industry rhetoric about short term economic and strategic gains for our country or citizens is a way to keep us distracted from asking our important and reasonable questions: Where does the waste go? How long does it take to detoxify? What happens if there is a leak? Will the contaminated water ever be drinkable again? How expensive is the cleanup and who actually pays for it? So to me, Standing Rock is about far more than energy or the environment or even indigenous rights, though all of those matter to me deeply. It is an issue of citizen empowerment for us all. It is an issue of our right to access all of the information and to have our questions answered not after, but well before risks are taken and negative impacts are made. I think we are reaching an "enough is enough" moment when we are sick and tired of being neither informed nor consulted about issues that affect us and our children.  

This week, Robert J. Kennedy Jr. pinpointed what may well be the single most urgent reason we must act immediately to stop DAPL. This information was new to me and I am sure is new to most Americans. The oil companies know that once the huge investment has been made in the pipeline infrastructure, this ensures oil dependency will drag on for a very, very long time. Why? Because the money the banks are investing in DAPL come from stockholders and pension funds - you, me and our neighbors, relatives and friends. Investment of this size by the banks on pensioners' and stockholders' behalf creates a "too big to abandon" financial crash scenario, in essence setting up a situation in the near future where we will need to choose between economic collapse and abandoning oil pipelines. 

Standing with Standing Rock is therefore an urgent and timely imperative before more of our money is invested by the banks. We have seen this tactic before, when an industry shields itself from right action by fashioning itself to be "too big to fail," threatening to take us all down with it unless we offer a taxpayer-funded bailout.  this is economic blackmail, plain and simple. The longer we wait to oppose the pipelines, the less choice we will have for a very, very long time to move toward cleaner, cheaper energy.

The bottom line is that citizens cannot be empowered if we don't have access to all the facts. It is very disturbing to take in this information, and I understand why anyone might rather not. I was once a person who would rather not look. At that time, I preferred to think that companies the mainstream media and governments were independent, honest and had my back. But I can no longer pretend that they are or do. It has taken awhile, but I have gotten over the shock and built up my strength and resolve. 

And now, there are so many more people ready to stand by your side when you are ready to rise up, including me.  So you are never alone. Ample support is always available. 

If you'd prefer to bury your head in the (tar)sand, I get it. Instead of making you my enemy (because I know that you are not), my wish is simply to share information with you to help you to make an informed opinion of your own. For example, if you have not seen what a trailing pond looks like, it is important to take a look. It may well change your life. 

So let's help one another to be more informed and empowered, particularly those who may not have seen or heard this information before. I have faith in us. 

Let's spread information, not fear or division. 
Thank you.
Laurie

Van Jones speech:  "Water is Life.  Oil is Water:" 



Robert J. Kennedy Jr. at Standing Rock:  The video below is 17 minutes long, and filled with important information, but the key point made in my blog article is made around 16:00.




The video below at around 4:30 in outlines the risks and dangers of fossil fuels, particularly oil sands. Despite the title, I chose this video because it presents the facts and doesn't go overboard with fear-mongering.




Laurie McCammon is an author, speaker and teacher who speaks on issues of citizen empowerment, paradigm shift and women's leadership.  Her book, Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word was publshed by Conari Press April, 2016 and is available in paperback and e-book verisons wherever books are sold.  You can learn more about Laurie at www.WeAreEnough.com

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Today, Grieve. Then Get Ready to Become the Change.

Nature reminds us that what looks like a death is an invitation to new life…

Today, Grieve.  Then Get Ready to Become the Change.

By Laurie McCammon


Today is day one post-election for US President.  I was supposed to travel to Massachusetts today to give a talk about the transformative power of the word, “enough.”  I am not going.  

It is not because I am disheartened or despondent, because I am not. I know this may seem odd to say, or even heartless perhaps, but I am holding a larger, stronger vision in my heart, and to me it is far more real and long-lasting than these election results. It is not denial. It is not spiritual bypassing. It is that I have truly unhooked from the Old Story and am firmly rooted in the new. And from this new vantage point, I have something to say. I have strength and positivity in spades to lend, but taking a step back, I realize that most people are not in a place to receive it - at least, not today, not yet.

Let me explain.

My work has been about detecting patterns and tuning into systems as a way to both explain what is going on in our world historically and currently, and to predict what the future trends will be. From my perspective, today is not about bringing my hopeful and deeply grounding message to others.  Why?  Because the majority (if not the entirety) of people I serve are in shock. This is the truth of it, and shock requires space and deep listening, not a talking head speaking about “enough.”

What I know is that this is not a time for speaking a grand new vision, but for being fully present to express and receive our shock and grief and the shock and grief of those around us. A time for hugs, tears and going into the silence. 

Taking the time to go into the silence this morning myself, I was immediately guided to look up the stages of grief, both to inform my decision to postpone my workshop today, but also to understand the election results in general.  What I found has brought me a sense of peace and empowerment which allows my heart to expand and hold space for both those in grief and those angry, fearful Americans who have placed their hopes and expectations in one man - the President-elect.

Below is a summary of those thoughts, which I hope will serve as a glimmer of truth and hope during these dark days of shock, grief and loss.  Despite how things look at the moment, there is no doubt that we are moving into a new world.  From the biggest possible perspective, I want to assure you that who is at the helm as the old world dies is relatively inconsequential. In fact, there is certain kind of synergy about it being a male who perfectly symbolizes the greed, prejudice, entitlement and narcissism of the patriarchy that is dying.  Better that than another woman being burned slowly at the stake for the sins of the patriarchy. As a woman myself, this would have been extremely painful for me to witness in the coming months and years.

I want to tell you, people, that the far bigger news on the horizon is Standing Rock.  This I know deeply in my bones.  Watch what is happening there. You will need to be on social media to know what is going on, because the corporate-owned media has been doing its best to downplay it.  Tribes from all over the world are gathering there. This is a global movement. This is a movement started by women, the fulfillment of a prophecy of the native people of Earth coming together to defeat the "black snake" which they now realize is a symbol for the oil pipelines.  

Standing Rock is a nexus of creation of the new world in another way, as it is100% coherent with the principles of "enough" - protectors rather than protesters, prayers instead of violence, standing for all life, not just for whites, browns, blacks or even just the 99%, caring about future generations and Earth, not for today's profits. Please stand steady and know that the symbolism of the words "standing" and "rock" are no accident. They are a clarion call to our souls to stand together, to stand solid, with each other and with our deepest values of love and compassion, to stay grounded in the simple, basic truths of life, resisting being drawn into the mind-numbing and heart-numbing lies, drummed-up fears and accusations swirling all around us to manipulate our behavior, to divide and conquer us, to make us believe there is not enough and we are not enough. 

Standing Rock.  Stand your ground. Stay grounded. Reaffirm love and compassion and interconnectedness with one another and Earth. Know that the deep source of strength is in our togetherness and belonging to one another and Earth, in our sisterhood and brotherhood at the level of essence. Together we rise. Divided we fall.  Watch the coalition of love building at Standing Rock.  Join it if you can, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially.  It is what is real. It is what is solid. It nourishes your soul. It is coherent with your deepest wisdom about what is good and what is right. And it is powerful beyond measure.  

Today and in the days ahead, grieve for however long you need to, but then join me, join us in laying the foundations of a new world, a world in which there is enough for everyone, including for future generations and Earth herself.  Remember: the new has always, always been birthed from the fertile fringes, never from the seats of old power. It is so easy to forget that!

When the time is right, I will be ready to share with you how “enough” is the catalyst and the unifying theme of this emerging new world.  I have a very important message to deliver: one which I feel will be needed more than ever. 

Until then, do your inner grief work, be kind to yourselves and others, and know that planetary change is first and foremost an inside job.  It begins with moving through the five stages of grief at the right pace for you, letting go of the old world, and clearing the decks to be a more powerful co-creator of the new. We choose our story with every thought, every emotion we indulge.  You can either believe you are powerful or powerless, that humanity is bad or good.  When you are ready to know how powerful you are, the Enough Message is a tool you will want in your toolbox.

You, me, we are the hidden hope in this election result. In fact, the result has no bearing whatsoever on the global outcome.  We have always been the hidden hope, and our consciousness and spiritual maturity are steadily rising, blossoming, interconnecting.


We truly are enough for this very time on Earth.  Even if you maybe can't believe it just yet, I will hold this truth and this space for a better world as my choice, my perspective. A much better world is coming.  This I can assure you.

Laurie McCammon

Read here my  Facebook post  this morning about grief:

As we process the election results, it occurred to me that not only will those around us be going through the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining/guilt, depression/sadness, acceptance), but perhaps what the election shows us is that we as a country and world have been going through these stages in general as our world deteriorates environmentally and economically.  The old economy has been dying and first we had denial, but now the majority are waking up (wikileaks, scandals, bank fraud, etc.) and this means anger is the first step towards letting go of the old and embracing the new.  Anger arises as a search to lay blame on anyone and anything but oneself. It is messy. The next stage of bargaining has also begun – trading a non-establishment vote for the possibility of a different world. But what is establishment and what is not? In bargaining, we must come to terms with this on a much deeper level than we have. The irony of electing a man who perfectly represents the greed and narcissism at the core of our crumbling economy is not lost on me. We cannot skip steps, so maybe this is the hidden message behind this election, that humanity IS moving from denial to anger and bargaining, and this is actually a sign of movement and progress. Can those of us who dwell in peace and love, those who moved through our anger at the old world and into greater action and empowerment,  hold a space for the future to be born, AND space enough for the necessity for others to make the auspicious move from denial to anger and bargaining?  We are getting there.  Really.

Graphic for you of the Stages of Grief:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/greatsenecacreekes/Stages%20of%20Grief.pdf


Laurie McCammon is author and teacher of  Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word by Conari Press (April, 2016) Comments welcome info@lauriemccammon.com   www.weareenough.com

Today, Grieve. Then Get Ready to Become the Change.

Nature reminds us that what looks like a death is an invitation to new life…

Today, Grieve.  Then Get Ready to Become the Change.

By Laurie McCammon


Today is day one post-election for US President.  I was supposed to travel to Massachusetts today to give a talk about the transformative power of the word, “enough.”  I am not going.  

It is not because I am disheartened or despondent, because I am not. I know this may seem odd to say, or even heartless perhaps, but I am holding a larger, stronger vision in my heart, and to me it is far more real and long-lasting than these election results. It is not denial. It is not spiritual bypassing. It is that I have truly unhooked from the Old Story and am firmly rooted in the new. And from this new vantage point, I have something to say. I have strength and positivity in spades to lend, but taking a step back, I realize that most people are not in a place to receive it - at least, not today, not yet.

Let me explain.

My work has been about detecting patterns and tuning into systems as a way to both explain what is going on in our world historically and currently, and to predict what the future trends will be. From my perspective, today is not about bringing my hopeful and deeply grounding message to others.  Why?  Because the majority (if not the entirety) of people I serve are in shock. This is the truth of it, and shock requires space and deep listening, not a talking head speaking about “enough.”

What I know is that this is not a time for speaking a grand new vision, but for being fully present to express and receive our shock and grief and the shock and grief of those around us. A time for hugs, tears and going into the silence. 

Taking the time to go into the silence this morning myself, I was immediately guided to look up the stages of grief, both to inform my decision to postpone my workshop today, but also to understand the election results in general.  What I found has brought me a sense of peace and empowerment which allows my heart to expand and hold space for both those in grief and those angry, fearful Americans who have placed their hopes and expectations in one man - the President-elect.

Below is a summary of those thoughts, which I hope will serve as a glimmer of truth and hope during these dark days of shock, grief and loss.  Despite how things look at the moment, there is no doubt that we are moving into a new world.  From the biggest possible perspective, I want to assure you that who is at the helm as the old world dies is relatively inconsequential. In fact, there is certain kind of synergy about it being a male who perfectly symbolizes the greed, prejudice, entitlement and narcissism of the patriarchy that is dying.  Better that than another woman being burned slowly at the stake for the sins of the patriarchy. As a woman myself, this would have been extremely painful for me to witness in the coming months and years.

I want to tell you, people, that the far bigger news on the horizon is Standing Rock.  This I know deeply in my bones.  Watch what is happening there. You will need to be on social media to know what is going on, because the corporate-owned media has been doing its best to downplay it.  Tribes from all over the world are gathering there. This is a global movement. This is a movement started by women, the fulfillment of a prophecy of the native people of Earth coming together to defeat the "black snake" which they now realize is a symbol for the oil pipelines.  

Standing Rock is a nexus of creation of the new world in another way, as it is100% coherent with the principles of "enough" - protectors rather than protesters, prayers instead of violence, standing for all life, not just for whites, browns, blacks or even just the 99%, caring about future generations and Earth, not for today's profits. Please stand steady and know that the symbolism of the words "standing" and "rock" are no accident. They are a clarion call to our souls to stand together, to stand solid, with each other and with our deepest values of love and compassion, to stay grounded in the simple, basic truths of life, resisting being drawn into the mind-numbing and heart-numbing lies, drummed-up fears and accusations swirling all around us to manipulate our behavior, to divide and conquer us, to make us believe there is not enough and we are not enough. 

Standing Rock.  Stand your ground. Stay grounded. Reaffirm love and compassion and interconnectedness with one another and Earth. Know that the deep source of strength is in our togetherness and belonging to one another and Earth, in our sisterhood and brotherhood at the level of essence. Together we rise. Divided we fall.  Watch the coalition of love building at Standing Rock.  Join it if you can, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially.  It is what is real. It is what is solid. It nourishes your soul.  And it is powerful beyond measure.  

Today and in the days ahead, grieve for however long you need to, but then join me, join us in laying the foundations of a new world, a world in which there is enough for everyone, including for future generations and Earth herself.  Remember: the new has always, always been birthed from the fertile fringes, never from the seats of old power. It is so easy to forget that!

When the time is right, I will be ready to share with you how “enough” is the catalyst and the unifying theme of this emerging new world.  I have a very important message to deliver: one which I feel will be needed more than ever. 

Until then, do your inner grief work, be kind to yourselves and others, and know that planetary change is first and foremost an inside job.  It begins with moving through the five stages of grief at the right pace for you, letting go of the old world, and clearing the decks to be a more powerful co-creator of the new. We choose our story with every thought, every emotion we indulge.  You can either believe you are powerful or powerless, that humanity is bad or good.  When you are ready to know how powerful you are, the Enough Message is a tool you will want in your toolbox.

You, me, we are the hidden hope in this election result. In fact, the result has no bearing whatsoever on the global outcome.  We have always been the hidden hope, and our consciousness and spiritual maturity are steadily rising, blossoming, interconnecting.


We truly are enough for this very time on Earth.  Even if you maybe can't believe it just yet, I will hold this truth and this space for a better world. It is coming.  This I can assure you.

Laurie McCammon

Read here my  Facebook post  this morning about grief:

As we process the election results, it occurred to me that not only will those around us be going through the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining/guilt, depression/sadness, acceptance), but perhaps what the election shows us is that we as a country and world have been going through these stages in general as our world deteriorates environmentally and economically.  The old economy has been dying and first we had denial, but now the majority are waking up (wiki leaks, scandals, bank fraud, etc.) and this means anger is the first step towards letting go of the old and embracing the new.  Anger arises as a search to lay blame on anyone and anything but oneself. It is messy. The next stage of bargaining has also begun – trading a non-establishment vote for the possibility of a different world. But what is establishment and what is not? In bargaining, we must come to terms with this on a much deeper level than we have. The irony of electing a man who perfectly represents the greed and narcissism at the core of our crumbling economy is not lost on me. We cannot skip steps, so maybe this is the hidden message behind this election, that humanity IS moving from denial to anger and bargaining, and this is actually a sign of movement and progress. Can those of us who dwell in peace and love, those who moved through our anger at the old world and into greater action and empowerment,  hold a space for the future to be born, AND space enough for the necessity for others to make the auspicious move from denial to anger and bargaining?  We are getting there.  Really.

Graphic for you of the Stages of Grief:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/greatsenecacreekes/Stages%20of%20Grief.pdf


Laurie McCammon is author and teacher of  Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word by Conari Press (April, 2016) Comments welcome info@lauriemccammon.com   www.weareenough.com

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Together We Rise!



Imagine if you were told you and a group of people could change the world in a weekend. Who would be there with you? What do you imagine you’d do? How do you imagine you’d feel? Have you ever imagined it?

When I was invited to attend the Gather the Women Annual Gathering in Los Gatos, CA, I had no idea what to expect, and I certainly wasn't told (nor did anyone expect) that this would be world-changing or even life-changing business. What I feel now after attending is that we may have started a powerful ripple that could possibly travel across the world. Our plan? No plan. Just be present. Share from the heart. Listen from the heart. Trust ourselves. Our tools? Love. Trust. More love. Sisterhood. What follows is an account of the experience through my perspective as as participant and author-presenter, and why I believe something truly important and amazing may have been co-created quite unexpectedly.

The retreat center’s gathering room is abuzz with the voices of women. As I take in the source, I see almost seventy, assembling into intimate circles of six to eight. Within minutes, the tone quiets. Only one woman in each circle is speaking now, and all others leaning in, held in rapt attention and regard. The women speaking have been asked to share their thoughts, feelings and knowings about the theme of our retreat, “You are enough. We are enough.” In turn, every woman in each circle will have her time to speak while all the others listen. No back and forth conversation is allowed, and this is one of the keys to the magic of circle. There are tears, expressions of awakening, joy, pain, curiosity, doubt, hope – a full spectrum…

All of these expressions, we know from experience, will blend into a richer soup we call the quantum field or the collective consciousness. Over the weekend this soup will continue to simmer and steep, the flavors mellowing into one another, made more delicious and magically unified as we tend it together.

I could feel something beginning to arise in the room: a tender possibility had been spoken through many voices. We are peeking out of our old, familiar cages, old “I’m not enough” stories and welcoming ourselves into a more expansive space – one that affirms that we each and together may actually be enough; enough to live the life we’d always dreamed, enough, perhaps even, to save the world. Could we trust that new and unfamiliar space to keep us safe, to nourish our potential, to fulfill our greatest hopes and dreams?

Not wanting to interfere with the fragile flow of what is arising as each woman dares to open a piece of her own story to other women, I tiptoe around, observing to see if every woman has had a chance to share. I am always amazed by what the simple act of deep listening can do, how the absence of trying to fix or care-take allows for something far richer and more valuable to emerge. It feels something like trustworthiness, compassion, acceptance, intimacy, respect, belonging...

This is the first small circle at the retreat since I arrived, and the women seemed hungry for it. It usually takes many encounters for a group to grow in intimacy enough to truly receive these more powerful gifts of circle. But today is quite different. The majority of the women gathered here host circles in their hometowns and trust circles implicitly. They have come from as far away as Argentina and Thailand and represent territories stretching from Florida to British Columbia; Arizona to Maine. It is a significant commitment to be here. These are powerful women – activists, academics, counselors, healers, entrepreneurs, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, artists, poets, a judge. They carry the beautiful mother-lines of every tradition - Indigenous, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latina, European. These are women who have said yes to the intention of growing an ever-expanding circle of peace and understanding in service to all of Earth. They have agreed to take a deep dive into essence, and have communed with others in the quantum field where we are simply just all human and sisters. These women of pure intention and humility and this primal call to unify women at this important time are why Gather the Women Global Matrix, the all-volunteer host organization of this retreat, has spread so rapidly all over the world.

Circle time is coming to a close. As I continue to observe the sharing and blending of women’s stories, I am hesitant to interrupt, silently holding up two fingers to signal an intention to bring the circles to a sense of completion, barely squeaking out, “time to wrap it up.” As I wait, I pause to reflect on what I had shared with these women just moments before, which included the surprising fact that the word “enough” comes from the Old English roots “ge-” and “-nah” which mean “Together we rise!” How could we have forgotten the connection between realizing our “enoughness” and “rising together?” Somewhere in recovering this ancient knowledge, I believe, is the key to realizing our innate power as women to transform both ourselves and the entire world.

Marianne Williamson says when women realize our collective power it will be like “awakening the sleeping giant.” The Hopi say that “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” The Dalai Lama expressed that he believes the Western women will save the world. (I take this to mean that “Western women” is simply shorthand for any woman whose basic needs have been met, and who has more than enough to help.) As my retreat roommate aptly observed, messages like these resonate because they mirror a truth that already exists within us. The knowing has to come from somewhere. There would be no desire or vision to reach for a New Story if we didn’t have some remembrance of that story as our “home frequency.” In this way, we each carry the seed of the possible within our own yearning. As we share in circle, we are discovering that we can agree on what this feeling of home is. It is from this common knowing that I am certain the New Story will be born.

As we re-member the New/Primal Story together, we are remembering how powerful we really are and we know we’ve only barely begun to tap into our power as co-creators. The reign of “not enough” has held us back for 5,000 years from really knowing the magnitude of our potential and from using it for the benefit of all. As long as we are in a scarcity mindset, we cannot unite as a sisterhood. The Old Story that would have us compete with one another for male attention, jobs and status no longer has power over us. We shake off old habits of unworthiness, survival of the fittest and separation to uncover the hidden potential of sisterhood. Once we experience the sisterhood arising as our own experience, we can no longer pretend we are that separate, small and powerless in the world. We are done with the “not enough” illusion and are ready to step into the fuller reality of who we are and what the world is. We are enough. There is enough.

A new kind of stirring is coming from one corner of the room. It is electric, confident, even joyful. The women in one of the small groups are leaning forward, grasping their hands together in the middle of their circle. Before I know it, they are throwing up their hands in unison as if throwing up a gift to the cosmos, proclaiming from a place of incredible power and resonance, “Together we rise!” One by one, like popcorn, each group repeats this action, each leading to clapping and celebration from every other group. My eyes well with tears of instant recognition. It’s happening. Right here. Right now. Already. Together we rise!

What begins to transpire over the course of the weekend is absolutely breathtaking. Life-changing revelations. More hugs and genuine expressions of love than most of us have received in an entire lifetime. Wounds healed in an instant and without words. Burdens and old stories lifted. Courage ignited. And something more - a deeply grounded, confident, unified global sisterhood recharged. It is something solid now. Something we can take home with us to our home circles.

What allowed us to embody the Enough Story this weekend so fully? Even before the retreat, I realize the “enough” field was building among us. This was not a typical conference or retreat with a rigid, predetermined agenda, but an organic, living co-creation – the feminine, “all are enough” way. The wise and courageous event organizers felt their role was simply to hold a space physically, energetically and spiritually for the unique expressions of all who would be gathering. It would be up to the participants to fill that vessel up. This is the participative democracy we’ve forgotten, but are learning to reassemble again. All are teachers and learners. All are leaders and helpers. No one is higher or lower. You would expect it to be a messy and chaotic affair when you unleash the control of an entire retreat moment to moment to nearly seventy women! But it was grace embodied. We all gave. We all received and were received. It was the world as it should be, as I always had hoped it could be, and as I now believe it absolutely will be as we take our newly experienced “enough” field out into our circles and communities, rippling out from there.

As the weekend unfolds, “I am enough,” “we are enough” and “together we rise” have found spontaneous heart-expanding expression through song, dance, art, poetry, wailing, drumming, healing sessions, film, sacred ceremony and guided meditations. A musical soundtrack of Enough had been produced by one of the participants, and a higher expression of it has come alive as everyone sings those songs together, feeling it personally in their bodies and spirits. It is a dream come true for the Enough Message, which I always have said is not mine but something I feel compelled to serve and invite others to use and to serve. I now have sisters who are holding the message with me, each in her own beautiful and unique way, exploring its different dimensions and using it to unleash her heart, her power, her beauty and potential.

I believe that women have been nurturing a New Story for the Earth for a long, long time, for longer than the human invention of time itself. Rebirthing the world takes time. And patience. And humility. And then even more patience and humility. We have all waited long enough, haven’t we? The birth is imminent. We feel the quickening in our bodies and in our spirits. It is real. We are enough to be midwives of a new culture.

What I have learned is that when it comes to creating something entirely new, women are very often the first in the culture to actually embody it. I’ve observed this again and again as I either attend or speak with those who have attended spiritual-leaning conferences in recent years. Humanity is being called to release old structures, to strip them down to their true essence and intention, and for this, women are perfectly matched. The spiritual women speak of “knowing” while the establishment is still busy making models and conducting studies to prove that what the women experience is true. But which is the faster path, which reveals itself as a holistic (even instantaneous) picture - science or direct experience? Do we really need to wait for scientific proof, or do we need to begin simply trusting ourselves and standing our ground when it comes to matters of peace, justice, kindness, community, and nature? It was the women who started the movement to protect the water at Standing Rock, and women have been the most persistent activists for peace. It is the women who are protecting the seeds in India, standing up to Monsanto. Women who know what is right and good. Women who trust themselves.

When something morally important rises up to be done, the signal comes from a sacred place within us that is planted in solid ground, a place at one with the highest and best for our world, at one with Mother Earth. It is more powerful than we can imagine, and we can no longer be quiet and demure when it bubbles up through us to be spoken aloud. This power may scare us, especially if we are afraid we will repeat the mistakes of the powerful in the old patriarchal, hierarchical story. Or we may carry a primal fear from our female ancestors who were murdered for speaking up. But this is a very different time and this power is not to be feared, for it emanates from the heart, and it is being invited now, not just from you and from me, but from all awakened women.

It is a sacred service to hold a space for something new to emerge, something that is independent of us but which incorporates our love and nourishment as the very building blocks of its liberation. It takes courage and deep trust to let it take shape without trying to control or limit what it will become. We all know that the Old Story was all about learning how to control both nature and one another. We are learning that holding onto that Old Story of “control over” may well be suicidal for everyone. We have every motivation to give birth to a New Story as soon as possible.

The New Story requires that we learn how to deepen into trust and into uncertainty and discomfort. What better prepares us for this than how our bodies experience pregnancy and childbirth? In that same way, women’s circles are about holding sacred womb-like space for what is emergent in each person to rise. It holds us steady even if everything around us is falling apart. What emerges through circle is very often not what we expect, but it is always what we are ready to hear. It is always what is needed. In the weaving of our emergent seeds of consciousness , I believe, is the New Story itself, a model and a vision for building a new planetary culture that works for everyone.

It begins just as we had begun this weekend: by starting to believe in our own enoughness just as we are. We trust that our greatest yearnings and gifts were called forth by the universe to fill an important need, to provide an important step in humanity’s collective evolution. Then we learn to trust others and to ask for and to expect help, meeting at the glorious, nurturing nexus of shared essence, not in competition or ego. And we trust the universe, God, Goddess, The Creator, the quantum field, to support the greatest good for all of us – always including ourselves as the first and central receiver of goodness and nourishment. Nothing that I have found brings these forces for good together like women’s circles. And the New Story for Earth deserves nothing less.

It is almost impossible at first to discern the enormity of what is being created by a women’s circle. The outward signs and actions are subtle: a softer expression, shoulders dropping, abdomen muscles relaxing, a risk taken to share more deeply, a secret heart-felt dream expressed. But at its collective core, this arising something in circle has been felt by many women for a long, long time. Matriarchal indigenous cultures who have sat in circles for thousands of years have always known this magic. And this is what I feel so palpably growing all around me in this room. It is real. It has a unified direction. It has a source. And they are one in the same: LOVE. Only when we know, really, deeply know we are enough, are we completely available to give love away. As one woman at the retreat so aptly expressed, love is one of the few things in life that is not a zero sum game. By giving it away, we don’t have less of it. What we give away is actually multiplied in the act of loving itself. There is always enough of it, no matter what. And this is the knowledge that has been lost in the Old Story of scarcity that humanity has been living. This is what women are ready to birth now: a world awash with our unmitigated love.

We know it feels like love, but that word is so overused that it cannot describe these depths with the precision I am looking for. What kind of New Story will it be? What will it look like? I believe it is almost too amazing to wrap our minds around. And perhaps that is why it must reveal itself through our hearts, not our heads, which would see such rapid, wonderful change as an improbable miracle, not an inevitable evolution of consciousness. Words aren’t nearly adequate to describe the hidden enoughness that exists within and all around us. To approximate the enormity, I had earlier offered a metaphor with the group. Science is now understanding that our bodies are 99.999 % open space and that open space contains 10⁴⁰ more energy than does an equal amount of solid matter. There is enough energy in just one square meter of empty space to boil all of the oceans on Earth! Yes, this is the magnitude of the potential I believe we have begun to tap into during this powerful weekend and in circles throughout the world.

I believe the movement from from Old Story to New Story, from our very own .001% to our 99.999% is one in the same. Both of these expansions are greatly assisted by examining our own personal relationship to one single word, enough: remembering we are each enough and always have been enough for this very time on Earth. We are enough to be worthy of having enough and of demanding a world that provides enough for everyone. We are enough to imagine and create the entirely new structures that will do just that. We are enough to infuse these structures with loving intention that serves the greater good. We are enough right here. Right now. At last we remember. We are enough!

And knowing this, no – feeling this deeply as our own personal, lived experience – makes all the difference in the world. What is pressing outward from our chests as we feel the tremendous love that has been built up in our retreat space this weekend is nothing other than the New Story itself emerging through us, emerging from millions of hearts one precious person at a time. It is time to let it expand and be as big and as visible as it wants and needs to be. We can do this.
We can do it because the sisterhood is strong and so are we. 
This is our time.
Together we rise!


I
f you participate in a women's sacred circle of any kind, know how grateful I am that we are all rising together! Each circle brings us to a global tipping point. If you don't have a circle, why not create one? Free circle guide from www.gatherthewomen.org, an all-volunteer international nonprofit organization.


You can learn more about Laurie and her book, Enough! How to Librate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word and other offerings by visiting her website, www.lauriemccammon.com

Together We Rise!



Imagine if you were told you and a group of people could change the world in a weekend. Who would be there with you? What do you imagine you’d do? How do you imagine you’d feel? Have you ever imagined it?

When I was invited to attend the Gather the Women Annual Gathering in Los Gatos, CA, I had no idea what to expect, and I certainly wasn't told (nor did anyone expect) that this would be world-changing or even life-changing business. What I feel now after attending is that we may have started a powerful ripple that could possibly travel across the world. Our plan? No plan. Just be present. Share from the heart. Listen from the heart. Trust ourselves. Our tools? Love. Trust. More love. Sisterhood. What follows is an account of the experience through my perspective as as participant and author-presenter, and why I believe something truly important and amazing may have been co-created quite unexpectedly.

The retreat center’s gathering room is abuzz with the voices of women. As I take in the source, I see almost seventy, assembling into intimate circles of six to eight. Within minutes, the tone quiets. Only one woman in each circle is speaking now, and all others leaning in, held in rapt attention and regard. The women speaking have been asked to share their thoughts, feelings and knowings about the theme of our retreat, “You are enough. We are enough.” In turn, every woman in each circle will have her time to speak while all the others listen. No back and forth conversation is allowed, and this is one of the keys to the magic of circle. There are tears, expressions of awakening, joy, pain, curiosity, doubt, hope – a full spectrum…

All of these expressions, we know from experience, will blend into a richer soup we call the quantum field or the collective consciousness. Over the weekend this soup will continue to simmer and steep, the flavors mellowing into one another, made more delicious and magically unified as we tend it together.

I could feel something beginning to arise in the room: a tender possibility had been spoken through many voices. We are peeking out of our old, familiar cages, old “I’m not enough” stories and welcoming ourselves into a more expansive space – one that affirms that we each and together may actually be enough; enough to live the life we’d always dreamed, enough, perhaps even, to save the world. Could we trust that new and unfamiliar space to keep us safe, to nourish our potential, to fulfill our greatest hopes and dreams?

Not wanting to interfere with the fragile flow of what is arising as each woman dares to open a piece of her own story to other women, I tiptoe around, observing to see if every woman has had a chance to share. I am always amazed by what the simple act of deep listening can do, how the absence of trying to fix or care-take allows for something far richer and more valuable to emerge. It feels something like trustworthiness, compassion, acceptance, intimacy, respect, belonging...

This is the first small circle at the retreat since I arrived, and the women seemed hungry for it. It usually takes many encounters for a group to grow in intimacy enough to truly receive these more powerful gifts of circle. But today is quite different. The majority of the women gathered here host circles in their hometowns and trust circles implicitly. They have come from as far away as Argentina and Thailand and represent territories stretching from Florida to British Columbia; Arizona to Maine. It is a significant commitment to be here. These are powerful women – activists, academics, counselors, healers, entrepreneurs, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, artists, poets, a judge. They carry the beautiful mother-lines of every tradition - Indigenous, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latina, European. These are women who have said yes to the intention of growing an ever-expanding circle of peace and understanding in service to all of Earth. They have agreed to take a deep dive into essence, and have communed with others in the quantum field where we are simply just all human and sisters. These women of pure intention and humility and this primal call to unify women at this important time are why Gather the Women Global Matrix, the all-volunteer host organization of this retreat, has spread so rapidly all over the world.

Circle time is coming to a close. As I continue to observe the sharing and blending of women’s stories, I am hesitant to interrupt, silently holding up two fingers to signal an intention to bring the circles to a sense of completion, barely squeaking out, “time to wrap it up.” As I wait, I pause to reflect on what I had shared with these women just moments before, which included the surprising fact that the word “enough” comes from the Old English roots “ge-” and “-nah” which mean “Together we rise!” How could we have forgotten the connection between realizing our “enoughness” and “rising together?” Somewhere in recovering this ancient knowledge, I believe, is the key to realizing our innate power as women to transform both ourselves and the entire world.

Marianne Williamson says when women realize our collective power it will be like “awakening the sleeping giant.” The Hopi say that “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” The Dalai Lama expressed that he believes the Western women will save the world. (I take this to mean that “Western women” is simply shorthand for any woman whose basic needs have been met, and who has more than enough to help.) As my retreat roommate aptly observed, messages like these resonate because they mirror a truth that already exists within us. The knowing has to come from somewhere. There would be no desire or vision to reach for a New Story if we didn’t have some remembrance of that story as our “home frequency.” In this way, we each carry the seed of the possible within our own yearning. As we share in circle, we are discovering that we can agree on what this feeling of home is. It is from this common knowing that I am certain the New Story will be born.

As we re-member the New/Primal Story together, we are remembering how powerful we really are and we know we’ve only barely begun to tap into our power as co-creators. The reign of “not enough” has held us back for 5,000 years from really knowing the magnitude of our potential and from using it for the benefit of all. As long as we are in a scarcity mindset, we cannot unite as a sisterhood. The Old Story that would have us compete with one another for male attention, jobs and status no longer has power over us. We shake off old habits of unworthiness, survival of the fittest and separation to uncover the hidden potential of sisterhood. Once we experience the sisterhood arising as our own experience, we can no longer pretend we are that separate, small and powerless in the world. We are done with the “not enough” illusion and are ready to step into the fuller reality of who we are and what the world is. We are enough. There is enough.

A new kind of stirring is coming from one corner of the room. It is electric, confident, even joyful. The women in one of the small groups are leaning forward, grasping their hands together in the middle of their circle. Before I know it, they are throwing up their hands in unison as if throwing up a gift to the cosmos, proclaiming from a place of incredible power and resonance, “Together we rise!” One by one, like popcorn, each group repeats this action, each leading to clapping and celebration from every other group. My eyes well with tears of instant recognition. It’s happening. Right here. Right now. Already. Together we rise!

What begins to transpire over the course of the weekend is absolutely breathtaking. Life-changing revelations. More hugs and genuine expressions of love than most of us have received in an entire lifetime. Wounds healed in an instant and without words. Burdens and old stories lifted. Courage ignited. And something more - a deeply grounded, confident, unified global sisterhood recharged. It is something solid now. Something we can take home with us to our home circles.

What allowed us to embody the Enough Story this weekend so fully? Even before the retreat, I realize the “enough” field was building among us. This was not a typical conference or retreat with a rigid, predetermined agenda, but an organic, living co-creation – the feminine, “all are enough” way. The wise and courageous event organizers felt their role was simply to hold a space physically, energetically and spiritually for the unique expressions of all who would be gathering. It would be up to the participants to fill that vessel up. This is the participative democracy we’ve forgotten, but are learning to reassemble again. All are teachers and learners. All are leaders and helpers. No one is higher or lower. You would expect it to be a messy and chaotic affair when you unleash the control of an entire retreat moment to moment to nearly seventy women! But it was grace embodied. We all gave. We all received and were received. It was the world as it should be, as I always had hoped it could be, and as I now believe it absolutely will be as we take our newly experienced “enough” field out into our circles and communities, rippling out from there.

As the weekend unfolds, “I am enough,” “we are enough” and “together we rise” have found spontaneous heart-expanding expression through song, dance, art, poetry, wailing, drumming, healing sessions, film, sacred ceremony and guided meditations. A musical soundtrack of Enough had been produced by one of the participants, and a higher expression of it has come alive as everyone sings those songs together, feeling it personally in their bodies and spirits. It is a dream come true for the Enough Message, which I always have said is not mine but something I feel compelled to serve and invite others to use and to serve. I now have sisters who are holding the message with me, each in her own beautiful and unique way, exploring its different dimensions and using it to unleash her heart, her power, her beauty and potential.

I believe that women have been nurturing a New Story for the Earth for a long, long time, for longer than the human invention of time itself. Rebirthing the world takes time. And patience. And humility. And then even more patience and humility. We have all waited long enough, haven’t we? The birth is imminent. We feel the quickening in our bodies and in our spirits. It is real. We are enough to be midwives of a new culture.

What I have learned is that when it comes to creating something entirely new, women are very often the first in the culture to actually embody it. I’ve observed this again and again as I either attend or speak with those who have attended spiritual-leaning conferences in recent years. Humanity is being called to release old structures, to strip them down to their true essence and intention, and for this, women are perfectly matched. The spiritual women speak of “knowing” while the establishment is still busy making models and conducting studies to prove that what the women experience is true. But which is the faster path, which reveals itself as a holistic (even instantaneous) picture - science or direct experience? Do we really need to wait for scientific proof, or do we need to begin simply trusting ourselves and standing our ground when it comes to matters of peace, justice, kindness, community, and nature? It was the women who started the movement to protect the water at Standing Rock, and women have been the most persistent activists for peace. It is the women who are protecting the seeds in India, standing up to Monsanto. Women who know what is right and good. Women who trust themselves.

When something morally important rises up to be done, the signal comes from a sacred place within us that is planted in solid ground, a place at one with the highest and best for our world, at one with Mother Earth. It is more powerful than we can imagine, and we can no longer be quiet and demure when it bubbles up through us to be spoken aloud. This power may scare us, especially if we are afraid we will repeat the mistakes of the powerful in the old patriarchal, hierarchical story. Or we may carry a primal fear from our female ancestors who were murdered for speaking up. But this is a very different time and this power is not to be feared, for it emanates from the heart, and it is being invited now, not just from you and from me, but from all awakened women.

It is a sacred service to hold a space for something new to emerge, something that is independent of us but which incorporates our love and nourishment as the very building blocks of its liberation. It takes courage and deep trust to let it take shape without trying to control or limit what it will become. We all know that the Old Story was all about learning how to control both nature and one another. We are learning that holding onto that Old Story of “control over” may well be suicidal for everyone. We have every motivation to give birth to a New Story as soon as possible.

The New Story requires that we learn how to deepen into trust and into uncertainty and discomfort. What better prepares us for this than how our bodies experience pregnancy and childbirth? In that same way, women’s circles are about holding sacred womb-like space for what is emergent in each person to rise. It holds us steady even if everything around us is falling apart. What emerges through circle is very often not what we expect, but it is always what we are ready to hear. It is always what is needed. In the weaving of our emergent seeds of consciousness , I believe, is the New Story itself, a model and a vision for building a new planetary culture that works for everyone.

It begins just as we had begun this weekend: by starting to believe in our own enoughness just as we are. We trust that our greatest yearnings and gifts were called forth by the universe to fill an important need, to provide an important step in humanity’s collective evolution. Then we learn to trust others and to ask for and to expect help, meeting at the glorious, nurturing nexus of shared essence, not in competition or ego. And we trust the universe, God, Goddess, The Creator, the quantum field, to support the greatest good for all of us – always including ourselves as the first and central receiver of goodness and nourishment. Nothing that I have found brings these forces for good together like women’s circles. And the New Story for Earth deserves nothing less.

It is almost impossible at first to discern the enormity of what is being created by a women’s circle. The outward signs and actions are subtle: a softer expression, shoulders dropping, abdomen muscles relaxing, a risk taken to share more deeply, a secret heart-felt dream expressed. But at its collective core, this arising something in circle has been felt by many women for a long, long time. Matriarchal indigenous cultures who have sat in circles for thousands of years have always known this magic. And this is what I feel so palpably growing all around me in this room. It is real. It has a unified direction. It has a source. And they are one in the same: LOVE. Only when we know, really, deeply know we are enough, are we completely available to give love away. As one woman at the retreat so aptly expressed, love is one of the few things in life that is not a zero sum game. By giving it away, we don’t have less of it. What we give away is actually multiplied in the act of loving itself. There is always enough of it, no matter what. And this is the knowledge that has been lost in the Old Story of scarcity that humanity has been living. This is what women are ready to birth now: a world awash with our unmitigated love.

We know it feels like love, but that word is so overused that it cannot describe these depths with the precision I am looking for. What kind of New Story will it be? What will it look like? I believe it is almost too amazing to wrap our minds around. And perhaps that is why it must reveal itself through our hearts, not our heads, which would see such rapid, wonderful change as an improbable miracle, not an inevitable evolution of consciousness. Words aren’t nearly adequate to describe the hidden enoughness that exists within and all around us. To approximate the enormity, I had earlier offered a metaphor with the group. Science is now understanding that our bodies are 99.999 % open space and that open space contains 10⁴⁰ more energy than does an equal amount of solid matter. There is enough energy in just one square meter of empty space to boil all of the oceans on Earth! Yes, this is the magnitude of the potential I believe we have begun to tap into during this powerful weekend and in circles throughout the world.

I believe the movement from from Old Story to New Story, from our very own .001% to our 99.999% is one in the same. Both of these expansions are greatly assisted by examining our own personal relationship to one single word, enough: remembering we are each enough and always have been enough for this very time on Earth. We are enough to be worthy of having enough and of demanding a world that provides enough for everyone. We are enough to imagine and create the entirely new structures that will do just that. We are enough to infuse these structures with loving intention that serves the greater good. We are enough right here. Right now. At last we remember. We are enough!

And knowing this, no – feeling this deeply as our own personal, lived experience – makes all the difference in the world. What is pressing outward from our chests as we feel the tremendous love that has been built up in our retreat space this weekend is nothing other than the New Story itself emerging through us, emerging from millions of hearts one precious person at a time. It is time to let it expand and be as big and as visible as it wants and needs to be. We can do this.
We can do it because the sisterhood is strong and so are we. 
This is our time.
Together we rise!


I
f you participate in a women's sacred circle of any kind, know how grateful I am that we are all rising together! Each circle brings us to a global tipping point. If you don't have a circle, why not create one? Free circle guide from www.gatherthewomen.org, an all-volunteer international nonprofit organization.


You can learn more about Laurie and her book, Enough! How to Librate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word and other offerings by visiting her website, www.lauriemccammon.com