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

     

I Promise You:  Your Heart Will Speak Beautiful, Magical Things to You.

A Message to the Graduates of 2016

You are precious and beautiful. There is no one on earth like you.  I know what you are going to say.  From where you are  now, you may not be able to fully believe me.  We live in a complicated and loud world.  It will try to tell you who you should be and it will make you feel that who you are is not nearly enough.  Never have these voices been louder, more confusing or more demanding on young people than they are now, and it's just not right.    

You need - you deserve -reinforcements to emphatically tell you that these external messages are false and should not define you.

And if you’ve ingested them and believe them, it is also not your fault.  We all have.  Most of the time adults who would genuinely want to help you to understand this are held back from doing so because they are too busy and distracted trying to deal with their own insecurities.  They may not realize you are struggling with the same questions they have about themselves every day. 

So I ask you to listen to me, because I see you.  I notice the struggle. I feel it as my own.   I am a woman who has walked where you walk now, with the same kinds of hopes, dreams, insecurities, pressures and worries and a lifetime ahead yet to be shaped.

I can tell you that any time I’ve spent conforming to someone else’s idea of who I should be ended up being a waste of time.  It doesn’t matter if the message is coming from someone who loves you, or if it is someone in the media in a position of authority who you assume knows better than you.

 No one knows better than you about this particular topic:  you.  No one is in a better position to know what wonders you contain.  

And in many ways, since you have not yet been buried in the routines of adult life, you are actually in a position of more clarity to notice what is wrong with this world.  And I tell you there is a lot that is not as it should be.   

Your truth about that is a gift to us all. Speaking up about it does not mean you are weak or whiny.  It means you are brave.  It means you are a truth teller.  And the world needs more truth tellers. That is why I am committed to being one right now.  For you. We can be truth tellers together. 

You may not realize it, but it is so easy to skip the step of really getting to know yourself  at this time in your life.  And by getting to know yourself I don’t mean your exterior image - but what really moves you and lights you up from deep inside.  Believe me, because I know:  before you know it, you are an adult consumed with paying the bills, proving yourself, and focused on taking care of the next generation.   It will be harder and harder to find yourself if you haven’t already started to look when you were young. There are a lot of adults walking around who long ago lost the spark of who they really are. They think they are roles.  They think they are achievements.  They think they are the stuff they own. But I can tell you that none of these things are who we are. And it's a good thing, because all these things are fleeting and subject to change at any moment.  Only "who we are" is completely in our control.  Only "who we are" lasts a lifetime.   And because roles, achievements and stuff  are not who we actually are, they can never succeed in making us permanently happy and secure with ourselves.   

So my advice to you is this:  give yourself the permission to get to know what makes you happy and alive now.  Instead of focusing on all the things that aren’t perfect in your life, or all the ways that you may think YOU are not perfect, cultivate a space where you can dream your own dreams without editing of any kind.  You see, I've learned that the most important relationship you can ever cultivate is a relationship with yourself.    The most important life habit you can ever develop is to be able to listen to your heart, then to boldly claim the truth you find as real, valid and important. Because it is real, valid and important.  

And I do mean this quite literally.  Listen.  Focus on that place in your chest where your heart is.  Just linger and listen.  Some people hear these messages more clearly through art, music, movement or journaling.  Walking or sitting quietly in nature is also a way to deepen your heart-listening. You may have to listen for a long time before you hear anything.  But listen.

I promise you, if you do any of these things enough, your heart will speak beautiful, magical things to you.  It will remind you who you really are.  It will fill you up with an endless well of aliveness and connection, and you will suddenly realize that everything you’ve been told about the scarcity of love and acceptance isn’t true.

  

You do not have to earn love.  

You can never lose it. 

It doesn’t come from outside of you.  

Because you ARE love. You can source what you need directly from within; 

by respecting yourself, 

by following your hunches, 

by discovering what you really love to do, 

by saying “no” to anything that does not feel good or right to you.

You've never been a label, a dress size, an accomplishment, a race, a gender, a body, a socioeconomic class, an IQ.  You are far more precious and unique than any label or category could ever portray.  While some people may make you believe you need to be this or that, the much bigger calling is what the universe needed – and intended – you to be. And only you can really know that, from within.  

I’ve learned that the universe is an unfathomably intelligent system, and nothing is created that was not in some cosmic way called forth by some existing need.  YOU were called forth. And that is no accident.  

That is no small thing. 

You matter. 

You were needed.   

Can you feel the monumental pull of that? 

If you are the answer, what was the universe’s question? Now, this is a question worth a lifetime of inquiry. This is a question that gets you somewhere in life.

Every person you touch with your presence is forever changed by you, and this is true worth. This is true power.  This is true meaning and purpose. And this is why you being you is so important to me.  Because if you somehow miss expressing the core of who you are, what makes you come alive, neither I nor anyone else will have the benefit of 

your light, 

your joy, 

your unique expression.    

So your task is actually quite simple.  Be fully you.  And if you think about it, trying to be anybody else for any reason will never lead to showing you how lovable you really are, because you will never really know if people are in love with you or in love with some false image of you that you have created.  Do you see how the pretend self actually creates separation between you and the love you seek; separation between you and YOU? 

I can only tell you that my life didn’t come fully alive until I dared to claim my authentic self, until I believed I was enough to deserve the life I’d dreamed of.  When I chose to align with me, a path of grace and ease unfolded, and I’ve been on it ever since.  

And just in case you think this is selfish,  I want to tell you that love for your authentic self can’t help but spread love out in every direction to others.  Loving oneself isn't narcissism.  It's an investment in the future, not just in your own future, but in the future of people you haven’t yet met or may never directly meet.  This is because Love is a chain reaction, one whose starting point is in each and every one of us. And magical things happen when love is at the center. 

I’ve come to learn that love is a form of activism.  It transforms.  It liberates.  And this is how we co-create the kind of world we really want to live in:  by loving our authentic selves well.   Like the dynamic, evolving universe we live in, we are always evolving and creating something never seen before, something beautiful and magical and one of a kind. Please don’t miss discovering your one of a kind story.  Don’t miss telling your one of a kind story.  Please, dare to be you.

I want you to experience the profound sense of peace, harmony and happiness available to you in this precious life of yours.  You do not need to re-live the "never good enough" messages you’ve ingested in the past by ingesting them in the present or future. We can break the chain of “never enoughness” and set ourselves free forever.    

May you always know that

you were born enough

you have always been enough.

you always will be enough.

May your dream for your life be the one and only map you follow. 

May you know you are none other than 

love, sweet love 

discovering 

itself.

A perfect answer to the universe’s great need.

           

Laurie McCammon is the author of Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word (Conari Press - April 1, 2016) and host of The Enough Message blog on Blogspot.  You can connect with Laurie by leaving your comments below or by liking and following her on Facebook at "Laurie McCammon author"  and Twitter @EnoughMessage  Her website is:  http://www.lauriemccammon.com

How I Know for Sure That Scarcity is a Myth

In Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, I state that I believe scarcity is a myth. How could this be when we see evidence everywhere of dwindling natural resources, species extinction and global warming?  

I am not saying there are no limits or that everyone presently has enough. What I am saying is that most of the scarcity we see around us is the result of human choices that disrupt what otherwise would be naturally sustaining, self-perpetuating systems. I am also saying that hoarding, waste and greed by the few prevents what could be a more humane and peaceful distribution of the "enough" that actually already exists. 

Nature is organized into ecosystems - systems which have reliably created enough for diverse species in a balanced way for billions of years. As deliberate disruptors of these systems, we as humans have rejected the wisdom of the life-giving Enough systems that would sustain us, instead presupposing that our intelligence is superior and our right is to use resources however we wish. And yet we are the only species of 8.7 million species on Earth to live in defiance of the Enough Story. How intelligent are we to ignore the intricately complex and interdependent systems that sustain life?  

Riane Eisler, in her seminal work, The Chalice and the Blade, divided the human cultures which have made this planet home into two categories - the dominator model and the partnership model. The dominator model has been in place for over 5,000 years and is the predominant world culture in which we now live.   Although we hear so very little about prehistory, there is mounting evidence of a vibrant, intelligent partnership culture in the Neolithic period, with the last surviving of these on the island of Crete.  

Far from being savage or ignorant societies, Eisler concludes that "pratically all the material and social technologies fundamental to civilization were developed (in these partnership societies) before the imposition of a dominator society. " These cultures were peaceful, agrarian, egalitarian, concerned with ensuring the greater good for all (including protecting the vulnerable including women, children and the elderly), and worshiped the life-giving power of mothers, including Mother Earth. In contrast, the dominator culture which would impose itself on Earth thereafter was and continues to be war-loving, hierarchical, authoritarian, male-dominant, and concerned with concentrating power and wealth for the few, and worships the life-taking power of death. Recent advances in carbon dating and further examination of ancient archaeological sites have helped us to peer ever deeper into humanity's past, helping us to realize that our present dominator culture is not the only one that has ever existed - or thrived -  on Earth. Not only did partnership cultures exist, but we already know that they existed in equilibrium and abundance for thousands of years (and perhaps for tens of thousands of years.) 

Most startling to me given my lens of contrasting Enough and Never Enough paradigms,  was the revelation that the dominator tribes who eventually decimated the peace-loving agrarian cultures of the fertile valleys and rivers of Eastern Europe came from two places where food would have been scarce and conditions very difficult - the southern desserts and the northern steppes.  It makes perfect sense that being reared in such harsh conditions, citizens of these nomadic tribes would over time adopt a scarcity "Never Enough" mentality, while those who had more than enough due to agricultural technology and favorable soil and climate would not. Clearly, the standard of living enjoyed by these contrasting cultures was extremely different.  What is unfortunate; however, is that even after the dominator societies took up residence in the fertile river valleys where there would have been plenty, they did not abandon their scarcity mindset.  Instead they went deeper into greed and hoarding. They raped, killed, pillaged, enslaved and imposed their scarcity mentality on the societies they conquered.  

We live in a world in which the collective genius of humanity partnered with nature could provide enough for all forever, and yet we continue to buy into narrow-minded fear-based stories. A recent Koch commercial states that we will need to double the production of crops we produce on present farmland if we are to meet the needs of a growing human population. The solution they put forth, of course, is more and better chemicals. What this approach ignores are our much broader options and our genius - to create urban rooftop gardens, community gardens, to turn useless residential lawns into productive permaculture gardens, and to make different choices regarding human reproduction, including fighting for the rights of women to control their bodies and to gain access to birth control.     

The choice to believe that only a scarcity scenario is possible is out of alignment with the superior intelligence and enduring pattern built into the universe (and in our own DNA) that ensures enough for all.  But rather than wallowing in guilt, fear or shame about this, feeling we are not enough to change things, we should be optimistic about our ability to realign with this greater, wiser and more powerful story. The instructions for how to create enough for everyone is built into the entire cosmos. We are remembering how to look for it now. And this is why I am so hopeful about the future.

When we realize we are actually enough, and inseparable from the universe and its ability to create enough, we realize that a pathway to plentitude has always been available to us as we tap into our own true natures. It’s just that this innate pathway has been obscured by a seriously distorted dominator (Never Enough) worldview that has been narrowly fixated on scarcity and fear. I call this rogue worldview the Never Enough paradigm.  

Our problem isn't a lack of genius or will or technology.  Our problem isn't that Earth is not abundant or big enough to meet our needs. Our problem is one at the level of consciousness itself:  that we cling to a worldview that is not only inaccurate but dangerous, for as we believe, so we create. It is a worldview ruled by fear which creates panic, greed, hoarding and violence, leading to the self-fulfilling prophecy of scarcity. It is a worldview that disregards that we are holons - both individuals and part of a larger interdependent system, a system whose rules and limits we have been choosing to ignore. For what benefit?  Being so far out of reality is not intelligent or practical or advanced. Neither does it create the kind of world we want where we each have the security, peace and abundance we desire. We are being nudged to leave the narcissistic and adolescent phase of our human development behind to step up to be adults - to participate in ensuring a better future for all and not just for our own fleeting pleasure.  

We mustn't be afraid to color outside the Never Enough box. In fact, we must.  Because coloring inside the box has left out far too much of the bigger picture. It is time to awaken to the much larger Enough Story of the universe and to realize that the Enough Story is also within us.   



Laurie is the author of Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, Conari Press, out April 1, 2016. 


You can order the book now at:  http://www.amazon.com/Enough-Liberate-Yourself-Remake-World/dp/1573246832

Website:    www.lauriemccammon.com

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Healing Time on Earth

John Denver performed a song called “Healing Time on Earth” at the Windstar Symposium in 1995.  He never recorded it, and struggled for five years to write it, though he wanted desperately to in order to honor his friend, the prominent environmentalist, David Brower. David had written an inspiring book entitled, Let the Mountains Speak, Let the Rivers Run. 

Both John and David are no longer with us, but in this only performance of his original song ever, John overcame his concern of not being enough to be in the moment and let the inspiration flow. His deeply moving performance is a testament to trusting our genius which is one and the same with  the genius infused throughout all of nature.  

This video is now  - 21 years later -  going viral on social media.  Could it be he could not bring himself to record and release the song widely then because something told him it was not yet healing time on earth?  And are others finding and sharing it now because now it is HEALING TIME ON EARTH?  
You decide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKc0wEmwmYc&sns=em


Laurie McCammon is author of Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, to be released by Conari Press April 1, 2016.  Laurie's website:  http://www.LaurieMcCammon.com