August 11: Day With Creative Women
SAVE THE DATES
August 26: Women’s Press Retreat & Fundraiser
Volume XXII, Number 4 July & August, 2007 A Publication of the Women’s Community Center
Voices, Views and Visions of the Women of San Luis Obispo County
of San Luis Obispo County
4
5 Local Perspectives
6 National Organization for Women
7 Voices Around the Table: Sources of Creativity
8 Gather the Women
9 Creative Women
12 Body and Soul
Photo by Sally Mingo and Ben Lawless
13 Women at Work
14 Community Bulletins
15 Resources for Women
Women’sPress
Women’s Press | July & August 2007 | editors@womenspress-slo.org
Readers, Celebration. Reflection. Those words describe the two very different August fundraising events that will benefit the Women’s Press. Celebrate at Day With Creative Women on Mission Plaza on August 11, enjoying the artistry of our vendors and the talent of our entertainers. Reflect on August 26 at our 2nd annual Women’s Press retreat on such topics as spiritual aging, purification of the heart, and the wise woman within. Monies from both these events support the paper so we can print and pay for layout and other services, such as website and database management. Even as the energies of women involved in both events are focused on providing experiences you will enjoy and that will benefit the paper, I have to acknowledge that my own energy has reached a point where I want my time—outside of my day job!—to be spent in activities that I feel an interest and passion for. I want to be involved in doing not just recording what others are doing. That means that I feel a need to let go of some of the many details that must be addressed to keep the Women’s Press functioning, that I need more help in the everyday tasks that ultimately lead to your reading a publication you enjoy: I want to do more managing as an editor and less of the doing. Is the Women’s Press important enough to you and this community that you are willing to give some time to keep it going? I hope so. I’ve worked on the Press for almost six years, and am now ready to let go if more women don’t come forward to assist both in content acquisition and editing. We still have a website to develop and a database to design and set up if we are to continue. Where are my energies now? In community building activities, especially as they affect older single women; in connections between different generations of women; in the role women can play in making our country and the planet healthy again. I want to spend my time involved with people who are the source of stories; and not just sit at home recording the activities. Both are important. I just want to be more active out there instead of in front of my computer so much. So I hope many of you will contact me and offer a few hours of your time every two months to assist me in keeping the paper going. What are your passions? How can we make sure they are recorded in the Press? This is a community newspaper. I hope more of the women’s community will come forward so it can continue to flourish. Hoping to hear from you,
Letters to the Editor Bravissima, Women’s Press. I want to commend Kathleen and Beverly for the very powerful new series they offered in the last edition of the Women’s Press. As girls maturing into the women we are to be, the early influences in our lives shape who we become. For the fortunate, primary experiences are overwhelmingly positive and affirming; for others they are challenging and painful. I commend the Women’s Press for reaching out in a compassionate and caring way to those who have been hurt in ways that no child in a civilized society should be. Such articles offer an antidote to the isolation felt by such wounding. All of our lives and stories reveal the spectrum of what women deal with as they mature and discover the ways in which they can come to terms with life. Heroic women contribute to society because of their individual pain they convert to compassion. We applaud them. I am so glad to see that we are covering more and more issues that confront us. The Women’s Press has come of age. Heather Mendel
Dear Kathleen, I have been reading Women’s Press for the past couple of years and have found it to be empowering. Some of the articles have helped me in resolving the problems that I have faced as a single mother, in my personal relationships, and with my spiritual growth. So, I was very disappointed to read Beverly Engel’s “My Story,” which sounds like an angry, woman who sees herself as a victim. On one hand Beverly attempts to make it sound like her “horrible childhood” has been positive, but the underlying message is one that dis-empowers women. I find much more strength when I read the columns in Body & Soul, and articles from women who don’t focus on being a victim, but on how they have healed. Sending Women’s Press “our stories” of abuse only keeps us stuck in the past and feeling like victims. I’m certainly not interested in reading about all of the women who have suffered abuse, but rather on what they are doing, today, to move forward and make a positive difference. Sincerely, Judy Summers
There are many ways to contribute to the Women’s Press!
Women’s Community Center Board Angie King, President Evelyn Adams Jennifer Alton Kathleen Deragon Susan Howe Jacky Lopez Sue Maisner Robin Rinzler
Enhancement, Inc. would like to thank all those who helped make our 6th Annual Spring Dinner fundraiser, “Sideways in San Luis”, held at Edna Valley Vineyard on May 12, such a wonderful success. Chef Evan Treadwell of the Lido Restaurant at the Dolphin Bay Hotel catered the gourmet dinner paired with extraordinary Pinot Noir wines from Edna Valley Vineyard, Talley Vineyards, Wedell Cellars and Domaine Alfred. Archie McLaren, Founder & Chairman of the Central Coast Wine Classic gave an entertaining presentation on ³the fickle yet profoundly edifying² Pinot Noir grape. Jim & Elaine Gardiner led the live auction and Wendy Thies of KSBY-6 was the event emcee. The event was sponsored by The California Endowment, Audio Ecstasy, Wedell Cellars and Air San Luis. No fundraising event is possible without volunteers, so a special thanks also goes to all the event helpers and to Tina Hoppe and Elaine Stafford of Edna Valley Vineyard. To all the other outstanding volunteers who continue to work with us, and to those who supported us by attending and donating, Enhancement also wishes to thank you for helping us continue working to improve the quality of life for breast cancer survivors. Shoosh Crotzer Director
ADVERTISE SUBSCRIBE DONATE TIME TO PROJECTS:
We need a distributor for South County! Call Paula, 550-3846
• • • • • • •
Getting a monthly film series organized Setting up a listserv Developing a Community Calendar for our website Setting up a database Outreach to other women’s organizations Working with distribution manager to increase locations and subscriptions Contacting potential sponsors
BRING US LEADS ON CONTENT: • • • • •
Women to interview for our Unsung Heroine feature Books to review Artists whose work you’d like to see on our cover Local activities, persons, and issues our readers would be interested in knowing about Ways local women are celebrating their lives and laughing together
Contact 474-6444 or 305-9775 or editors@womenspress-slo.org 474-6444
MAILING ADDRESS: Women’s Press Women’s Community Center 880 Industrial Way San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805.544.9313
Contributors
Managing Editor: Kathleen Deragon managing-editor@womenspress-slo.org Layout & Design: Benjamin Lawless Photographer: Lynda Roeller Distribution Manager: Paula Sigman Advertising Team: Carol Dawn, Ben Lawless Subscriptions: subscriptions@womenspress-slo.org Ads: ads@womenpress-slo.org (Put “ads” or “subscriptions” in subject line)
Submissions Welcomed!
Articles, essays, opinion pieces, letters, artwork, poetry wanted & appreciated. The Women’s Press reserves the right to edit all submissions for content, clarity & length. Contact managing-editor@womenspress-slo.org or call 805-544-9313. The opinions expressed in the Women’s Press are those of the authors & do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Women’s Community Center. The Women’s Community Center does not necessarily endorse products or services advertised in the Women’s Press.
Beverly Engel Jeannie Greensfelder Hilda Heifetz Charlene Huggins Laura Hyde Angie King Dianne Legro Evelyn Adams Barbara Atkinson Dee Carroll Kate Czekala Joy Davis Bailey Drechsler Anne Dunbar Cynthia Fatzinger Maria Foster Angela Henderson Margaret Hennessy Susan Howe
Heather Mendel Denise Nickeson Berta Parrish Adele Sommers Jacqueline Turner Marleen Walmsley Andrea Zeller
Volunteers
Roberta Youtan Kay Alyson Leblanc Jacky Lopez Shirley Kirkes Mar Elizabeth McGregor Trisha Oksner Anne Quinn Lynda Roeller Shana Ross Renee Sanpei Dawn Williams
ADVERTISING RATES for publication-ready ads: Business card:
$35/one issue 4" X 5": $75/one issue
Quarter page: $115/one issue
Half page:
$190/one issue Full page: $350/one issue Workshop Listings 3.5” x 2”
$150/year (6 issues) $350/year (6 issues) $525/year (6 issues) $850/year (6 issues) $1575/year (6 issues) $35 an issue logo $10 extra
Business Profile: (Logo, Photo & 250 words)
$149/Issue
Color Ads: Add 25% Ad Design/Layout available at an additional charge Publication-ready defined as high-resolution (minimum 300 dpi) digital files in one of the following formats: .tif, .ai, .psd, .pdf, .jpg, or .eps
6000 free copies distributed in SLO County. Subscriptions by mail & by e-mail available.
Women’sPress
July & August 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press
SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, August 26 presents the second annual
Caring for Earth • Caring for Spirit: A One-Day Retreat
Artists! Craftswomen! Volunteers! Participate in the 33rd Annual Day With Creative Women Saturday, August 11, 2007 Mission Plaza 10-5
We invite women to come together to celebrate women’s true worth; to express our shared concern for our human family and our earth; to learn from each other; and to take our inner knowing to outer action so that we may live peacefully together in a balanced world.
For more information, see page 8
Calling all Creative Women! The Women’s Community Center of San Luis Obispo County invites you to participate in the 33rd annual Day with Creative Women. This event draws over 2500 people from all around the Central Coast and beyond, and features more than 70 vendors displaying their own creative arts. If you create art or handcrafted items, you are invited to display and sell your works. Non-profit organizations are invited to provide the community with information about your services. Reserve your booth now! Day with Creative Women celebrates women’s creativity with music and entertainment, arts and crafts for display and sale, continuous entertainment, delicious
food, and children’s activities (crafts, face painting, and bounce house), and is a fundraising event to benefit the Women’s Community Center of San Luis Obispo County, dedicated to the empowerment of women. Entertainment includes Fran Dukehart and Grady Houser, Karen Tyler, Sheri O, Jill Knight, Wikolia and Na Mele o ke Kai hula troupe, and Cheryl Aiona and the Motowners. For more information on volunteer opportunities, entertainment, or booth space reservation, contact the Women’s Community Center at 805-544-9313, e-mail DWCW2007@aol.com. You can now load the vendor application from www.wccslo.org.
For more information, see back cover
Where to find Women’s Press
ENJOY! In honor of Day With Creative Women, we have filled this issue with creative writing and photos for your reading and viewing pleasure.
Promote the Women’s Press and earn some extra money!
W
e need sales reps. from all parts of the county, North Coast, North County, and South County. We even distribute issues in Santa Maria. Enjoy meeting with business women and women-friendly businesses while promoting the Women’s Press and our affordable advertising rates. Set your own schedule. Earn 20% on all advertising, including renewals and business profiles; get a 10% one-time development bonus for new
accounts. Work with our graphic designers and other sales reps to share leads and ideas. Prior experience is not necessary. One of our special offers is to interview business owners/operators and create a human interest article about them and their services – a fun way to meet people in a different context and see our service as a winwin situation. If this sounds like something you would enjoy, please contact Carol Dawn, 235-4960
All SLO County Libraries and the following exceptionally fine establishments! • NORTH COUNTY: Atascadero – The Coffee House and Deli, Starbuck’s at Von’s Plaza, Carlene’s Café, Green Goods, Player’s Pizza, Harvest Health Food Store, North County Connection, Senior Center, Women’s Resource Center/Shelter Office; Paso Robles – Cuesta College North Campus, Café Vio, Chelsea Bookshop/Café Novella, Curves, Old Mission Coffee House, DK Donuts, Panolivo French Cafe, NCI Village Thrift Shop, Paso Robles Health Foods; Templeton – Magic Windows Coffee Café, Twin Cities Hospital, Templeton Market & Deli; Santa Margarita– Santa Margarita Mercantile • NORTHERN COAST: Baywood – Coffee & Things; Cambria – Cambria Connection, Cambria Pines Lodge, Chamber of Commerce, Gym One, La Crema, 7 Sisters, Azevedo Chiropractic, Lilly’s, Alloco’s; Cayucos – Cayucos Super Market, Kelley’s Espresso & Dessert, Ocean Front Pizza, Chevron Station, Chamber of Commerce; Los Osos – Starbuck’s, Baywood Laundry, Cad’s, Carlock’s Bakery, Chamber of Commerce, Copa de Oro, Garden Café, Los Osos Deli, Valley Liquor, Volumes of Pleasure; Morro Bay – Backstage Salon, Coalesce Bookstore, Coffee Pot Restaurant, The Rock, Southern Port Traders, Sunshine Health Foods, Two Dogs Coffee • SAN LUIS OBISPO: Broad St. Laundry, Cool Cats Café, La Crepes, Edna Market, Froggie’s, Art Café, Booboo Records, Creekside Center, GALA, Marigold Nails, Palm Theatre, Susan Polk Insurance, Susan Rodriguez Insurance, Utopia Bakery, Unity Church, Zoe Wells, Naturopath, Cal Poly Library, Center for Alternatives to Violence, Chamber of Commerce, Cuesta College Library, EOC Health Services Clinic, HealthWorks, Healing Alternatives, Jamaca You, Karen Hale Chiropractic, Laguna Laundry, Linnaea’s, Monterey Express, Natural Foods Coop, New Frontiers, Nautical Bean, Outspoken Beverage Bistro, Phoenix Books, Planned Parenthood, Rudolph’s Coffee & Tea, San Luis Obispo Housing Authority Office, SARP, The Secret Garden, SLO Perk Coffee, Spirit Winds Therapy, The Studio Fitness for Women, Two Dogs Coffee, Uptown Cafe, Yoga Centre, Ahshe Hair Salon, Apropos Clothing, Soho Hair Salon, Tom-Mel Beauty Center, Hempshack, YMCA, KCBX, Fairchild Salon, Jaffa Café, Med Stop (Madonna Plaza) • SOUTH COUNTY: Arroyo Grande – Natural Balance, Mongo’s, World Gym, Act II Boutique, Andreini’s, Central Coast Yoga, CJ’s Restaurant, Country Kitchen, CurvesAG, Cutting Edge, EOC Health Services Clinic, Family Chiropractic, Girls Restaurant, Grande Whole Foods, Hunter’s Landing, Kennedy Club Fitness; Avila Beach– Custom House, Sycamore Hot Springs, Inn at Avila, Avila Grocery; Grover Beach – World Gym, Back Door Deli, Cindi’s Wash House, Nan’s Pre-owned Books, Therapeutic Body Center, 30-minute Fitness; Halcyon – Halcyon Store; Nipomo – Anna’s Creekside Coffee House, Healing Touch Spa, Curves, La Placita Market, Slender Lady, Brianna Nicole Spa, World Gym; Pismo Beach – HealthWorks, Honeymoon Café, Pismo Athletic Club, Zadok’s; Shell Beach – De Palo & Sons Deli, Seaside Cafe, Steaming Bean • SANTA MARIA: Café Monet, Hunter’s Landing, Library, Marian Medical Center, Curves on Main and on Broadway, The Bookworm, Lassen’s. • ORCUTT: Loading Dock, Café Ole
We Never Compare
Give Them Time
By Ruthie Osorio
For Melissa
By Beverly Engel
I
t is difficult and painful to face the fact that so many of our sisters and so many children continue to be abused. Tonight we each drank our own bottle of wine And it is a natural instinct to want to turn away from painto celebrate our twenty something pseudo bohemian ful things. But we can’t afford to continue to put our heads lifestyle. It cost $9.99 for three bottles in the sand and hope that this will just go away. at Safeway and we tried to be sophisticated I believe we as a nation have a very difficult time facing and swished the wine to oxidize it but it still tastes painful situations. We want to put a positive spin on things, like fruity acid even with our pinkies up. often before we’ve even had a chance to process them. Right after the shootings at Virginia Tech, I saw a father of Which is different from the first time we drank one of the murdered young people being interviewed. The in seventh grade when we were videotaping This summer, we crashed into the Orange County reporter asked, “Do you think something good will come a public service announcement for your PE class waves wearing only 40s style dresses out of this?” This was just a few days after the horrific about drunk driving and flipped into somersaults event. How could a parent possibly be thinking about the and we sampled the whiskey and Kahlua props holding hands like Christmas morning positive lessons that could come out of the experience at a and the stumbling wasn’t so much acting when you opened presents with my family time when he was in the throes of grieving? as our first introduction to alcohol. because your legal mom was in rehab, just like my We don’t allow people to grieve in this country. We stepmom only a few months earlier. don’t want to hear about their pain. By the same token, we I love how we never have to compare dysfunctional don’t want to hear from victims of abuse. We know it hapfamilies like the time my stepmom hit You and I should be in rehab, jail, or pregnant pens and we feel badly for them, but we don’t really want me because I blew my nose into the tissue like our parents and aunts and uncles, to hear about their struggles because it makes us feel too with both nostrils but instead we pretend like we’ve lost weight much. And it makes us feel helpless. We just want it all to and how your schizo biological mother panhandles whenever we see each other and we toast go away. And so we focus instead on the “good” that can for spare change and Xanax to Judy Garland’s unfortunate passing come out of something, the “lessons” we can learn from it. on the corner of a sepia suburbia. and the movie I’m writing Dr. Keith Ablow, a television shrink and a “Dr. Phil” conabout hitchhiking suicidal dreamers tender, recently wrote a book entitled, Transform Your Life I remember laughing when your dad died who we silently admit are really fictional Through the Power of Insight and Honesty, which is desas you laid convulsing on your bed, representations of us tined to become a bestseller. The thesis of the book is how but you knew it was just too raw except we live to create bumbling poetry ignoring or burying painful memories and experiences can and tragic for me to handle, and naked on-stage theatric confessions negatively effect every aspect of our lives—that we need like how we laughed at my drunk as if this life, this art is the cheapest form of therapy. to heal our past if we expect to live healthy lives. What is stepdad chasing us from the camp site so very sad is that a book such as this needs to be written at two in the morning because he swore my mom years after the advent of psychotherapy. We have become was a slut but I still cried when they divorced. so used to just “moving on” that some people, especially young people, don’t even know that it is okay—or advantageous—for them to feel their feelings! Recovery from any trauma—whether it is the loss of a loved one or childhood abuse, takes time. It takes time to grieve, to accept the loss, to process our anger, to come to terms with the event. We can’t expect ourselves to move from trauma By Beverly Engel, L.M.F.T. to understanding and acceptance without feeling all the feelings of pain, loss, s I wrote in the last issue of Women’s Press, I believe that experience before becoming parents. anger, and even rage. women can play a powerful role in protecting themselves and 5. Examine what works and what doesn’t work as far as protectPlease, please, give trauma victims their children from abuse. I have created a comprehensive pro- ing our children is concerned. the time they need to heal. Don’t make gram that can help every woman make a significant difference in For example, it has become abundantly clear that we must do them feel guilty because they can’t tell her own life, the lives of her children, and the lives of other women more than warn our children about talking to strangers, more than you what “good” came out of the trauma and children in her community. Based on my thirty years experience teach them the difference between good touch and bad touch. Parright away. Allow them to have their expeworking with both victims and perpetrators of emotional, physients must learn to talk to their children very early on about sex in rience and to experience their feelings. cal and sexual abuse, this program was designed to educate and general and sexual abuse in particular. Because they are bombarded And, as uncomfortable as it may be, try to empower women to become a strong force in stopping abuse. daily with sex on television, in videos and at the movies, most chillisten when they tell you how much they This program includes seven major aspects, including: dren know far more about sex than their parents care to admit. Even are hurting. Yes, it may make you feel 1. Education. more alarming to most parents, children are engaging in sexual helpless, but allow yourself to feel that The first step will be for each person to become better eduactivities at very early ages. Putting off having sex talks with children helplessness for a time. You might be surcated about the issues of domestic violence and child abuse. For can be dangerous. prised to discover that from that helplessexample, around the world, at least 1 in every 3 women have been 6. Help abused women gain the strength to walk away from abuness emerges a resolve—a resolve to do beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. An sive people. something to help alleviate the problem epidemic of child molestation is spreading across America yet few Once a woman has been emotionally, physically, or sexually or a deep commitment to work toward people are aware that 100,000 children are molested a year—1 in abused by her partner, she begins to question her perceptions, she social change. And when we allow our3 girls and 1 in 6 boys. The problem of child sexual abuse is even loses her sense of self, and her ability to act on her own behalf. selves to feel our helplessness, we don’t more serious in countries outside the United States. Instead of judging women who stay in abusive relationships or labelhave to cover it over with false platitudes 2. Expose and work past our denial. ing them masochists, we need to make a better effort to support and magical thinking. As with anything The primary way that adults can protect children from child them in gaining the strength to leave. else that is difficult to face, once we have abuse is by coming out of denial about their own abuse experi7. Change the negative attitudes and beliefs that create a victim looked it square in the eye, we no longer ences. Those who were abused as children are far more likely to mentality in women and girls. have to fear it. We are, in fact, empowbecome romantically involved with men who will abuse them or Unfortunately, girls in most societies are still socialized to be ered by the courage it took to face it. their children. Many adults are in denial about the fact that they polite, appropriate and agreeable, qualities that directly interGood can come out of tragedy and were abused and so do not seek the treatment they need. Even fere with their ability to stand up for themselves. Aggression is still we can learn important lessons from those who remember being abused remain in denial in the sense viewed as impeding a girl’s ability to be caring and “nice” and a even the most painful experiences. But that they refuse to believe it could happen to their own children. threat to relationships. it is insulting and shaming to expect Many allow their own children to be around the very person who In future issues I will go into more detail about each of these a survivor of a tragedy or a trauma to abused them (their father, their grandfather, a sibling). seven steps. We will also be presenting workshops and lectures to miraculously “get over it” and move on to 3. Learn the warning signs that someone is likely to become abusive. women in the community who would like to become actively involved a different place before they have been There are certain red flags that can help women identify potenin preventing abuse in our community. allowed to process their feelings. tial batterers or emotional abusers. Every woman should learn Beverly Engel, L.M.F.T., is a psychotherapist who has specialized these red flags in order to prevent her from bringing an abuser into in abuse issues for over thirty years. She is the best selling author her and her children’s lives. of twenty self-help books, including: The Right to Innocence: Heal4. Become educated about how abuse gets passed on. ing the Trauma of Childhood Sexual Abuse, The Emotionally Abused Another one of our blind spots is that we fail to recognize the fact that those who have been abused often become abusers them- Woman, The Emotionally Abusive Relationship, and Breaking the Cycle of Abuse. selves. For example, children who are sexually abused are far more Many of her books are used as classroom resources and are frelikely to become molesters than those who were not abused and quently recommended by other therapists to their clients. Her books child-on-child sexual abuse is growing faster than any other form have been translated into 7 other languages. of sexual abuse. Almost half of all sex offenders are under 18. The cycle of abuse can be broken if those who were emotionally, physically, or sexually abused work toward healing from their own abuse Since eighth grade, I’ve counted the minutes you spend in the bathroom after inhaling a vegetarian burrito at La Hacienda since I’ll always suspect you are throwing up again, withering away like a piece of chalk left in the rain because you cannot believe that you shine like Chinese firecrackers sparking on New Year’s.
The Role Women Can Play in Breaking the Cycle of Violence Against Women and Children
A
LocalPerspectives
July & August 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press
Cynic’sCorner
Don’t Stop… ! By Jackie Turner
Cal Poly Women’s Awareness Starts Dialogue About Abortion with Silence By Ruth Osorio
On May 22 at 11:00 am, twenty five students gathered in silence at Dexter Lawn to raise awareness about the recent Supreme Court case, Gonzalez v Carhart. The Supreme Court case banned a form of late term abortion called intact dilation and extraction, leaving no provision protecting the woman’s health. After meeting at Dexter Lawn, the demonstrators marched to the University Union. In the UU, Cal Poly Women’s Awareness officers spoke with students about the Supreme Court case and its implications. “CPWA was shocked by the lack of media coverage and awareness about the Supreme Court decision,” said CPWA organizer Lizzy LaMotte-Mitchell, senior Political Science major. The Supreme Court case decision was announced on April 18, two days after the Virginia Tech shooting. “What terrifies us the most is the federal government is now regulating the decisions women and doctors make in regards
to their reproductive health, their health in general,” LaMotte-Mitchell said. Most students did not know about the Supreme Court case, LaMotte-Mitchell said. Over one third of the demonstrators were male students. Zach Austin, third year Political Science major and president of Cal Poly Democrats, used the microphone provided for Free Speech hour to say why this ruling affects men. “You may wonder why I’m here, why this issue matters to men. It could be your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, the girl sitting next to you in class, this ruling could put her health in jeopardy,” Austin commented. Students were also collecting signatures in support of the Freedom of Choice Act introduced to Congress by Barbara Boxer and sponsored by Lois Capps. The Freedom of Choice Act would codify women’s health as a legal reason to terminate any pregnancy.
Protecting and Promoting Healthy Oak Woodlands By Emily Penfield - League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County
William Randolph Hearst, when he began building his world-renowned estate on a hill at San Simeon, determined that no live oak trees were to be removed. It was up to Julia Morgan, his architect, to uphold his vision, which she successfully accomplished largely through her design and, in one case, with some brilliant engineering. When faced with the daunting challenge of moving six mature live oaks – an unprecedented task in 1919 – Morgan safely moved them by devising a plan that was as intricate as it was monumental, involving tunneling, concrete girders, and timbers and rollers. Four of those six majestic oaks are still alive today. In San Luis Obispo County, oak woodland now covers more than 36% of our landscape, which is a remnant of what once was – even in the recent past. In the Salinas River Valley, for example, 70 percent of the valley oaks were removed in 1979. We’re not alone. Throughout the state, the California icon is disappearing at the alarming rate of 14,000 acres a year. Today, another woman has stepped up to the task of preserving California’s oak woodlands. State Senator Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, authored Senate Bill 1334, which became law on Jan. 1, 2005. Up until this time, no regional or statewide strategy existed to conserve oak woodlands. The bill brings oak woodland habitat protection under the California Environmental Quality Act and establishes an Oak Woodlands Conservation Fund. It requires that each county adopt an oak woodlands management plan, including mitigation measures if a proposed project has a serious impact on oak woodlands Even prior to the Kuehl bill, the County of San Luis Obispo had a voluntary plan in place. The San Luis Obispo Native Tree Committee is a diverse coalition that encourages oak woodland protection and enhancement through land owner education and outreach. The County also imposes fines for the removal of oak trees without
permit, although enforcement is not always carried through and some view the fines as inadequate. In August 2006, an Oak Tree Resources Committee, headed by county Supervisor Jim Patterson, was formed. The committee considered proposing an oak tree ordinance requiring mandatory protection of oak woodlands but opted to continue with the voluntary plan for the near future. Their most crucial recommendation, however, has not been adopted and is still up for consideration. That is the hiring of additional staff to develop and implement the County Voluntary Oak Woodlands Management Program. Just as Julia Morgan provided William Randolph Hearst with the means to preserve San Simeon’s oaks, Senator Kuehl has given California counties, including ours, the tools to protect our oak woodlands. Now it’s up us, as citizens, to see that the county uses these tools. The League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County firmly endorses the preservation of the county’s oak woodlands and will continue to support the efforts of the Board of Supervisors and county staff to do so, including urging additional staff as recommended. We urge your support in this effort. Emily Penfield is vice-president and program chair for the local League of Women Voters, and served as the League’s planning and land use director last year. She is also a guide at Hearst Castle.
I waited all week to see the last show of the best television program of the decade, The Sopranos. I even had a bet in my office as to how the show would end: Meadow dies; AJ goes nuts; Tony is a broken man; Carmela leaves Tony and becomes a nun (or something like that!) The TV program guide said that The Sopranos’ finale was supposed to last sixty-five minutes, which would be a full five minutes longer than it usually lasted. I figured that those last five minutes would be the most important of all. So when sixty minutes passed without much ado, my heart was pounding and my stomach was in a bitter knot. (You’re at a tied Super Bowl game with five minutes to go.) The last scene showed an ordinary family, the Sopranos (Tony, Carmela, and AJ) sitting in an East coast diner eating onion rings; Meadow was late and having trouble parking her car outside the place. An average, mundane scene. With only four minutes to go, Tony played a song on the jukebox – “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. Music always had an intricate part in the series, but still, I couldn’t help thinking … what does this song mean? Adding to the tension, a lot of suspicious (or ordinary?) looking people were doing what people do at a diner – coming and going; going to the bathroom. Nothing out of place, nothing unusual. Three minutes to go and
still, no action. The music played, “Don’t Stop Believing”, “ Don’t Stop Believing”, Don’t …… STOP! And the TV screen went dead! I couldn’t grasp it … did my television default on me! Why did it have to conk out now? I cursed my bad luck. Then …incredibly, the credits started rolling, and the show was over! Huh? I couldn’t wrap my brain around what had happened. Nothing happened! I waited all week for this! What a cheat. Dazed and confused, I went to bed. In the middle of the night, I awoke with a start! What brilliant TV! The perfect ending to the perfect show! In my interpretation, my favorite dysfunctional family (not counting my own, of course) was still alive; still fighting; still kicking and screaming; still loving and hating; still living life! Yes, I know that there are those who think the fade to black was the “never see it coming” killing of the Soprano family. Those people can keep their opinions to themselves because I fell in love with that family many TV seasons ago, and I … “Don’t Stop Believing”! Goodbye Tony, Carmela, Meadow, AJ, Janice, Paulie (& all the others) … you will be missed! Jackie Turner can be reached at jackiemagic322@yahoo.com
NOWNews
Women’s Press | July & August 2007 | editors@womenspress-slo.org
This Page Presented by the
National Organization for Women
The purpose of NOW is to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society NOW !
Coordinator’s Corner By Angie King
TIt’s summer, and the livin’ is easy, or at least it seems so. The weather is perfect and our agricultural abundance is evident everywhere. But I am burned out from everything going on (Iraq, global warming, government-sanctioned corruption, hijacking of our system of checks and balances, etc.) this past winter and spring. And, even though I know it is it important to remember that the world will go on, and this will end, right now I can’t deal with it. It’s summer. However, I also know that it is up to us, the progressive, feminist public, to figure out how to fix the mess Bush is leaving behind him. That will take time. It will also take creative thinking, outside the box maybe, and we should be starting that process now. So, burned out or not, let’s get our minds right over the summer, and spend a little time regrouping and getting creative for the coming year. Here are 3 suggestions for the summer, besides supporting our community at Pride in the Plaza and Day with Creative Women, where NOW will have a booth at both events. 1. Take a little time to be nice to people, we could all use it. It makes you and the person you are nice to feel better. Reach out and meet someone a little different from your usual routine. I’m sure you will find common ground and build a bond that may have beneficial consequences later. We are all in this together. We can’t afford not to use all the help that’s out there. 2. Recharge your energies by reading about other feminist, political thinkers and doers. There are scads of biographies of contemporary and not-so-contemporary women to take with you to the beach, or your own backyard. We should always remember our roots and build on their energies. 3. Spend a little time trying out ideas for post 2008 elections, such as, universal health care, accessible affordable child care, recognizing the value of motherhood in economic terms and changing the tax laws, reversing onerous foreign policies regarding dissemination of information about abortions, and on and on. Stay informed. Remember, the California primary is in February 2008. How do the candidates stand on our issues? Ask them as they ask for your vote. We can do it! The time is NOW!
Reproductive Rights Update By Angie King
Good News – The Mexico City Policy may be on its way out! The US House attached a rider to the State Department budget bill that marks the beginning of the end of an era. In 1984 Reagan initiated a ban on any US money going to organizations overseas that perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning. This included access to contraceptives. As a result, women in developing countries have had to suffer high-risk pregnancies and illegal abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases run rampant, causing unnecessary deaths and deprivation, family disruption, and other health issues. At last the Democratic-controlled House has taken a step towards protecting women’s health by lifting the ban on providing contraceptives. Of course, Bush has already promised to veto the measure, but it may prove embarrassing if he has to veto the whole State Department budget. Freedom of Choice Act introduced in Congress: In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s regressive ruling on April 18 this year in the two abortion ban cases, women’s rights advocates in Congress have introduced the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) S. 1173/H.R. 1964. This legislation, if enacted, would override the Court’s decision in the two cases, Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood and Gonzales v. Carhart, in which the court upheld vaguely-written bans that could prohibit the most commonly used and safest abortion procedures after 12 weeks of pregnancy. In upholding these bans, five conservative Supreme Court justices have effectively overruled a core element of Roe v. Wade that had been reinforced in many Court decisions: the requirement that legislative restrictions on abortion must contain an exception to protect the woman’s health. The gravity of the Court’s decision as it relates to the health of all women of child-bearing age is immense. It is a giant leap toward overturning Roe and, at the same time, signals approval to the state legislatures with anti-abortion majorities to move forward with abortion ban bills that would go into effect when, and if, Roe falls completely. Not wasting a moment, the Supreme Court on April 23 directed the lower courts to review earlier decisions that had overturned state abortion bans in Virginia and Missouri because they lacked exceptions to protect the health of the woman. Because the Supreme Court’s April 18 decision discounts the necessity of a health exception,
Join the Parade for Women’s Equality Day August 26, 2007 at the State Capitol in Sacramento In the final years before the passage of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution, that which recognizes the right of women to cast votes in federal elections, the women of that time took to the streets, much as we still do today, to protest the inequality of rights under the law. In their case, it was scandalous for women to be out in public alone without male escorts (sound familiar?) and to take a position opposed by their husbands or fathers. Yet these women did. And more. As we know from the movie, “Iron Jawed Angels,” some of them, notably Alice Paul, suffered imprisonment and forced feedings for their positions. Others picketed the White House with vigils and
legal experts predict that the new reviews will result in the circuit courts upholding those state bans. The Freedom of Choice Act, if adopted into law, will restore the reproductive rights recognized in 1973 in Roe v. Wade and in Doe v. Bolton, before Congress, state legislatures and courts eroded these rights. FOCA applies to measures enacted or implemented before, on, or after the date of its enactment. In many parts of the country and for many low-income women, the right to an abortion is meaningless for lack of providers and financial assistance. Liberty should not be a patchwork available only to women fortunate enough to live in a state that recognizes a woman’s fundamental human right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy. FOCA will supersede laws that restrict the right to abortion, including laws that prohibit the public funding of abortion care for poor women or counseling and referrals for abortion services. Minors have long been included within the protections of Roe. Parental consent or notification statutes have been used as a tool to deny access to abortion services for minors. When such laws deny or interfere with the ability of minors to access abortion services, they would violate FOCA. FOCA also forbids government from interfering with a woman’s right to choose to bear a child. Moreover, it prohibits discrimination against the exercise of reproductive rights. FOCA would supersede the federal ban and any state ban on abortion procedures (so-called “partial-birth” abortion bans) to the extent those bans restrict pre-viability abortion procedures, or postviability procedures necessary to preserve a woman’s health or life. While action this year is unlikely, this legislation allows the women’s reproductive rights community to make important headway as a movement. It helps us to: (1) articulate our vision of what it means to support women’s right to determine her own reproductive life (2) educate the public about the threat facing Roe at the Supreme Court and the many other efforts long underway to erode Roe’s protections; and (3) mobilize and activate feminist activists as we build momentum for the serious battles that lie ahead. See more information at NOW.org. Defend Birmingham Alabama’s Clinics July 14 – 22, 2007: Please join Birming-
Continued in Rights, pg. 7
signs; and memorably, all dressed in white, they rode white horses down Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, causing a stampede and general rioting by the men in the crowd. It has been this image, of women in white on white horses that has endured. 87 years later, a consortium of women’s groups has joined together for a commemorative parade in Sacramento, complete with white dresses and white horses and we are all encouraged to join them. California NOW is one of the sponsoring organizations, along with National Women’s History Project, AAUW, Planned Parenthood, Commission on the Status of Women, California Nurses Association, Grandmothers for Peace, many labor groups, and others too numerous to mention. As you know, each year, SLO NOW has traditionally presented a public educational program about the background of and importance of Women’s Equality Day and the impact women have made on US poli-
NOW Chapter # CA 565 PO Box 1306, SLO, CA 93406 SLONOW @ kcbx.net http://groups.myspace.com/~slonow
NOW Calendar July 2: • Pres. Johnson signs Civil Rights Act, 1964 July 8: • Birthday of Faye Wattleton, activist, 1943 July 11: • Gay Pride in the Plaza July 13-15: • National NOW convention, Detroit, MI July 17: • NOW regular meeting, 6 PM July 19: • Seneca Falls convention, 1848 July 21: • Birthday of Janet Reno, 1938 Aug 3: • Birthday, Maggie Kuhn, founder, Grey Panthers Aug 6: • Women’s Peace Day, anniversary of Hiroshima bombing, 1945 Aug 11: • Day with Creative Women, Mission Plaza Aug 13: • Birthday of Lucy Stone Aug 21: • NOW regular meeting, 6 PM Aug 26: • Women’s Equality Day
According to one of our NOW members, historian Carol McPhee, the women of SLO were involved in the fight for suffrage. In October 1896, Susan B Anthony herself made a “whistle stop” here to address the public on the rights of women to vote. Many fundraising events and rallies had been held prior to her arrival. At one such rally, in response to the concern expressed by a man present that voting would make women strong-minded, the speaker replied it would not, for weren’t men still weak minded after they voted?
tics because of the power of our votes. Next year, which will be a few months before major fall elections, we plan to return to that format with a panel of women office seekers discussing their views on feminist topics. However, this year, we will be joining the march in Sacramento for our celebration. We invite you to join us. We will be renting a van (or taking the train, depending on the number of people, time involved and cost). The parade begins at 9:30 AM on Saturday August 25, so we will most likely travel the night before and stay in a hotel close by. There will be no charge for local SLO NOW chapter members for the van or the hotel; non-members will be asked to pay $45. (As an aside, membership for a year in SLO NOW costs only $40 – join now and save $4!) For more information and to sign up for the trip, call Susan at 473-4697. Come to our next meeting, July 17 for more details or visit womenequalityparade.com.
Voices
July & August 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press
Voices Around the Table: Jeanie Greensfelder My internal sources include listening for the muse in conversation with myself via journal, art, and introspection. Sometimes I commit to write a page about anything, and then sift through it for a nugget that leads me further. At bedtime I ask for dreams and in the morning I pay attention to my dream images. When I write about them or draw them, their lessons expand. Also, I watch for thoughts that come in the night. Meditation can bring surprises. And if I feel bored and uncreative, I become interested in this vacuum that will fill. External inspiration comes when I schedule a ME day and go for an outing. My company is a camera and a notebook for thoughts, ideas, and sketches. Curiosity and noticing moments often leads to an essay or poem. When I go some place new, I look with fresh eyes. I love to play with and expand ideas from books or conversations. A browsing hour in the library is always fruitful. Writers, artists and musicians like to study successful examples in their field keeping this question in mind, “How did they do that?” The more I honor ideas by creating something, the more ideas flow. When I look at something I’ve made, I am grateful for the inspiration that passed through me and fed my soul. Irene Kooi Chadwick My internal and external sources of creativity are as various and abundant as the sky is high and the earth is deep. Externally, I feel the magnetic forces of Planet Earth drawing me to its goodnesses. Each drop of rain, each spider web, each grain of sand, the ant, mouse, swifts building their mud nests below the eaves, the way the tree bends to soak up sun, the bee extracting pollen from the inner recesses of red trumpets on the vine gracing the fence. Internally, I feel joy -- joie de vivre -- say the French, deep
What are your internal and external sources of creativity?
sadness for cruelties unwittingly inflicted on fellow human beings, solitude and meditation, music heard and absorbed as mother-love, the wind blown into my self to become spirit. Inspired I breathe the air of renewal and restore the vital balance my good body needs to write poems, to play the piano and sing, to respond to a child’s cry, to sink deeper and deeper into that private place where whatever is born might become a thing of beauty to nurture, to share. Esther McKinnon This question arouses in me some thoughts and wandering associations. When my Creativity shows up -- that is, when the ability to bring forth New Life in some way or other starts working in me -- it feels to me that some little bit of Diivne Inspiration has been let loose to play around with me, to move my senses and thoughts -- my whole being -- the same way that the wind sets the leaves and shadows to dancing in the trees outside my windows right now on this late spring afternoon ... with no particular purpose other than to Make New and to Play ... the same way the breezes arouse miles and miles of mature grasses and cause them to wave and roll across the prairies in mid-July ... the same way that white caps and long frothy white crests peak and plunge as the tide surges and ebbs at the Jersey shore in September ... My Creativity is not well-behaved ... although oftentimes the results of all of that chaos and randomness will turn into a New Order of some kind. But the source of all that commotion and flow and change? I haven’t a clue. Except that I know that it’s not all coming from inside me. Inspiration, by definition, is breathed in from outside. The products I create -- my poems and songs and dances and original mothering ploys, my spontaneous meals and the diplomacy that comes to me sometimes from out of the blue that allows me to successfully
17th Annual Women’s Long Dance September 21, 22 & 23, 2007 Arroyo Grande Location
We invite women of all ages, from young women who have begun Moontime, to Grandmother Elders, to the upcoming Long Dance. This ceremony is an opportunity for unity. A place to cast your intentions into a circle of profound energy. Come, daughters of Earth Mother, put on your power, join together. Let us make MAGIC! Send SASE for further information and/or registration form to: Church of Empowerment P.O. Box 76 Arroyo Grande, CA. 93421 Or go to the website for downloadable forms:
www.churchofempowerment.org or call/email:
Hua Anwa 805.481.0892 Rosa2hua@aol.com
Skywalker 805.967.6537 Sowelu@silcom.com
Jade Bracken 805.772.5068 Jadebracken@sbcglobal.net
mediate disputes -- all of that comes from the world and goes back into the world - the whole in-out pulse happening at the same time, one unbroken process, like one breath: the in and out both becoming the other with no clear line of demarcation. Hmmmm... Identifying my creative sources? For me that is like trying to pick up a smooth, small ball of quicksilver... Oops! It was there! But the effort to collect and identify it, the effort to hold it, to own it, to control it, scatters it. There! No, there, there... now there! No! Irretrievable, no longer identifiable, now it’s something else, somewhere else... Let’s just say that I notice Creativity when it comes visiting. I attend to the shifts in perspective that it brings. The Newness delights and surprises me and I accept the Gift and give thanks for that spe-
cial vision as well as for the means to turn it into a New Thing that magically weaves through and out of me. Recognizing the process at play and at work in my body - in my hands, words, pen, home, family, clay . . . -- is for me a kind of praying. The triple “A” modus vivendi, modus ludendi: Attend. Accept. Acknowledge with thanks. The Gift comes unspecified and unbidden. For me, trying to identify the source impedes the process. Do not look Epona in the mouth to check her teeth. It smacks of ingratitude to question the highspirited Horse Goddess-Muse. Sources must be honored, but at the same time some sources must remain nameless and in mystery to retain their Soul and Power.
RIGHTS
very gates of hell – the abortion industry in Birmingham.” This is a “religious” hate group – a bunch of bullies who spend their time harassing and intimidating women, and spewing hatred toward the gay community and immigrants, among others. This group laments that legislation has not successfully ended abortion and feels that they must now “storm the gates.”
Continued from pg. 6
ham NOW for “Alabama Reproductive Freedom Summer.” From July 14-22, prochoice supporters are gathering in Birmingham, Alabama, to say “No!” to Operation Save America (OSA). They will spend the week mobilizing the reproductive rights movement, defending the clinic, and growing a regional organization. This is a call for progressive activists from around the country to join them for any part of the week’s events, and to make a financial contribution to help support this important work. OSA, formerly Operation Rescue, descended upon Jackson, Miss., last summer in a failed attempt to shut down the lone remaining women’s clinic in the state. AL NOW members were there, and this summer MS NOW has pledged to reciprocate. OSA is coming to Birmingham to, in its words, “take the Gospel of Christ to the
Your help is needed! For example, a donation of • $25 will buy water for the group for one day, • $50 will buy 10 vests for the dedicated feminists who come to defend the clinic, • $100 will pay for one night at a Birmingham hotel for two of the incredible people joining us to stop this siege. Donate NOW! Write to P.O. Box 1848, Merrifield, VA 22116-8048 or call 202-6288669.
Events
Women’s Press | July & August 2007 | editors@womenspress-slo.org
presents the second annual
Caring for Earth • Caring for Spirit: A One-Day Retreat Temple Beth David, 10180 Los Osos Valley Road, San Luis Obispo 9:00 am (Registration) to 5:00 pm, Sunday, August 26, 2007 $ 75.00 • Buffet Salad Lunch Provided • Pre- Registration Required For presenter bios and pre-registration form, contact editors@womenspress-slo.org, go to www. womenspress-slo.org or call 805.541.6874
Gather the Women Workshop Descriptions Purification of the Heart: Traditional Islamic Theory and Practice of Tasawuf Nisha Abdul Cader
Purification of the heart is a central concept in Islamic ideology and practice. Although often attributed to the Sufi movement in contemporary times, historically the concept of tasawuf was an area of scholarship in the great centers of learning throughout the Muslim world. The workshop will briefly introduce the central concepts of Islam, including gender equity, then explain the concept of tasawuf. It will then explore practical steps to follow this inward reflection, assessment, and application regardless of faith tradition.
In The Heart Is a Well Rev. Nancy Ballinger, M.A., M. Div
Whether pursuing a career, nurturing a relationship, or raising kids, our busy lives seldom offer women the opportunity to journey to places within where we are able to source our deep inner wisdom. Through meditation we are able to fill ourselves and let the healing waters spill over and heal our earth. The workshop will offer basic instruction in meditation and explore through readings from many faith traditions how people have always known to go within for strength and care. Women will leave inspired to begin meditating even for a few minutes each day, and see how our personal care and inner work affects and cares for our Earth and all beings and the next real step towards peace.
Embodied Sexuality Bailey Drechsler
Sexuality embodies paradox: it holds the potential for ecstatic awakening, and heartache; experiencing cosmic oneness, and existential separateness. In this light, sexuality may be viewed as a crucible: it opens up—nay forces—the possibility for transformation. In this workshop participants are invited to: • Explore the psychological and socio-historical forces that interfere with whole-heartedly embracing her sexuality • Increase acceptance of & appreciation for her Sexual Self • Envision what it means to powerfully claim her unique sexual identity • Celebrate the awe and wonder of female sexuality
Honoring the Wise Woman Within Berta Parrish, Ed.D.
The Wise Woman archetype, the third stage of a woman’s life, isn’t valued in today’s youth-obsessed American culture. However, we can “see through” the limiting stereotypes and reclaim her inspiration, guidance, and vibrancy. By recognizing her in folktales and myths and by discovering our Wise Woman Within, we can embody her archetypal energy and serve our communities with purpose and passion.
Writing From and For the Soul Beverly Engel, L.M.F.T.
In this workshop you will be learn ways to connect with and access your deepest and highest self. You will be provided writing exercises that will encourage you to connect with and speak from your soul. Recommended for anyone who enjoys writing, would like to discover ways to jumpstart or deepen their writing, or for anyone who is interested in learning new ways for self-discovery.
When Chocolate is Not Enough Bonita Zisla, MA, MFT Susan Sharaga Swadener, PhD, RD
Why food works soooo well to take care of uncomfortable feelings and what you can do about healing your relationship with your body and food. Everybody has to eat, but how to eat with pleasure and experience your body with acceptance? What would happen if all the energy that women put into hating their bodies and worrying about what they eat were put to use in solving the earth’s problems? We will use education, guided imagery, art activities and discussion to help promote a healthy enjoyment and appreciation for food/life/our bodies.
Changing the Story to Save the Earth Eve Neuhaus
The poet Muriel Rukeyser says, “The universe is not made of atoms; it is made of stories.” The stories we tell ourselves, the stories we believe, the stories we live, the language, the sound, the images, the processes, the metaphors, all work together to create our reality. Right now most of us are telling ourselves and others a pretty grim story—but times of great peril are also times of great possibility. Let’s change the story and change the world.
This workshop will offer two tools for changing our own, our world’s, and perhaps, the earth’s story: the perspectus, a helmet that lets you see from the perspective of anyone or anything; and the gift of languages, which lets you understand the language of anyone or anything.
Spiritual Aging Beverly Engel Heather Mendel
What is Spiritual Aging? Making sure that you are the best version of yourself you can possibly be. Becoming an instrument of healing for your family. Becoming an Ambassador of Peace in your community and in the world. Experiencing fuller and deeper relationships with others--and yourself. Following in the footsteps of other women who exemplify what it means to age spiritually and gracefully. Making elegant choices that will make your life more meaningful on a day to day basis. In this workshop we will present information, strategies and experiential exercises that will help you to achieve all of these things. Join others who are interested in aging spiritually, meaningfully, and gracefully and learn from one another.
The Circle of Time: A Participatory Journey of the Senses Alyson LeBlanc
As a powerful means for creating awareness, connection, and support for the process of self-discovery and planetary change, the circle is the oldest and most mythically powerful symbol in existence. In the quiet and focus of an intimate setting, you are invited to journey through the ages with sangoma Alyson LeBlanc as we explore and experience the ‘cycle of the circle’ through time. Visual and sound presentations, interspersed with observation, participation, discussion, and sharing, will gradually bring us from the dawn of human interaction through to an encompassing vision of our place in the circle of our own relationships, communities, and land in today’s world. This 1 ½ hour ‘moment in time’ offers you a beautiful opportunity for greater awareness of the sacred purpose of circle in your own life and in the lives of those around you.
Sarah and Hagar: Reaching Out Across the Great Divide Nisha Abdul Cader Heather Mendel
Removed as we are from the events described in religious texts of Islam and Judaism about how the Muslim and Jewish communities became separated, the two presenters share stories as a contemporary Muslim and Jewish woman in dialog about themselves, their families and their lives. Using the vehicle of faith and family as pathways to celebrate diversity, the presenters consider the influences of their respective traditional practices on their spiritual pathways. Discussing what they have in common and what is uniquely their own, they will encourage participants to share their own stories as way to nourish and heal the spiritual yearnings that may have been bruised by religious practice.
The Four Sacred Winds: What We Can Learn From the Cardinal Directions About Ourselves and All Our Relations Janise Rennie
Each direction represents color, elements, animals, time of season, and more. Come take a journey exploring the sacred directions and their elements and how those apply to your everyday lives. The Native peoples have long believed that each cardinal direction holds power. The winds carry messages for us. Through daily practice of meditation, we can learn to listen. With ritual drumming we shall journey into the directions, meditating on what is held for us, what we can learn at this time, where our power spot exists, and much more.
Walk Gently By Anne Dunbar
Walk gently through the corridors of my heart. Ill used as it is a coarseness pervades its passages. Follow not the paths well beaten. Rather explore its dusty regions in search of my eternity. My wholeness eludes me and sadness lies in its wake. Walk gently, my love. Walk on.
CreativeWomen
July & August 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press
“Great Egret Flying” by Ruth Ann Angus. A line of Ruth Ann’s educational nature cards featuring her photos will be for sale at the Natural History Museum in Morro Bay.
“Sweet Jessie” by Lynda Roeller
UnsungHeroine
Ode to the Written Word
Francesca Nemko: Improvising a Poet’s Life
By Bailey Drechsler
By Berta Parrish
In 1997, Francesca Nemko was asked to interview herself for a Women’s Press article about a creative woman. In that biographical piece, she describes herself as “an improviser, a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of writer, educator, and performer.” It’s only fitting that ten years later she was selected to be interviewed for the same newspaper. In the intervening years, she has gained further acclaim and confidence and has continued fostering creativity in herself and others. Francesca arrived in SLO in 1993 from LA with an impressive resume as a freelance writer with articles on music, travel, food, and health-related topics in several US and overseas publications. Her love of music led her to write numerous album liner notes, artist biographies, concert program notes, and musician profiles. Her passion for jazz inspires her poetry and her “spoken word jazz improv” performances. She has two books of poetry, Childless Mother and Of Parrots and Paradigms, and the DVD WordJazz, a recording with a jazz trio at Unity Concert Hall. In addition to expressing her own talent, she encourages others as a facilitator in workshops and as a Creative Consultant to aspiring writers. She believes that “we all have buried treasures within us that can be excavated if we are open and receptive.” She has conducted You’re Never Too Old to Meet Your Muse and Poetry, Creation, and Performance workshops at Cuesta College as well as a continuing creative writing class at Unity. Naturally, she uses music to stimulate and enhance the creative process.
“Music gets into peoples’ souls and makes them move – sway or dance. As they move, their senses are aroused and words start to form. So, when they sit down to write, the words come more easily; the creative juices are flowing.” Currently Francesca feels that another transition, another adventure in living, is taking place. It’s a slow passage, building upon earlier experiences and emotions. “We can’t jump over ourselves. We have to go through every step,” she cautions. As an Aries with a nonconforming, pioneering personality, she considers herself a bellwether for cultural trends. “On the inner level, it seems that I’m one step ahead of what’s happening outside. I feel like I’m more tuned to a higher consciousness than ever before.” Francesca is taking her growing spirituality and openness into the next phase of her life as a recent poem reflects: A new child is born And it is me! Learning to talk, walk, run and see again. Starting over, what an opportunity to regain My childlike wonder and enthusiasm.
Four months prior to my eighth birthday my father died, suddenly, and my mother poured every ounce of what was left of her wounded heart into making my birthday extra special. I remember feeling caught in a web of sadness over missing my dad, shame because I secretly hoped for many presents, and confusion about how to be the “good girl.” I don’t know this for certain but I suspect my mom took notice of my struggle with the push and pull of contrary emotions. Compelled to assuage my internal tumult, and most likely attempting to ease her own sense of grief and vulnerability, my mother gifted me with a diary. “You know you can always come to me if you want to talk about your feelings,” my mother said, her watery dark brown eyes intent on mine. “But there may be times when you’ll want to keep your thoughts private. This diary is meant for those times, and anytime you want to write about anything.” I loved the gold glinting off the journal’s edges and the swirling calligraphy that spelled “Diary”. I especially loved the tiny metal key accompanying the journal, a promise to prevent intruders from entering the land of my secrets. Holding the leatherbound diary, feeling its heft in my palms, filled me with a vague sense of purpose.
The Wisdom That Surprises Us By Hilda Heifetz
Have you ever heard yourself say something and wonder where that came from? It’s as if you and the speaker had no connection, even the voice sounds different! Some people call this phenomenon a “Freudian slip,” but the intelligence seems to me to come from another source. As early as eighty years ago (!), when I was ten, this was my experience. My Mother and I had a few rare moments of uninterrupted sharing. Not too surprisingly, we talked about family, and Mother was recalling the loss of her first two babies in delivery. She went on to the successful arrival of my older sister, brother, and then me. Somewhat bemused, she reflected on my unexpected addition. “Not planned for,” she said. To my surprise, I promptly retorted, in a reassuring, unfamiliar voice: “Oh, that’s all right because I’m part of a larger plan!” Who knew enough to say that? Certainly not myself. A ten-year old! In the years that followed, I found the meaning of this remark growing clearer. It flew in the face of current claims that parents cause all the problems
of their children. It awakened us to the recognition that we come into the world with predispositions, individual will power, even a personal sense of purpose. Do I add an awareness of something we have called “destiny”? Happily, we now have recognized those who overcome obstacles and adversity by the term “transcenders.” Those who move by “a larger plan” beyond the influence of parents and circumstances. We seem to have a built-in interpreter of the events of our lives . . .? Victor Frankl, well-known psychiatrist and author of the classic “Man’s Search for Meaning,” wrote about how Holocaust prisoners stayed alive as long as they did. One of my friends, now a psychotherapist herself, told me how, at the age of eight, knew that, with two alcoholic parents, she would have to be in charge of her own life and draw upon her potential. It’s not always a success story, but it engages some of the resources available to us if we call upon them.
It wasn’t long after writing in my diary that I discovered the power of words. Words captured my thoughts and experiences, naïve and trifling though they were at times; writing helped to settle the dust stirred by my emotions. Committing words to paper brought a certain amount of stability to my chaotic and impermanent world, buffered the rattle and gloom within my house. And when reality left me wanting, when I did poorly on my arithmetic quiz or when I was the last chosen for the softball team, I created a better outcome for myself in my diary. Writing took me places, places borne of my imagination alone. My imagination! Nascent and with the whimsy of childhood innocence, thus my creative impulse beat. My journal continues to serve as an ever-faithful friend. It is a source of comfort, offering the solace that comes from the sweet expanse of open spaces. Here I have room enough to thrash and kick and scream when the world doesn’t unfold the way I would like. Here I have all the breathing space I need to turn inside out so that I may find my way back to myself. Beyond this, writing gives me the freedom to delve into my Creative Power, exploring the rhythms, nuances and lexicon of my soul.
Art and Poem By Joan Kenyon
She saw the bird fall, So she picked it up, Tucked it warmly Against her skin And carried it home. It died, of course, From a broken wing. She keeps a feather On a shelf To remind herself Of lightness, But every now and then, She cries When no one is looking.
10
CreativeWomen
Women’s Press | July & August 2007 | editors@womenspress-slo.org
Summer Place
My boobs are uneven
By Susan Tuttle
By Skylar Olsen
My boobs are uneven. Two wayward sisters, no chance of reconciliation, they hang with different weight, shape, and swing. I’ve spent masochistic hours in small rooms with broken locks pulling armpit fat into unwire cups struggling to make perfect curves of perfect symmetry—
Dilapidated, shingled roof of green; A musty yard begs little feet to roam. The long-abandoned place stands sad, serene; So dank and cold, and yet so like a home. A faded rose, a tarnished silver knife; Papers, books, the treasures of her store, Packed up with love and care they taste of life; The life of Anna, who comes back no more.
until your breath swept just as often over my smaller shame as her larger sister and I realized my asymmetric perfection.
I open notebooks, reading what she said; I seem to feel her presence quite nearby. Nonsense! They’re just remnants of the dead; Yet with each toss I hear her anguished cry. And I think while watching flames eat hungrily, That someday someone will burn my memory.
When I jump up and down my thighs clap. Applauding great feats of cake consumption, such an audible admonishment sent embarrassed shame to my belly and apologizes for compliments from my lips—
The Otter, by Ruth Ann Angus
Bittersweet By Jane Elsdon
Artwork of Maya Angelou by Heather Mendel
Fighters By Elizabeth McGregor
Blessed are we who dare to write for our pride is forever invaded If we’re not too weary to dodge the blows We grow deaf and stubborn and jaded Then one day a punch will hit its mark And stun us a moment or two But the contact only ignites a spark And there’s still nothing else we could do We put our words out there for you to judge And carry our spirits in hand If we’re strong and faithful we ignore the nudge That our sense and the masses command While some people scream their emotions aloud And some people whisper their fight A writer devoted will forever vow That she simply be left to write
Wise Woman Willow By Berta Parrish
Wise Woman is also Spirit and Matter, Grounded deep in Mother Earth, She reaches high to Father Sky. I am the sapling, growing, Sprouting roots and branches Needing water and sunlight Feeling sail and wind, insects and birds Stretching, searching, Becoming a willow, from end to end, Joining the earthy chorus and singing heavenly praises.
On a brisk walk around the lake, with the cool breath of morning fresh on our cheeks we exchange greetings with friendly folks who share this early morning ritual. Afterward, in our favorite restaurant we sit at breakfast with friends of many years swapping fish stories mythological in size amid a gale of laughter. A shopping foray with our granddaughter follows. I hold our two-month-old great-grandson and lose myself in the unlined map of his innocent face. Life is sweet. Oh, how sweet Interspersing routines of the day come several heart-jolting phone calls: a cherished friend of long years lies in ICU hemorrhaging his life away while terror holds his wife hostage to the helplessness of waiting. A beloved mentor of over 50 years diminished by repeated strokes lies in a nursing home unable to recognize those she loves.
Commentary of the latest worldwide woes, Iraqi war casualties and African famine fatalities, echoes through the living room. Life is bitter. Oh, how bitter. Joined in sadness we cannot escape, in the peaceful sanctuary of the home we have created, my love and I partake of a simple supper, lingering over ice cream on a steamy August evening. At dusk we sit side-by-side in the swing. Its repetitive, gentle movements soothe our troubled souls even as we relish the transition of air from sweltering to cool and pleasant. Hands entwined, we rest in the serene song of our wine-barrel waterfall, filled with gratitude for this moment, although a tangle of contradictory emotions foments beneath the surface. At 3:10 a.m., after hours communing with Spirit about family and friends, I have no choice but to rise from bed to set down this poem. Life is bittersweet. Oh, how bittersweet.
until your beard graced cellulite curves and I learned my definition of beauty is my own to define. When I slap one cheek the other shakes. A trail of reverberation ending in glowering evaluations in cruel mirrors, prodding and poking, imagining a horror of further derrière expansion— until your palm caressed cold skin and peach fuzz prickled and I grew satisfied at how my flesh molded to your fingers imploring. I am not afraid anymore, Of stretch marks and fleshy bits, of audible flesh and curves where angles should be. I know my body, its limits, and how I’ve pushed them, I know my embarrassments and my shame and purposely lost them. I know your breath, your beard, your fingers, and your love and why you give them. I know my legs will always hold me and my arms are long enough to wrap about my ambitions. And most importantly—I know—like all women brave enough to ask their gynos, my secretion is normal.
July & August 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press
CreativeWomen
Creating a Better World, One Child at a Time By Dawn Williams
When other women talk about creativity, I used to feel left out. I do not paint or photograph, weave, sew, create pottery or baskets, or in any way create an artifact that can be displayed. I don’t even have a garden. I do dance and sing, but have never done either professionally. But as I watch my steadily growing family flourish, I realize that, to some extent, I have “created” them. I have cared for, and about, children since I was ten years old, when I began earning spending money (spent mostly on vinyl LPs) by “baby sitting.” But I did more than “sit”; I interacted with my young charges, and loved them. Though my own childhood was neither abusive nor loving, I determined to be a loving mother and supportive of my children’s individuality. When my husband died leaving me with eight of our nine children still at home (our oldest son had joined the Air Force less than a year before), I wasn’t sure how we would survive, but I knew that we would do it together. I worked part time to supplement our inadequate Social Security benefits, and each
of the children did his or her part to maintain a home. I also went to college, once all were in school, earning a California elementary teaching credential, a Bilingual/Cross-cultural credential and a Master’s Degree in Education. This gave me a profession that allowed me to spend more time with my family. I have heard it said, “You never know how well you have raised your children until they start to raise your grandchildren.” Well, I must have done some things right, because I watch as my twenty-two grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren grow up with love, respect, and a sense of responsibility for themselves and for others. No, they are not perfect, but they are persons I love and can be proud of. So I say to all you mothers and possible future mothers, single or married, working or full time homemakers, “Be proud of your children. Help them to develop to their full capacities; they are your creative works of Art.”
My Mother’s Party By Anne Quinn
My father, who moved back with my Mom to his native Missouri after retirement, got the weird idea that, for my Mother’s 75th birthday, he’d invite only the “original,” nuclear family to fly in for the celebration. His thinking was somewhere along the lines of, while large family gatherings involving spouses and lots of grandchildren were all very fine and good, they had a different dynamic than just the family group we grew up in, and in honor of my Mom’s big 75, why don’t we do something different and just get together as we had as kids. That would have been fine except, my “core” family was always neurotic and we had all actually married well in the sense that we’d all married people who were more outgoing, better looking with better senses of humor than any of us “originals.” From the beginning, the family gathering was strained. It was only minutes before the old rivalries surfaced, resulting in a typical argument at the dinner table. When my youngest brother, who never made secret of his preference for his wife’s family gatherings to ours (and had an annoying habit of talking about all the fun games they play at their Thanksgivings or Christmases while he was attending ours), started in on the latest best time they’d had, I leaped up, interrupted him and suggested we play charades. Everyone said no right off, except my mother. She instantly loved the idea, and it was her birthday. Everyone reluctantly got up from the table and broke into separate teams. We had a few tries on each side, seemed to be getting it even though the smiles I was getting from my brothers and sisters were wan. Here were all these successful professionals, intimidated by a game of charades. I am convinced that the only way to play charades, a game where you act out movie titles or
book names until the complete name is guessed by your team or the time is up, is to appeal to your team’s verbal skills rather than to try and act out the meaning of a phrase. I have noticed that those who succeed in getting their team members to guess quickly do a lot of “sounds like” then act out a word by syllable then another building upon the last word until the whole phrase becomes evident. Those that try to convey meanings are a lot more entertaining but rarely succeed. I’ll never forget one drunken college party when “Johnny from Jersey” got on all fours, three his head back and bayed at the moon sending us into fits of hysterical laughter but not really helping us get “Hound of the Baskervilles.” I watched as my mother made this terrible mistake. She began flailing her arms and standing on her tippy toes, her lips formed in a perfect little “O” to communicate the title Wind in the Willows. The more her team didn’t get it, the harder she tried, whirling about making little “woo woo” sounds. My brother the lawyer: “Helicopter?” My sister the artist: Dance? Lots of tries, nothing close, but my mother only whirled faster and threw her arms around more violently. “Hurricane?” “Swan Lake?” My brother’s face grew grim. My sister had her hands over her mouth. They were imagining that she felt as bad as they would have if they’d ever dared to fail like that, ever make fools of themselves. But rather than give up or try another tactic, my mother thought her woo woo wasn’t convincing enough and started to hiss. Then chortle, then giggle, and finally laugh and laugh and laugh. At last everyone laughed with her. At last, it was a party.
On the Bearded Dragon That Kept Charging His Glass Cage in the Pet Store By Blair Tellers
It may have been the squattish toddler, slapping the glass with his chubby hands plap, plap, they went like the sound of someone dropping moist pancakes one by one onto a marble counter top, that bothered the bearded dragon so. Or it could have been the sweaty fingerprints, streaked across what the dragon knew as home. And if it was the fingerprints, I could sympathize. After all I had worked in an ice cream store; I had cleaned my share of oily nose blodges and foggy little mouth marks off the glass cases. Still, though, I like to think that the dragon was conscious
of what he was doing, that there was some emotional drive behind it; that he wasn’t scratching at the glass because he hated his reflection or because he was bored. I remember him because of the way he stood on his hind legs and placed the front claws on the glass, like an inmate talking to a family member during visiting hours. But whatever the reason, my favorite theory is that the bearded dragon was lonely, and just wanted a hug.
1101 Laurel Lane - San Luis Obispo
541-1464
“We hold the keys to your car’s health” ANSWERS TO YOUR COMMON CAR QUESTIONS Q: How can I get the best gas mileage? A: A few very simple ways to save gas: Accelerate slowly and drive the speed limit. Keep your tire pressures to manufacturer’s specifications(on the door panel, or in your owner’s manual). Don’t warm up your car for more than 30 seconds. Turn off the engine when waiting at the bank or at a train crossing (more than a minute). Keep your car serviced according to factory schedule. Keep the excess weight down, use your cruise control, turn the a.c. off, park your car one day a week. E-mail your car questions to continentalmotorworks@gmail.com. Tune in to the Motormouths every Saturday morning from 8-9 am on KVEC 920 AM.
11
12
Body&Soul
Women’s Press | July & August 2007 | editors@womenspress-slo.org
Giving Birth to Your Divine Creativity
Cell Phone Facts: Tobacco 2.0?
by Laura Hyde
By Marleen Walmsley
I cannot do without something which is greater than I, which is my life--the power to create. — Vincent Van Gogh
Kids age 3 and up are the cell phone industry’s hottest market. With add-ons like games, music, cameras, cartoon clips, and really cool wallpaper, kids want to use them constantly. They do have dangers, though. They’re called EMFs (electromagnetic fields) - magnetic field emissions that interrupt body chemistry. More on that soon. Since the 1980s, the Motorolas and Nokias (and others) have been aware of their dangers. What they found they didn’t want the consumer to know. We’re talking a multi-billion dollar industry (like tobacco). So they told the public the findings were “inconclusive”. And still do. In northern and central Europe, where there is one cell phone per person, they admit to the dangers and findings that prove it. This is an awful lot like Tobacco 2.0. Deny, deceive, and delay. But unlike cigarettes that take 3 minutes to smoke, we’re talking several hours a day of direct exposure to the head! It takes a few years for symptoms to develop but by that time, the health is at risk. Children have thinner, less developed tissue which makes them way more vulnerable. The Relay Towers. They’re concealed on the roofs of schools, office buildings, civic centers, libraries, and malls. They are camouflaged on hilltops to resemble trees. There is, by the way, 740% more exposure in open rural areas due to the arcing effect. What to do: 1. Buy a headset. They cut the EMF exposure by up to 90% and cost maybe $1520. 2. Don’t get sucked into fancy gimmicks that claim to deflect the EMF exposure. They don’t really work. 3. Ask your cell phone manufacturer about the “SAR.” The SAR is the Specific Absorption Rate. That’s an FCC measurement that tells how much the body can
Creative self-expression allows us to connect with the wisdom and desires of our souls for better self-understanding and healing. It also serves as prayer, drawing us closer to our Creator and divine creation. As cocreators, it takes a great deal of strength to be a conscious co-creator. Every day, we are given a chance to express ourselves, to share an inspired idea which brings some comfort and healing to our community, and to our world. It’s as if the Universe is saying, “I place before you a day. Create with it what you will out of your heart, soul, and mind. It is my gift to you.” Created in the image and after the likeness of our Creator, we don’t get a choice about whether we will be creative, but we can choose what it is that we create. Our thoughts are powerful beyond measure, and we are capable of creating whatever is in our souls via myriad forms: singing, sculpting, building a business, cultivating a loving relationship. The list goes on and on. Every situation, each and everyday, provides us with an opportunity to express our deepest selves. As we give birth to the divine spark that is within our souls, we open to the great and abundant lives for which we are created. In my own life, I’ve witnessed how much healing occurs when I expose my deepest and authentic self through painting, cooking, creating a meaningful show for Relationship Wisdom, writing an article for Women’s Press, or being inspired to develop an uplifting presentation for the Circle of Spiritual Enlightenment. It’s not about what I create or how I create, but rather, that I express my soul. As you embark on expressing your soul through creativity, some questions to ask yourself include: 1) If we are all meant to be co-creators, what is my role? 2) What nurtures my soul? 3) When do I feel
most alive? 4) What activities provides me with the most amount of comfort and healing? Become aware of your feelings and notice when you feel inspired. The Divine spark within you speaks to you through your heart and soul, so notice the times when you are experiencing joy, aliveness and increased energy. Truly, we are the universe inventing itself. And that intelligent, alive, and conscious force is looking through your eyes, working through your hands, walking on your feet. Martha Graham, the great American dancer and choreographer summed it up eloquently when she once stated, “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action; and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. You must keep that channel open. It is not for you to determine how good it is, or how valuable, or how it compares with other expressions. It is for you to keep it yours, clearly and directly.” May peace and joy be yours as you express your soul through your creativity! Laura V. Hyde is the Spiritual Leader of the Circle of Spiritual Enlightenment in San Luis Obispo, CA: www.spiritualcircle.org. Laura is also the author of the books Gifts of the Soul and The Intimate Soul, and the host of the show “Relationship Wisdom” on San Luis Obispo Public Access Television. Visit Laura at: www.laurahyde.com or call: (805) 748-7506
withstand in 30 minutes, not just the side of the head. They are not required to reveal the dangers, in spite of the research. You have to get the SAR from the brass plaque inside the phone. It’s not on the literature. 4. Store your cordless and cell phones at least 6 feet from your body at night. The cumulative effect is pretty devastating. The greater the distance, the less the exposure. 5. Ask your school and office building if there are rooftop telco towers/relay stations on the building. There’s nothing in the law that says they have to tell you. Effects on the body: The central nervous system operates on one millionth of a volt. Basic heartbeat, muscle contraction, bone regeneration, hormones, smell, emotions, bone regeneration, brain signals, the immune system, the cells’ ability to replicate – all are affected by EMFs. Symptoms of over-exposure include: Headaches, impaired senses, chronic fatigue, ADHD, irritability, poor concentration, emotional extremes, and hormone problems. For more info: www.cbtrus.org www.aboutsafety.com/article www.emfacts.com/weblog Marleen Walmsley is a researching and teaching naturopath in Morro Bay and hostproducer of Healers Who Share, an educational TV program on Ch. 2. She can be reached at clarityandhealth@yahoo.com or at (831) 325-7483.
Keep It Cool This Summer with Ayurvedic Tips By Holly Padove
SpiritualityMatters
Balance Between Ego and the Spiritual By Heather Mendel
Our understanding of God is challenged each time we have to confront those things in our lives that are painful or negative. For most of us, it is easy to see that Divinity is the source of the love, compassion, joy and fulfillment that hopefully is part of what we all experience. How do we see God when our vision is veiled by our tears and our inhumanity of one to another defying comprehension? Each time I teach a class in kabbala, it seems that the ultimate challenge we face is trying to understand how Divinity and “evil” can live side by side. Unlike other faith traditions, Judaism does not focus on a separate, external force that others label “evil” or “Satan.” We believe that the Wholly One is the just that, a singular source of all that we experience. So how then do we understand the cruel behavior that continues to plague humanity? Jewish mysticism teaches that we were given free will as a basic privilege and responsibility as spiritual beings on this human journey. Our time on this earth is the opportunity we have to learn to use that gift with understanding and wisdom. Some people, through choice, genetic predisposition, or tragic circumstances in their own nurturing as children, make decisions to behave in ways that are ungodly, motivated by ego rather than godliness. Ego, psychotherapists will explain, is the center within each of us that moderates our interchange with physical reality. A strong and healthy ego is essential to guide
and protect us in our physical lives. A spiritual awareness that connects us to Divinity, that Source of all that was, is and shall be, is our channel to true morality and ethics as we find ways to live with others in celebration of our individuality and diversity. It would seem then, that when the balance between the ego and the spiritual is disturbed, we find people behaving in amoral and ungodly ways and “evil” enters the world. Understanding free-will means we have to realize that, as recipients of this gift, we cannot hold God responsible for the holocausts and tragedies of our world. We must hold ourselves accountable. When we choose to follow the dictates of an ego that is out of balance, the choices we make will be harmful to others and ourselves.
Continued on Balance, pg. 13
Summer is here in all its glory and fun in the sun reigns. With so many activities to choose from, it’s easy to overdo it, creating what’s known in Ayurveda as heated or “pitta” conditions. According to Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old system of health from India, there are three doshas that create particular tendencies in both individuals and in the environment: “Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.” Summer is the “Pitta” season, when the heat element dominates Keep yourself as cool as a cucumber to balance the heat of summer, especially if you are more Pitta in nature. Pitta individuals tend to run hot both in temperature and personality, typically have lighter skin that burns easily, are prone to skin rashes, and are very focused. Pittas, much to their own discomfort, tend to like hot food! 1. One of the best tips to follow is to eat produce that is grown locally and pesticide-free – purchased from the farmer’s markets. Produce available during the summer is cooling in nature, balancing the season’s heat and keeping Pitta in check, such as salads, sweet fruits, whole grains, veggies, and spices such as cilantro and mint. Avoid heating foods such as hot peppers, hot salsa, garlic, spicy tomato sauces – anything with a “firey” taste. 2. Exercise in the morning, between 6 and 10 a.m., or early evening, around 6 p.m. in order to keep from overheating, and to take advantage of the time of day when your body performs optimally. Exercise to about 70% of your maximum abilities as too much intensity creates heat and ultimately burn out. Try activities that are non-competitive such as a hike or beach
walk. Being competitive is a Pitta trait, and too much will create imbalances. 3. Wear light clothing in cool colors such as blue, green and white. A red outfit in the middle of a hot summer day is sure to create heat in both the mind and the body! 4. Mist yourself with essential oils of rose, sandalwood, or lavender to stay cool and calm. 5. With all the fun to be had during this vacation season, keep some routines around sleep, as a good night’s rest is one of the keys to good health. Ayurveda recommends going to sleep by 10 and up with the birds at 6 a.m. You’ll know if your Pitta is high if you feel overheated, angry, easily irritated, or experience skin rashes, or acid digestion. Follow the tips above to “chill” and truly enjoy your summer. Ayurveda is a common sense approach to maintaining health and wellness, not only for the summer season, but every season of your life. Holly Padove is a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist based in Arroyo Grande. She offers individual consultations, classes and retreats. For more information, visit www.BalancedLivingAyurveda.com or call Holly at (805) 440-4561.
WomenatWork
July & August 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press
13
Mind Your Business
Threats to Success
GREEN Home Galleria & Summer Event Schedule
By Andrea Zeller
The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) lists 10 important points for small business owners to be aware of. This article will focus on the first 5 points then the next Women’s Press Issue will cover the second 5 points. First, “Not Knowing How to Manage And Operate a Small Business.” Being a small business owner means you often have to be a “jack of all trades” when it comes to managing and operating the business. Unlike large corporations with multiple employees, departments and specialists, the small business owner must often be the human resource manager, sales manager, bookkeeper, as well as planner and a customer service person all in one. The small business owner needs to understand a multiple of disciplines and be flexible in switching hats as needs evolve. Second, “Lack of Strategic Planning.” All business do better with a written plan. A plan works like a road map in directing the business in the right direction towards the chosen destination. Just the process of fleshing out and writing the plan helps the owner focus and improves strategic thinking. Third, “Lack of Cash.” Too often, businesses fail, not because they are not profitable, but because they do not plan their cash flow to cover day to day expenses. It is important to understand how much working capital you need to accomplish your business goals. And it is important to properly provide for that working capital (i.e. do not use high interest credit cards or loan sharks!). Fourth, “Not Having a Competitive Advantage.” In order to succeed, your business needs to be distinguishable from the competition and it must offer the customer something valuable. Customers need a meaningful reason to choose you and to stay with you. Set yourself apart from the competition.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Fifth, “Lack of Focus.” Focus your vision, make it crystal clear and stay focused on the ultimate goal of your business. Lack of focus leaves you vulnerable to shifting winds, opportunities that may at first glance seem good, but may pull you off track. Opportunities abound – the key is to be able to focus and chose the right ones! Next month, we’ll cover the other five important points small business owners need to stay aware of! If you need help addressing any of these issues, be sure to call Women’s Business Partners for help! Andrea Zeller, Executive Director of Mission Community Services, coordinates Women’s Business Partners (WBP) to ensure all community resources are leveraged and optimized to support entrepreneurial women. WBP serves everyone interested in establishing self-sufficiency through small business ownership while primarily focusing assistance towards socially and economically disadvantaged women. WBP can take you step by step towards success and can also help those who speak only Spanish. MCSC is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. MCSC at 805 595-1357. Visit www.MCSCorp.org. Se Habla Español
Are You Predicting or Prescribing Your Future? It’s Your Choice! By Adele Sommers
Whether you want to predict your future or actually prescribe an outcome of your choosing, you’ll have plenty of company! Throughout history, we humans have tried many ways to predict the future, from reading palms to stargazing. Today, we refer to these as descriptive methods when we attempt to describe objectively what the future will be or could be. Prescriptive methods, on the other hand, focus on determining what the future should be. These techniques can help us clarify our preferences and values so we can create a vision of what we would like to see in our lives, businesses, or communities. Once we understand what we would like the future to represent, we’re better able to take the actions needed to implement it. Preferably, that future will resonate with our passions, gifts, and what we (or our organizations) can really excel at doing. So, what can you be the best in the world (or at least in your community) at doing? This thought-provoking reflection is one of many from Jim Collins’ “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don’t.” Collins’ team examined 1,435 companies to see which ones made substantial gains in profitability and sustained those improvements over 15 years or more. They found only 11 companies that, since the 1970s, rose from mediocrity to greatness and stayed there -- topping many other prosperous
firms that lacked the same staying power. One of the eight characteristics all had in common was an unshakable adherence to becoming the best in the world at whatever they did. Each company committed to doing only those things and nothing else. That sometimes meant dropping their core businesses to pursue other things at which they could become the best in the world. Collins and his team coined the term “Hedgehog Concept” to reflect a singleminded determination and focus that, similar to that of the hedgehog animal, attempts to do only one thing really well, such as curl up and roll. Until you develop your Hedgehog Concept, you won’t know your vision, mission, or purpose. Keep in mind that this concept is not a goal, strategy, or plan, but an understanding of what you can and can’t be the best at doing -- which is an excellent focal point for visioning!
Creative Spark Extraction, with Meg Johnson, potter. Saturday, July 14th 9 am 4 pm (Registration proceeds to SLO SEED 1200 East Grand Avenue, Arroyo Grande Fund) (next to Sunset Car Wash) Monday through Spend a day with Meg Johnson, a highly Saturdays from 11-7 collectible national ceramicist of 23 years, BRAVE New Wares Development as she explores with us a “day in the mud”. Group (BNWDG) has opened a Green Known for her whimsical and highly colHome Galleria displaying the work of artiorful pottery, her sans and producers of work was available SLO manufactured *SLO SEED Fund (Self-Employment for many years at goods, including Enterprise Development) provides HANDS Gallery on local foods. Goods operating funds for BNWDG’s FuncHiguera Street. Her are also available tional Arts Creative Enterprise School workshop is not just online at MADEIN(FACES), where women learn the crafts for potters, but for SanLuisObispo.com that they will sell in the Green Galleria anyone who wants to Finecraft artiand on MADEINSanLuisObispo.com. be creative on a daily sans from across basis. the county are feaSummer Sunshine Festivals of Arts and tured in the new eco-home interiors and Crafts. Second Saturdays and Sundays (July gifts boutique. Original designs include 7 & 8, August 11 & 12) “ZEN Garden’s” pedestal lamps, “TREAFree festivals with emphasis is on unique SURED Canvas,” “Hook, Line and Glamcrafts by only local artisans of San Luis our Jewelry” and “Maher Metal Arts.” Body Obispo, with music and food. Special free care products now carried are “Heart’s activities for children include a eco-nature Desire Therapeutic Essentials” and “Cencrafts corner, recycled puppetry and facetral Coast Soap,” including a fun variety painting. The Green Home Galleria and of hand crafted kid’s body care products. MADEINSanLuisObispo.com store of Foods include “Sweet Earth Organic Chocproducts from around the county will be olate,” “Linn’s” preserves, soups and mixes, open all weekend. For more information “Stoltey’s Honeys,” “Upper Crust” Baked and/or an artisans application, call Eve at Goods, “House of Bread” and more. *(10% 815-8700. (Artisan registration proceeds go of proceeds go to the SLO SEED Fund) to the SLO SEED Fund)
BALANCE Continued from page 12
The more important issue then, is how do we deal with circumstances in which godliness is absent? We need to acknowledge that such circumstances do exist— but not because of some outside source. We can choose to carefully moderate our choices and see the long-term results of what we are doing. Do our actions ultimately harm ourselves, others or the environment? Do we act constructively or destructively? With compassion and tenderness we can interact with others who have been deeply, psychically wounded by the cruelty they have experienced at the hands of others. We should applaud the efforts they make to turn their painful experiences into ways in which they can help others.
Ultimately we need to realize that discernment rather than judgment is a kinder and gentler approach to living, and that our lives are enhanced by putting our energy into “attitudes of gratitude” for all the blessings we enjoy rather than squander energy by standing in judgment of those around us. From the place of gratitude within will come that sense of compassion and love that the world needs. The choice to do so is ours. Heather Mendel has focalized women’s spirituality groups for the past 15 years. She can be contacted through her website at www.wordartist.com, and also e-mailed at heathermendel@charter.net or called at 544-4933.
14
CommunityBulletins
Women’sCommunityCenter
Women’s Press | July & August 2007 | editors@womenspress-slo.org
SLO Downtown Association Invites SLO Bike Valet Program to bring its Services to Concerts in the Plaza
Family Law Action Committee Dealing With Divorce
Our mission is: • TO maintain an accessible center to collect and exchange information of interest and concern to women • TO organize and facilttate workshops, clinics, seminars, classes and support groups on subjects of interest and need • TO engage in and facilitate interaction among local, state and national agencies and organizations working to benefit women
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED IN WCC OFFICE
3rd Wednesday of each month – 7 PM Upcoming: July 18, August 15 and September 19 Talk with other women who have been there, done that in a supportive, non-judgmental environment. $5 donation
Self-Represented Litigants’ Clinic 4th Tuesday of each month – 5:30 PM Upcoming: July 24, August 28 and September 25 Get family law advice from local attorneys and/or paralegals. Reservations required. $25 donation Call 544-9313 for information
Women’s Empowerment & Self-Defense Workshop Maximize your chances of avoiding a sexual assault! The Sexual Assault Recovery and Prevention Center proudly offers this four-hour workshop to help empower and protect the women in our community. This workshop will focus on improving your awareness and assertiveness skills, and will teach physical techniques that can help you escape a dangerous situation. Remember – your best weapon is yourself: your mind, your voice, and your body! This free class is open to women of all athletic abilities, ages 12 and up. Beginning and advanced classes are offered. Call 5458888. For dates and times, please visit http:// www.sarpcenter.org/services/defense.htm The Sexual Assault Recovery and Prevention (SARP) Center of San Luis Obispo County is offering a drop-in support group for female survivors of sexual abuse. It is held on Monday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 pm and will be facilitated by Jill Doyle, MFT-I. For more information about this group or other services offered by the SARP Center call 5458888 or visit www.sarpcenter.org.
Cal Poly Names SARP Center “Outstanding Community Partner” The Sexual Assault Recovery and Prevention (SARP) Center of San Luis Obispo County was named “Outstanding Community Partner” on May 30, 2007 at the President’s Community Service Awards. Hosted by Cal Poly President Warren J. Baker, The Community CENTER, and Student Life and Leadership, the event honored students, faculty, and community members who had made significant contributions to their community in the 2006-2007 academic year. Devon Hodgson, Coordinator of Women’s Programs and Services at Cal Poly, presented the SARP Center with this award. She thanked the SARP Center for its support of S.A.F.E.R., Cal Poly’s on-campus rape prevention program. “SARP Center staff is available 24 hours a day to support S.A.F.E.R. and Cal Poly students,” said Hodgson.
SLO Bike Valet, a free bicycle parking service offered by the San Luis Obispo County Bicycle Coalition and Team SLO Nexus, is proud to partner with the San Luis Obispo Downtown Association and the City of San Luis Obispo to bring bicycle parking services to all upcoming Concerts in the Plaza. SLO Bike Valet will continue every Friday night from 5:30 pm to 7 pm through the 31st of August. Concerts in the Plaza participants will find the bike parking area along Chorro St. across from Costume Capers, in front of the permanent green San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club Bob Garing Memorial Bike Rack. On Thursday, June 14, 2007, SLO Bike Valet parked its 2000th bike at the Farmer’s Market Valet. The lucky winner, Mary, a biologist with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, received an Apple Store gift certificate and a hand-made award framed creatively with recycled bike tires. “The valet service rocks because it’s convenient and secure. There aren’t enough places to lock up bikes around town. Without the valet I would have driven,” Mary stated after receiving her gifts. The Downtown Association’s support has been a key part of SLO Bike Valet’s continued growth. Deborah Cash, Administrator, states, “The Downtown Association heartily supports the presence of the Bike Valet at Concerts in the Plaza due to the fact it is so helpful and successful at our Thursday Night Market. We know this will be a valuable service for those who prefer to leave their cars at home and bike in on beautiful summer evenings. We’re grateful to have this service available and know the Bicycle Coalition and SLO Bike Valet to be dedicated and enthusiastic about this program. We encourage anyone who bikes to Concerts in the Plaza to take advantage of this great service!” The SLO Bike Valet Parking service is free to all participants, however all tips help to cover miscellaneous costs involved with this unique non-profit program.
Community Counseling Center Lazy Days of Summer Great Time to Take Stock. Need help with life’s problems? Want to take a closer look at who you are and where you are going? Community Counseling Center has a great staff of top-notch therapists, waiting to serve you! We are seeking clients for our low cost, sliding fee scale therapy sessions! Our services are designed for the uninsured client who could benefit from 10-15 sessions of therapy conducted by highly qualified Licensed Clinical Social Workers or Marriage Family Therapists. We see individuals, couples, families, children and teens. We can see clients in South County, North County, North Coast and in SLO during the day, or evenings and/or weekends. We are here for you! Please call Gina or Jeff 8:30-5:30, M-F, at 5437969 for further info or intake appointment. Don’t wait any longer to make the changes that will put your life back on track!
UU on the Move The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of SLO County is a church on the move! As of July 1, the Fellowship will begin holding services at its temporary worship site at 1150 Laurel Lane, SLO inside the End of the Line Café at the Atoll Business Center. Sunday services will be held at 11:00 AM. The Fellowship has outgrown its former home at 232 Foothill Blvd., and will be worshipping at the Laurel Lane location while its new permanent religious home is being built. The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of SLO County has been a voice for liberal religion on the Central Coast for nearly 55 years. Minister Rev. Helen Carroll states, “We are a diverse religious community and we welcome all who would share in our open, challenging journey.” Childcare and a religious education program for children are always provided. Call 544-1669 for further information.
Big Brothers Big Sisters Teams Up With the Vons Foundation and Its employees Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Luis Obispo County recently received a $6,100 grant from the Vons Foundation and its employees. The check was presented at the Vons store in San Luis Obispo by their District Manager, Terry Richardson and Store Manager, John Nightingale. Accepting the check were Big Brothers Big Sisters board member, Monique Carlton, Associate Executive Director, Anna Boyd-Bucy and Board Vice Chair, Carol Florence. Big Brothers Big Sisters has been providing their youth mentoring programs on the Central Coast since 1995. During that time the agency has matched over 900 children with caring adult role models. For more information on volunteering or contributing to BBBS, call 781-3226, or log onto www.slobigs.org.
Volunteers Needed Looking for a fun new volunteer opportunity? United Way is seeking volunteers to assist with clerical tasks in our downtown office several hours each week. Volunteers must be at least 18; days and times are flexible. Call 541-1234 or email info@unitedwayslo.org if interested
Resources
July & August 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press
ABUSE
Adults Molested as Children Support Group (AMAC)
545.8888
Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence
781.6406
North County Women’s Shelter & Resource Center,
(inc. domestic violence support groups) 461.1338
545.8888
545.8888
545.8888
781.6400 www.womensshelterslo.org
Rape Survivors Support Group, SLO
Talk/Listen - Emotional support
Caregivers of Stroke Survivors
Transformations Counseling Center
Women’s Support/Therapy v (general)
489.5481
Free monthly workshops 541.7908
FINANCE/BUSINESS
Consumer Credit Counseling Services
800.540.2227
595.1356 www.mcscorp.org
Mission Community Services Corporation Women’s Business Partners
544.2266 (SLO)
534.1101
544.4883
Women’s Healthcare Specialists
POLITICAL Code Pink
ososousaville@aol.com
GAY & LESBIAN
545.8412; Dawn Williams
541.4252
League of Women Voters
541.4252
438.3889
543.2220
Mostly socializing! Call 474.9405
slonow@kcbx.net
HOSPICE
http://www.slo.greens.org 544.1580
AIDS Bereavement Group (Hospice)
544.2266
www.ywtf.org
Al-Anon
Hospice of SLO County
544.2266 and 434.1164
READERS/WRITERS
Cambria Connection (12 step support)
Hospice Partners of the Central Coast
782.8608
541-4219
Casa Solana
549.9656; contact Shirley Powell
http://SinC-CCC.blogspot.com
SARP (Sexual Assault Recovery & Prevention) Support Group for Sexual Assault Survivors Women’s Shelter Program of SLO
ADDICTIONS AA Meeting
541.3211
498.2176
534.9204
Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA)
Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast PFLAG.Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays SOL (Single Older Lesbians)
15
Commission on Status of Women Democratic Women United
NOW (National Organization for Women) SLO Green Party
Younger Women’s Task Force
Adult Literacy
927.1654
Women’s Recovery Home 481.8555
546.1178
AARP 788.2643
781.4275 800.549.7730
Jobline 756.7107
Overeaters Anonymous
http://calpolyjobs.org 756.1533
541.3164
Cuesta College
http://www.cuesta.edu Jobline 546.3127
544.1414 (SLO); 748.9070 (Arroyo Grande); 434.2081 (Templeton); 927.4290 (Cambria)
SCA, SLAA & SAA (Sex, Love & Romance Addictions)
461.6084
The Creekside Career Center
www.slocareers.org 788.2631 or 788.2690
781.1790
TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly)
929.1789
Department of Rehabilitation
549.3361
Computer help: 489.6230
Women for Sobriety
http://www.womenforsobriety.org 215.536.8026
Mission Community Services Corporation Women’s Business Partners
595.1356 www.mcscorp.org
In-Home Support to the Elderly/Homemakers help with ADLs 781.1790 nursing help for the terminally ill 781.5540
www.jobhunt.org 788.2601
782.9200
Compulsive eaters Anonymous, H.O.W.Concept Drug & Alcohol Services
CHILDREN & FAMILIES Birth and Baby Resource Center
546.3755 www.bbrn.org
Childcare Resource Connection
541.2272 or 800.727.2272
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
“A child’s voice in Court in SLO County” 541.6542
Children’s Services Network
781.1847
First 5: Children & Families Commission
781.4058; ask for Susan Hughs
Homeschooling in SLO County (HSC)
462.0726; ask for Barbara
La Clinica De Tolosa 238.5334 La Leche League
JOBS/CAREERS Cal Poly Foundation Cal Poly University
Private Industry Council (PIC)
544.6334 medeee8@aol.com
781.5821
free, trained in.home counseling for 60+ 547.7025 ext. 15
Family Law Facilitator
546.3769
SPIRITUAL (OR NOT)
788.2099
544.9313
543.5140
Lawyers Referral Services/Legal Aid Alternative
Sunday service, 10–11 AM; 772.0306
543.9452
MEDICAL SUPPORT/SERVICES
Mondays, 7:30–8:30 PM; 772.0306
227.4785
Self-Realization Fellowship
Every Sunday, Coalesce Bookstore, MB
534.9234 (LO); 547.3830 (SLO); 226.8669 (Templeton) Caregivers of Early-Stage Alzheimer’s 547.3830, 534.9234 (SLO/Los Osos)
Sunday Services 995-1599
Pro Per Divorce Workshop Senior Legal Services
541.8666; ask for Beth
460.9016
781.1600
Paso Robles 238.9657
473.6507
541.9113
892.5556
Social Services
American Cancer Society
Support for Kids Coping with Domestic Violence
Anorexia Nervosa & Bulimia Support Group Arthritis Foundation
Hotline
Cancer/ Breast Cancer Support Groups
Sexual & Rape Prevention (SARP)
Caregivers of Aging Parents
Temporary Restraining Order & Victim Witness Program 781.5821
Endometriosis Association
www.slohotline.org 800.549.8989
543.1481 ext. 3 for information
545.8888 or 800.656.HOPE (4673)
547.3830 (AG); 927.4290 (Cambria); 226.8669 (PR); 547.3830 (SLO)
www.endometriosisassn.org
(for breast cancer survivors) 771.8640 www.enhancementinc.com
no or low cost reproductive health services 544.2478 (SLO); 489.4026 (Arroyo Grande)
no or low cost reproductive health services 787.0100 (SLO); 773.4500 (Pismo); 610.8865 (Atascadero)
543.0388
Alzheimer/Dementia Resource Center
434.2081 or 534.9234 or 800.443.1236
CALL–Concerned Agoraphobics Learning to Live
543.3764
Enhancement, Inc.
EOC Health Services Clinics
Healthworks of the Central Coast
542.0577 (SLO) 481.5093 (Grover Beach) 927.1654 (Cambria) 466.8600 (North County)
543.7969
785.0132
Eating Disorders Support Group
927.3703
2nd Monday, 4:00-5:00 pm 782-9300 for info
Safe and Sober Support Group
466.7226 (Atascadero/Templeton) 481.7424, 473.1714 (Arroyo Grande) 544.1342 (SLO)
Senior Peer Counseling
SLO 549.9446
471.8102 (SLO)
Co-Dependents Anonymous (CoDA) Community Counseling Center
Long-term Care Ombudsman Services of SLO County
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Group
Lymphedema Education & Support Group
546-3774; free, meets weekly in SLO Hospice of SLO County (inc. miscarriage/stillbirth support) 544.2266 or 434.1164
473.6507
free, trained in-home counseling for 60+ 547.7025, ext. 15
Circle of Spiritual Enlightenment
995.1390
Alzheimer’s Support
Senior Peer Counseling
473. 2548
A.D.A.P.T. (Aid in Divorce Adjustment Problems Today)
Foster Grandparents.Senior Companions
District Attorney’s Office – Victim Witness Center
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
Department of Social Services:
ALS Support Group (Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
EMERGENCY/CRISIS
Computerooters:
489.5481 dg17@juno.com
544.4355 and 466.3444
Real F.A.C.T.S. (Forum on Abused Children)
Adult Protective Services
Core Mediation Services
Partnership for Children
SENIORS
Adult Day Care
LEGAL
489.9128
MOMS Club of South SLO county
Sisters in Crime
Senior Ballroom Dance club
Migrant Childcare Program
Nightwriters
Parkinson’s Support Groups
Awakening Interfaith Spiritual Community Central Coast Jewish Historical Society Meditation Group
New Beginnings Church
WOMEN’S CENTERS/SHELTERS Homeless Shelter
781-3993
543.4478
461.1338
786.0617
544.9313
549.8989 (crises), 781.6401 (business) www.womensshelterslo.org
Housing Authority North County Women’s Resource Center, Shelter Prado Day Center Women’s Community Center, SLO Women’s Shelter Program of SLO
OTHER WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS Altrusa International, Inc.
481.1039; Cici Wynn, President
440.2723 www.campingwomen.org
543.9452
546.3727 www.womenslo.org
Camping Women Hadassah.SLO
Women’s Network, SLO
OTHER GROUPS & GATHERINGS
Central Coast Peace and Environmental Council
544.3399 or 783.2383
800.247.7421 or 458.5481
Compassion & Choices (formerly Hemlock Society)
Planned Parenthood
Stroke Support Group
Please send additions, corrections or deletions to: editors@womenspress-slo.org or leave a message at the WCC: 805.544.9313. Last update 07/05/07.
Cheryl Aiona and the Motowners The Motowners are a local and soulful group of musicians whose style ranges from Blues, R&B, Rock and Country. Lead vocals are performed by Cheryl Aiona, Romi West (bass guitar, vocals), Helen Edwards (vocals) and Cindy Myers (vocals), David Ottenberg (vocals, mandolin, harmonica, guitar), Doug Frederickson (lead guitar, vocals), Randy Crozier (bass guitar), and Frank West (keyboard, guitar, vocals). The Motowners started in 2003 and are passionate about their music and having a good time...the group’s number one priority. It’s all about the joy of making music! If you are interested in having The Motowners perform for you, please call Cheryl at 995-1089 or Dave at 995-2965.
Sheri O Sheri Odenwald, known as Sheri O, is a performer from Cambria. She has performed from LA to San Francisco over the past 35 years, and now performs at the Cambria Pines Lodge. She also does weddings and other private functions. Sherri is married to Lee Odenwald, a builder from Cambria and has 4 adult children and 3 Grand Boys. She can be contacted at PO Box 21 Cambria Ca 93428.
3ATURDAY !UGUST Karen Tyler
2$ !..5!,
DAY WITH
#2%!4)6%
7/-%. !- TO 0-
over 100 creative women
-ISSION 0LAZA a fundraiser for
the Women's Community Center
presenting their handcrafted items for sale
designed by Nat Dai
delicious food available all day children's activities including crafts and petting zoo free entertainment including Jill Knight Triad
Wikolia Hawaiian Dance Karen Tyler
and much more
Karen Tyler, winner of the 2003 Monterey Bay Blues Festival’s Battle of the Bands and a California Arts Council Touring Artist, was referred to as “one of the world’s top female Blues artists and easily the greatest North American songstress” by Real Blues Magazine.
Na Mele o ke Kai Wikolia and friends are part of a hula halau (troupe) named “Na Mele o ke Kai” (Songs of the Sea). We are an association that encourages the involvement of all interested individuals, spanning generations, ethnic backgrounds and talents who want to share the language and traditions of Polynesian island cultures through dance, music, and song. Classes are held in Morro Bay and Santa Maria. Na Mele o ke Kai is available to perform at luaus, parties, weddings, fairs, fundraisers, cultural and special events. Please visit myspace.com/nameleokekai for more information. Joining Wikolia on stage on August 11th will be: Eileen, Hokulani, Kristen and Michelle.
Triad Mime artist, Fran Dukehart presents a colorful tale of the blue bird of happiness who shares the secret to long life, love, and happiness. Musical talents, Del Gomes on keyboard and Grady Houser on flute bring musical excitement to the live performance.
Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Karen Tyler, Triad, Sheri O, and The Motowners