only in the silence...

photograph by kamahlfilm

photo by Kamahlfilm

Good girls need to speak up

It's time for good girls to speak up. Too many women don't say 'no' often enough and far too many say 'yes' when they mean 'no.' 

That's the good girl syndrome. But it's time for good girls to GROW UP, to be REAL women, to say what they mean and do what they love. 

Laurie Penny's article is insightful and timely.





"Most of us grew up learning that being a good girl was all about putting other people’s feelings ahead of our own. We aren’t supposed to say what we think if there’s a chance it might upset somebody else or, worse, make them angry. So we stifle our speech with apologies, caveats and soothing sounds..."  Laurie Penny. New statesman
http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/08/laurie-penny/men-sexism/

Indigenous elder Uncle Bob Randall

These beautiful people hosted our ULURU women's retreaters last week. Such good fortune for us. 

Thank you Uncle Bob and Barbara

http://portraitsinfaith.org/uncle-bob-randall/

Uncle Bob Randall | Portraits in Faith

portraitsinfaith.org

Uncle Bob Randall - Mutitjulu, Australia“Sometimes when we were beaten…we’d just lie on the earth and say “I’ve had it, I need you to hold me. And then she would. The mother would hold you.”Uncle Bob Randall was taken from his mother at seven and sent to a mission a thousand miles away.266102www.sim...

Resting in a tree.

Me, resting in a tree, in a sandy river bed outside Alice springs

Imagine if you measured your life in terms of tree stages:

Have a look at my video link to get the idea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8u5mDuLKcY

TIMING

I have grown to respect TIMING. Forcing things to happen may give a momentary feeling of success but when the TIMING is RIGHT the outcomes are solid, grounded and bountiful.

So imagine how sweet it was, on the last day of my women's retreat in ULURU to see that
LIVING NOW had just published this article. 

That's what I call Nice timing...  ENJOY




http://www.livingnow.com.au/advertise/articles/23-living-with-spirit/4869-the-picture-of-wholeness-and-happiness-doesnt-need-a-mirror.html

Kids and body image

I sooooo enjoyed speaking with these primary school kids about body image. They called me from Melbourne when I first arrived in Alice this month. Check out the interview it starts at 23:49. : ) Click on this link...

http://sbnonline.org/2013/05/02/1369/

The interview was made even more interesting by the questions from the boy in the group about boys' body image issues.

Touching THE MOTHER

Here I am in Alice Springs for my Ancient Women's Business Retreat.

Just outside the township in a sacred place I re-connect with the Mother....Earth

Join me on the link below


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aLgSlEIr09o

Women are their own worse critics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XpaOjMXyJGk#!

The video above is a great example of how women perceive themselves compared to the way others see them.
In my consultations, husbands and partners of women always describe the women in a much more positive light than the women do themselves.
Women are in fact their own worse critics.
That's why I am a persistent campaigner against body image damage.
Why don't you join me at my image free website www.denisegreenaway.com  

The WILD WOMAN connection

This wonderful photograph captures the Wild Feminine of a fabulous dancer, inscribed by the
marvellous Isadora.              

Doesn't it touch you...deeply?

Somewhere below your "good girl,” serving self. 

Somewhere where you can have your cake and eat it too.

Somewhere where your passion lies.  

Somewhere where your own Wild Woman resides. 

Or have you lost your connection to your WILD WOMAN?

Aboriginal women have always been in touch with theirs, because of their connection to nature, the earth, the  moon, the stars and each other. Never alone, they dance, hunt, sing and dance together - authentically wild.

 

But for European women their connection to the wild woman had to go underground when the Goddess cultures declined. To be ‘wild’ was considered dangerous and ‘out of control.’

But fortunately for us she has never died. She appears when women give birth, protect their young or  live in a household together, all bleeding at the same time. Totally alive, the wild woman is powerful, strong, and revered by ancient women’s business. 

RE-DISCOVER her, RE-CONNECT with her and INTEGRATE her into your daily life, at my desert retreats.

Supported by the ancient witness of Uluru she will return to you and put a spring in your step, a sparkle in your eye and a song in your heart.

Join me this Sept 9-13 at ULURU in the heart of Australia. 

Meanwhile try chanting this to the first star you see tonight

                       "I wish I may, I wish I might,

                         make a wish on you this night.

                         I call upon your eyes to see

                         the wild woman who lives in me.

                         I promise you with all my might

                         That I will set her free this night."    

                                                                                  p149 FINDING ARTEMISIA: 

                                                            A JOURNEY INTO ANCIENT WOMEN'S BUSINESS

Initiated into the ancient women's world of dance

Imagine baring your breasts and dancing with traditional women who welcome you into their image free world.

Imagine being totally accepted for who you are and not what you look like.

Imagine being a woman among women who have been initiated into womanhood by women before them.

To find out more, read my book "Finding Artemisia: a journey into ancient women's business" from Amazon

or come out on my desert women's retreats.

Your uninitiated girl

What would your life be like had you been initiated into woman hood?

Who would you be today if you had been welcomed by women who were already there?

Imagine your life without that lost girl that has led you into unsupportive relationships, subservient marriages, pleaser occupations?

Australian Aboriginal tradition mid-wifed girls into the sisterhood, the aunty hood, woman hood.

My desert retreats invite women to ask these questions and to move forward from the uninitiated girl state into the full wisdom of womanhood.

Join me www.denisegreenaway.com

or read my "Finding Artemisia: a journey into ancient women's business" on amazon

New year flowering

This exotic flower represents this New Year to me. It's open, lush, sensuous, fragrant and waiting to be dived into.

At its right sits a bud: it's still closed, without colour or fragrance. Hard to believe that this flower was once like that.

But that's how it spent a whole season, being watered with love, fertilised with intention: its nature honoured.

Same with us, we already have that flower within our self, no matter how closed and colourless we might have become.

So, rather than making harsh, self punishing resolutions this new year, why not honour, love and fertilise what is already there, and make way for the flowering of who we really are.

Blessings all, Denise