Tag — Curated Care
Curated Care: Help for those Wounded by Church
Oh, friends. These are two of my very favorite teachers:
Meet Kathy and Phyllis. Don’t they just looks so kind and wise? And maybe you can’t tell from these smile-y photos, but these women are crystal clear on standing in their own power. Kathy continually inspires me to hold on to hope. And Phyllis taught me it was perfectly fine to be angry. (Jesus, she reminded me, sat down and wove a whip.)
But neither of these women stop at anger and hope. No, they move all the way to healing.
From the walking wounded website:
“Have you ever:
-Been asked to leave a church or told you’re not a “good fit”?
-Felt forced to conform or remain consistently overlooked?
-Been told that you are loved but not your sin?
-Questioned leadership or theology and found yourself on the outside?
-Felt sad, angry, afraid, lost, or disoriented after painful church experiences?
-Experienced a significant shift in your theology or faith perspective and find yourself feeling disoriented and unsure?
You are not lost, and you are not alone.
Walking Wounded: Hope for Those Hurt By Church is designed to help you move through the painful and confusing aftermath of a negative faith-based experience.
In this 4 week class you will:
- Connect with others who have similar experiences
- Identify your losses and reclaim your dreams
- Tell your story and receive support
- Work through your unfinished business
- Learn effective practices to restore a sense of sanity
Through interviews, conversation, journaling and storytelling, Kathy Escobar and Phyllis Mathis will guide you through the confusion and into a place of purpose and peace.”
Affordable ($49), accessible (online), doable (just 4 weeks).
Ready, set, heal up!
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. I believe in this course with Kathy and Phyllis 100%. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: One-moment Memoirs
This week’s Curated Care recommendation comes from my soulsister Jenna McGuiggan founder of The Word Cellar. I think her new offering is brilliant — especially if you are longing to write more, but only have spare moments between changing nappies, or on your lunch break. Relax, the gentle do-able solution is at hand. Jennifer, step right up…
One-moment Memoirs
by Jenna McGuiggan
That moment when you’re washing dishes, and you see your own hand holding a little metal bouquet of silverware, and for a second you think it’s your mother’s hand.
That moment when your beloved touches your cheek, and you know in your bones that something fundamental has shifted.
That moment when you hear the loud summer buzz of cicadas, and a line of poetry floats into your mind, begging you to capture it for later.
That moment when the sun slants just so, or the clock ticks too loudly, or you get the phone call you’ve been waiting for. Those moments big and small, those moments that matter, those moments that you want to live inside of, or make sense of, or share with others.
Some experiences beg us to write about them, but we often feel overwhelmed when trying to capture the whole story at once. One-moment Memoirs helps you take a relaxed yet focused approach to telling life’s big and small stories in bite-sized pieces.
In this workshop we’ll explore the art of short-form storytelling, also known as “flash creative nonfiction” (which also happens to be the prefect size for blog posts). Using writing prompts and exercises designed to help you connect with the heart of your story, we’ll dig into the details of a single moment. You’ll use these to write your very own one-moment memoir in two to three pages.
I’ll be teaching One-moment Memoirs online as part of wishBIG ecampin February. I’ll also be teaching a full-day workshop version of it this May for The Midwest Be Present Retreatin Culver, Indiana.
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. I believe in this product 100%. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: Nikki McClure, A Year of Inspiration
I absolutely love the art of Nikki McClure. Every image is created by cutting away black paper with an exacto knife. And the way she combines a single resonate word with a stunning graphic image — well, it’s positively poetic.
Paul just gave me her most recent calendar as a Christmas gift. When Eden saw me peeking at the first page today she said, “Are you going to look at them all now Mom, or save them as surprise?” I was glad she asked, because I hadn’t really thought about it, but now I think I will save each one as a surprise. I’m even thinking about doing some collage work around each monthly word. (January’s is “Permit.” That seems ripe with promise!)
What will you inherit this year? Order Nikki McClure’s Inherit Calendar
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. I am an amazon assoicate for this product, because I believe in it 100%. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: Good Causes
Several things have come across my desk this week that I think are just perfect for curated care. Each one is a brave and creative problem-solving approach. In the spirit of holiday giving at it’s best, I hope you’ll support one these dear-to-my-heart projects today. (Thanks Magpies!)
Graphic Design for GLBTQ Youth: My beloved brutha Shay of Anarchist Reverend helps run a summer camp for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth. (Wow that’s a mouthful!) Camp Osiris provides support and spiritual nurture for young people who are often ostracized and bullied. At Camp Osiris teens and young adults don’t have to wait for it to get better, because they are already in a safe and joyful oasis. Got design skills? Help Camp Osiris create some super hip merch for the campers this summer. Click here to find out more about this design contest. (Contest closes January 30th.)
Support Grandparent’s Rights: This is a complicated story, so I’ll try to sum it up. Kelly Bean is an inspiring light in my life. Without her example and support, I would not be leading a spiritual community outside of the religious institution. When I was floundering in the dark, Kelly’s work showed me there was a way. Kelly, who receives little to no pay for her inspiring work, is now in financial need. The estranged father of her 5 year old grandson is trying to win full custody of Gabe. Gabe is in danger of loosing all contact with Kelly and her husband Ken, who Gabe has lived with his entire life. They are now required to go to court to petition just for simple visiting rights, while Gabe’s father is trying to prevent them from seeing Gabe at all. With grace and dignity, Kelly and Ken have started a Chip-In fund to help with legal costs. If this story resonates with you, please click here to read more about Gabe’s story and chip in.
Have Kids, Will Travel: Finally, my sweet friend Bethany Bassett of Coffee Stained Clarity has an intriguing Kickstarter project up right now, Appertifs and Sippy Cups. Bethany, who has been honing her travel writing skills the past few years, is now ready to write a book full of tips for traveling with young children. An American ex-pat in Italy, Bethany played hostess for me on my solo 40th birthday trip to Rome and Perugia. Her preschool girls completely charmed me, and their tales of travel throughout Europe were downright inspiring. If you are parents (or parents-to-be) and you think you’ll never be able to travel again — be encouraged! Help is on the way. Click here to see the video and make a Kickstarter pledge.
Thanks for supporting the efforts of these beautiful souls!
Much Warmth,
Rachelle
*your magpie girl
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: Poetry for Gift Giving
In the End
by Tara Sophia Mohr
*originally posted Feb 2, 2010
In the end
you won’t be known
for the things you did,
or what you built,
or what you said.
You won’t even be known
for the love given
or the hearts saved,
because in the end you won’t be known.
You won’t be asked, by a vast creator full of light:
What did you do to be known?
You will be asked: Did you know it,
this place, this journey?
What there is to know can’t be written.
Something between the crispness of air
and the glint in her eye
and the texture of the orange peel.
What you’ll want a thousand years from now is this:
a memory that beats like a heart–
a travel memory, of what it was to walk here,
alive and warm and textured within.
Sweet brightness, aliveness, take-me-now-ness that is life.
You are here to pay attention. That is enough.
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Did that feed your soul? Tara Sophia Mohr’s poetry does that– it opens up a little window and lets the light shine in.
Give the gift of poetic fresh air to yourself or someone you love this holiday season, and nourish yourself one tasty morsel at a time.
For more information about the poetry and photography in this book, click here.
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: Moleskin Bandolier
Clever Hands: “Travel light. Draw often.”
I love things that are beautiful, clever, and functional — like this handy bandolier from Clever Hands. No more digging for a pencil at the bottom of your purse, or losing a poem because it rushed past whilst you were looking for a pen. These handy bandoliers are designed for various sizes of moleskin notebooks, or can be made-to-order. I got one for my moleskin pocket calendar with a special-fit slot for my favorite kind of pencil and eraser. (Joy!)
Click here to order one for you or for a friend.
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: Free Travel Guide for Solo Female Travelers
Oh, the grey. It makes me dream of vacations in sunny climes.
Are you dreaming of an exotic get away? Stumped because you don’t have a travel partner? Have no fear, The Gypsy Gals are here! Veteran solo travelers Prime and Nina Sarmiento are sharing their joint experience in Prime’s free e-book Gypsy Gal Tales: Inspiring stories and tips for and by female travelers. To get your copy just click here and make your armchair travel a reality.
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: Surviving the Grey
There is no doubt about it. It is the grey season.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we don’t tend to talk about summerfallwinterspring. We talk about Summer — meaning the 4-6 weeks from August to mid September; and Winter, by which we mean the grey season, stretching from mid-Sept through the end of July.
My physicality and personality are not well adapted to this grey, yet somehow I keep being drawn to places with seasons like this. The damp “bay shine” of my childhood in the San Fransisco bay area, my adulthood in Seattle, three years spent in Vancouver BC, record-breaking winters in Copenhagen–I keep calling places with grey “home.”
Thankfully there is something new to add to my arsenal of vitamin D, the happy light, and a solid dose of antidepressants. Fellow Pacific coastie, Vivienne McMaster, is offering a beautiful online photography course this winter: Light Hunters, Getting Through the Grey.
Each Monday through the winter you’ll get a prompt and instructions on how to appraoch this different kind of light through the lens of your camera. An inspiring group of fellow photographers (newbies to pros) will gather ’round you in the private Flickr group, and the beauty of the pictures will carry you through.
Need help surviving the grey? Just click here to join the Light Hunters. ($39 CND for a season full of inspiration.) See you there, Magpie.
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. I am not an affiliate of this product, but after I asked if I could feature it here, Vivienne offered me a complimentary seat in the class. (Thanks, you!) To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: Free Writing Advice
I’m doing a lot more writing these days. I love it. Writing is a juicy practice for me. The editing…the revisions, the wrapping-it-all up, not so much. But the first draft, I love.
Knowing that I need to be spending even more time writing, I put out a call for accountability and my inspiring friend Melaine Martin issued me a deadline.
04 May 2011. I pledged to have written a book by that date. I may not have a publisher, but dangummit, there’ll be a book.
I’ve started book projects before, so I know I’ll need some advice and encouragement along the way if I’m going to get to DONE. That’s why I’m grateful for Heather Plett of Sophia Leadership. She assembled a free ebook full of quotes from 27 authors who give you their best writing tips, (including me!) Click here to download Writing to Impact Change. May it encourage you to tell your story today.
Much Warmth,
Rachelle
*your magpie girl
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasure that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. To see some evergreen products and service providers I enjoy, click here. To read all my review posts, click here. Thanks for being here today Magpie!
Curated Care: What’s an Un-orphanage?
Welcome to the second annual Girl Effect Blogging Campaign. All this week, women bloggers from around the web will be featuring powerful stories and causes dedicated to helping girls worldwide get education, medical care, and justice.
It can be hard to find a trustworthy organization to sponsor. Here at Magpie Girl we make a donation as a “thank you” for each of our guest posts, so we’ve seen a beautiful collection of good causes. Still, our heart belongs to our regular cause, so today as we curating causes we feature the centerpiece of our collection: The Apparent Project.
- Shelley and two of her four children.
The Apparent Project was founded by my friends Shelley and Corrigan Clay. With two small children in tow, the Clays’ moved to Haiti to work in one of the country’s many orphanages. They fell passionately in love with Haiti and her people, and began the long process of adopting two Haitian children to join their family, making them parents to four preschoolers and infants. But after a few years of watching mothers being forced to leave their children on the orphanage doorstep, the Clay’s decided to begin their own non-profit, focused on actually preventing poverty-based abandonment. In the Clay’s own words:
“Haiti was said to have as many as 500,000 orphans before the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. The vast majority of these “orphans” were actually not true orphans. They were children given up by living parents because of extreme poverty….Yet, while a single adoption costs $15,000-20,000, these funds could sustain up to 40 families by providing seed money for ongoing small businesses! Something needs to change.”
I once heard an activist say, “We can keep pulling drowning girls out of the river all our lives, but if we don’t prevent the men and boys from throwing them in upstream, we’ll never end the cycle.” Empowering families to stay together through sustainable women-owned small business is one way The Apparent Project is keeping everyone’s toes dry.
With Corrigan’s background as an artist, The Clay’s founded The Apparent Project, an experiment they called the “un-orphanage.” Through the project they began to teach Haitian women (and men) to set up small, sustainable businesses. Recently their jewlery making co-operative caught they eye of Donna Karan, who visited their home and workshops earlier this year, advising Shelley and helping them make political and industry-based connections in order to build long-term sustainability into the project. Then this summer, The Apparent Project’s creative “beyond the orphanage” methodology drew the attention of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who came to their home in Haiti and helped them make more connections for their struggling grassroots project. (T0 see more about Clinton’s ah-ha moment around the devasting effect poorly planned U.S.-aid to Haiti has caused in the past click here. Kudos to Clinton for acknowledging his past mistakes, and for turning to intelligent on-the-ground first responders like Shelley and Corrigan for real-life advice on wholistic support for Haiti!)
In spite of thier recent boon of wonderful connections, The Apparent Project is still staying open one donation at a time. You can help this creative, intelligent family (and thier team of ex-pat and local staff!) make a difference for mom’s and girls in Haiti. Click here to donate or click here to support the Haitian artisans by purchasing their beautiful goods. Thanks so much for helping girls, women…and heck, entire families in Haiti!
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Curated Care (formerly known as Tools of The Trade) features carefully selected courses, books, and other treasures that will feed your beautiful soul. I take pride in only reviewing only trustworthy, totally-worth-it products and services. I am an supporter of The Apparent Project, because I believe in it 100%. Click here to donate or click here to shop. Thanks for being here today, Magpie!
You Might Also Like:
- Click here for more information about the state of women and girls in Haiti.
- Click here to follow Shelley’s spirited posts on Facebook about life in Haiti and intellegent advocacy.
- Click here to find out why you should NOT send peanut butter to Haiti.
- Click here to read a recent story about one of the Apparent Project mom’s, and to see how real-life with these women is shaping Shelley and Corrigans right-fit spirituality.
- Want to write your own blog post for The Girl Effect Blogging Campaign? Click here and
playempower along!
