Supporting Green Spaces Worldwide - Hariyo Chowk

With only 11 more days to go, please help support in any way you can this Kickstarter project - Hariyo Chowk!  Hariyo Chowk, meaning a "green square" in Nepalese, offers the community members in Katmandu, Nepal a much needed vibrant urban green space to play, create, and learn.  For more information visit their blog and Kickstarter page!

Honoring Our Goddess Time

Last night I had the privilege to be part of a Goddess Gathering in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles.  The drive through windy roads, the smell of fresh air, and ascent up a Christmas-lit staircase twenty-five feet to the front door was enough to light my magic match & make me want to move in ~

We nourished ourselves with potluck food, we sat on cushions in a circle by candlelight, breathing through our chakras, sharing what we were letting go of & bringing into our lives, sharing the successes, celebrations, & joys, & stating our next intentions. 

We also watched the trailer to a stunningly gorgeous film, Things We Don’t Talk About.  If you haven’t seen this trailer yet, check it out here.  It will make you cry, it will make you want to celebrate & gather together all women dear to you.   If you’ve read Anita Diamant’s book The RedTent, this is essentially what the documentary is about:  women coming together to share, celebrate, & heal.

I arrived at the event with books & business cards in hand.  I was there to network, to promote my books & business, to network around housing in LA, etc. 

What I found was I kept filling my plate at the potluck table.  More kale salad, one more raw chocolate, & blue corn chips with organic cheese.  What was I trying to nourish?  In all the excitement of moving out to California & finding/ creating my way, I have been so in the masculine.  Business owner, driver across the country, & back & forth from San Francisco/ Santa Cruz to L.A.  Figuring out where my next paycheck is coming from, longing for a lover/ love.  Longing for someone to just hold me/ heal me/ to unpack my burden & breathe.   

Yes, I am a feminist.  I believe women are people too, and we all have human rights as citizens of this planet.  This is what feminism, at its heart, is to me.  & Yes, I enjoy being a business owner.  I enjoy the freedom of being a single, unencumbered woman, free to travel, to have love affairs, to do as I choose, to be in charge, to be a leader & a player in creating our world, to be in the conversation about business & marketing, to be and do whatever & however I choose.  However, I am also ready to receive.  I am ready to receive love, I am ready to receive money, I am ready to receive home, and I continue to be ready to receive gracious, powerful, healthy, creative, phenomenal community. 

Last night was a gift, and I am glad I set down my bags, took off my jacket, and sat down, breathing, sharing, being vulnerable, and listening.  We all need this.  No matter who we are. 

Debra Jill Mazer is a magna cum laude graduate of Brandeis University, with a B.A. in Sociology & Women’s Studies.  Using her degree to become a hippie New Age healer & Raw Food Chef, Debra currently offers a 6-month Holistic Health Coaching Program (your first session is free!!).  Author of Open-Eyed Heart-Wide Haggadah, for a transformative Passover, artist, dancer, singer, and more, Debra is based in a beautiful community in Santa Cruz, CA, and is currently housesitting in LA, where she will be working the Tadasana Festival, volunteering at AgapeRevelation Conference, and then heading onwards to the kitchen of Epic Eden HotSprings Retreat (phenomenal!!!! & a few spaces left ~ May 2-6, 2012) in Arizona.