My inner voice is getting to the point of being REALLY loud. I stifled it for many years, and 'lo and behold, it seems to have gotten a hold of a mic and it is letting me know, in no uncertain terms, what's what.

There is a certain exhaustion, combined with exhilaration, that comes with this kind of work. Just when you think there can't possibly be another layer to peel back one more layer of yourself reveals itself.

I was never one to remember my dreams, and truly, I still don't remember too many of them, but the voices that are coming to me in my dreams are clear as day. I know who they are. I don't always know why they're talking to me, but it's always reassuring to hear someone I love chatting it up with me in my dreams. Sometimes they just say my name. Other times there are sentences. I like to think this IS part of my work - the inner voice telling me everything is going to work out fine and be A-OK. The voice telling me I am on the right path. The voice of who I really am.

How about you? Do you hear your inner voice?

Music today is the total opposite of listening to your inner voice.

Hush, hush keep it down now voices carry

http://youtu.be/BwRXi8gEQtw

Seriously, isn't this the truth? At some point we all don a cape and go forth and unleash our super powers. We kiss away the hurts. We wipe away the tears. We hug away the angst. We cook away the cold. We make money magically appear from the tree in the yard. We drive 1,000 miles a week in circles. We fill gas tanks for teens (OK, I do that). We do and we do and we do.

TONIGHT, at 7:00PM, (in less than two hours) my friend Melanie is climbing the stairs (over and over and over again) at the Ritz Carlton in White Plains for Gilda's Club. She needs just a few dollars more to make her goal. YOU Can help THIS Wonder Woman exceed her goal by clicking HERE to make a donation.

As you can imagine, Melanie's story is personal, compelling, and uniquely hers. She is fighting the fight by climbing stairs!

Yesterday, one of my FB friends wrote to me about THIS conference. If I wasn't working, trust me when I tell you, I would be at this event as it seems fantastic! Check it out!

The Pennsylvania Conference for Women is a non-profit, non-partisan, one-day professional and personal development event for women that features dozens of renowned speakers sharing inspirational stories and leading seminars on the issues that matter most to women, including health, personal finance, executive leadership, small business and entrepreneurship, work/life balance, branding and social media marketing, and more. The Conference offers incredible opportunities for business networking, professional development, and personal growth.

If you can't make it to Pennsylvania, perhaps you can make it to upstate NY where the incomparable Cara & Candace are hosting their fall retreat in Frost Valley. There is still a short window of time to register! It is a healing, fun, beautiful event not to be missed! Details are available HERE.

This is but a teeny sampling of what we are doing as women. Feel free to share your adventures here or on Facebook. I would love to see, hear, read about what else is out there!

Here's to all the Super Women. xo

PS - men, I know, I know. What about you? Please share your stories too. They are important and valuable. If you missed this post, you can see I really love and care about you too.

PPS - I started this at 7:30 this morning and then...well, the day happened!

I have decided the Magic Basement is MY church. It is the place I go to settle down. It is the place I go to think and pray and meditate and find inspiration from all the amazing people out there in the world doing great stuff. It is filled with the energy, love and tears of every person who has ever ventured down here. It is warm. It is safe. It is exactly right.

Every morning, I head down here; I light a few candles, sit in quiet contemplation, perhaps write in my journal, turn over various cards, write my blog and then head off into the land of social media.

Social media can be a pit - it can suck you in and never let go. BUT, it can also provide SO much inspiration. YOU pick the people, groups, causes and businesses you chose to follow; as you have gathered, I have a lengthy list of feel good sites I read.

This morning, Glennon Doyle Melton posted this on her Facebook page. I love Glennon, and even though I have never met her in real life, I know her in my soul. FYI: She refers to her followers as Monkees.

Glennon has a huge following on Facebook - over 103,500 people. I am hovering at the 500 mark. I have 484 amazing people who have liked TGHR on Facebook and who knows how many reading this regularly. Let's follow G's call to action and do the same thing. Whether you are on Facebook or not, do something kind. Think something kind. Kindness matters. LOVE WINS.

I have a friend who drinks a cup of coffee in the very early morning each day. They sit outside and look up at the sky through trees by their home. One day they told me it was like God was winking at them through the tree tops. THIS picture, which is in the video, reminded me of that conversation.

The music today has come on in my car, I believe, at some point, EVERY day for the past week or so. Of COURSE it did. Apparently, it wanted to be heard.

It's Saturday morning and THAT'S all I've got for today.

Go forth and be good and kind and spread some love. Love looks good on you. xo

Love, love, love's lookin' good, good, good on you
Well can you feel it, oh everybody sees it
How your sweet smile has a way of lighting up a room
Yeah you shine like diamonds in everything you do
Oh love, love, love's lookin' good, good, good on you

http://youtu.be/OotVbB65cMo

Ah...the allure of royalty. My friend Marlene likes to say she missed being royal by thismuch. How many of us have perfected the "princess wave?" I have read all of Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries books, I have seen my fair share of Disney movies, and I absolutely read People magazine when William & Kate are on the cover. There is something mysterious and wonderful about what it must be like to be royal. I sincerely doubt it is all that, based on the fact that you never get one ounce of privacy, but, I suspect it would be delightful to try it out for a while.

The truth is, we are ALL royal; it's a mater of perception.

TODAY, wear your crown, whether it is visible or not. Stand proud in your body, do work for good, send good thoughts to the people in the land governing like crazy people.

Regardless of your political affiliation, there are things you can do for those who are hurting by the way the government is playing it's hand right now. I pray for all of them to ultimately be guided by common sense and their innate sense of right and wrong. If you feel the need to do something, Jenny Lawson wrote a terrific blog piece yesterday with practical suggestions. Check it out.

Most of the people who read this blog live in the United States. We live in a democracy where there is a lot of throwing of sand in the sandbox these days. Adults are having temper tantrums because no one feels they are being heard. THAT is probably the crux of the whole thing (OK, totally simplistic, but still...) - we ALL want to be heard, valued and loved. We will certainly never be royal unless we pull a Grace Kelly, and it's far too late for most of us reading this. For the readers who live in a sovereign country, you don't even get what the fuss about royalty is about to us. (In part, it totally IS the accent...)

In ANY EVENT, it's Friday, we will never be royal, but we can dance while singing about it!

Let me be your ruler, you can call me queen B
And baby I'll rule I'll rule I'll rule I'll rule,
Let me live that fantasy.

http://youtu.be/nlcIKh6sBtc

I would like to state I added this to my favorites on Pandora WEEKS ago - way before it hit the popular mainstream!

I adore Pentatonix. THIS. Is. Awesome.

http://youtu.be/E9XQ2MdNgKY

I think that by staying open to all the wonder of the world we can be less horrified by the day to day actions of seemingly normal people who snap.

At least, that's my theory and the one I am sticking to.

There is beauty and wonder and amazing at every turn. You just have to be on the lookout for it. My friend Christina started her day last week with a smiley face on her drain.

By looking at the wonder surrounding us, we can let go of some of the every day angst we all live with. I love to look for things shaped like hearts.They are truly everywhere, which makes me continue to believe that the universe always wants us to come from a place of love.

Our mission, for the next little while at least, is to look for the wonder. Look for the beauty. Look for the love. It may make the reality of this world just a bit more tolerable.

Music Today, 8:26 of magic.
I had to go with an instrumental today, and who better than George Winston when you need a piano interlude.

http://youtu.be/WAjl-9mKsJ0

Yesterday, I arrived at yoga in a VERY un-Zenlike state of mind. I was annoyed at the government; I was annoyed at the pundits and all their blathering on about it. I totally lost my mind at the Facebook posts of people demonizing the MEN in Congress. By the time I arrived at yoga I was in a state.

My big, huge, giant thought was if we are going to continue to man bash, WE, the women of the world have to stop raising men to be so bashable. I have absolutely come to realize that some behaviors are totally gene based. If you give a little boy a Barbie, there is not doubt that he will turn her into some sort of weapon and more than likely she will lose her head.

I do not know one little boy who came into this world and was nothing short of adored, in exactly the same way every girl I know was adored. They were played with and sang to and hugged and kissed and read to. Hopefully, they were taught to put the seat down, use their manners, cook a handful of meals and to respect ALL people.

At what point does it get OK to bash them? At what point does the line, "Boys will be boys" get old? At what point do the boys themselves feel as if they are superior to women and more importantly, at what point do they feel they have a clue as to what is going on in a woman's body? 

WOMEN are raising the MEN of the future. We have GOT to let them know it is perfectly OK to be vulnerable and sweet and kind and as freaking adorable as they were when they were just learning to walk. It is so worth our collective energies to do this.

We had a discussion at dinner the other night and I honestly felt my teeth grinding in my mouth as I listened to my son discuss the fine points of women's reproductive rights. He is 17. He hasn't had a whole lot of life experiences yet and as such, he is a little on the naive side. I held my tongue (you can only imagine how hard that was for me) and I decided he needed to live a little before he could really form an informed opinion one way or another. You can't grow up in this house without having had some very strong opinions thrown your way. He is still finding his way. And no, he is NOT a jerk about it; he is just young. I will keep my thoughts private until the time comes to share them with him in a quiet way. Because I don't want him to be the kind of man who gets bashed.

I don't talk about my brother a lot. He was raised by one mother and three older sisters. Is could not have been easy to be him a lot of the time. He and I have a ten year age difference. HE is a great man. He is open minded with some conservative views that always add a bit of dialogue and drama to any family function. He can get certain family members riled up in less than five minutes. To the casual observer, it is nothing short of amusing. In one of life's great "ha-ha's" he is the father to one son and three daughters. I think he is fully prepared to deal with whatever comes his way having been raised by so many women.

Love and patience. It's what we all need. Today, think of the men you know and the boys you are raising and do not let anyone call them out on their being a man for the sake of their gender. If they are an idiot for a moment, well, so is every single woman I know at some point.

The government will get their act together. John Stewart will continue to explain it me in a way I understand and I will keep every one of my friends who has been furloughed in my thoughts.

Love and patience. We got this.

Music today - in honor of my brother's love of Axl while a teenager. Plus, the song fit and who doesn't love this one?

Take it slow 
It'll work itself out fine 
All we need is just a little patience

http://youtu.be/ErvgV4P6Fzc

Watch the video below. Let it marinate in your brain. I've watched it a few times since last week. And then, consider writing your own letter. If you can, call the person.

Have a gratitude filled happy day! xo

An Experiment in Gratitude: http://youtu.be/oHv6vTKD6lg
Seven awesome minutes. I mean it.

You can listen to this while starting to write your letter.
http://youtu.be/3-pz0hPwPVo