Dear IALRW Members:

One of our Past Presidents (from the U.S.), Gladys McNatt, served as our President from 1990 to 1993.  She will be celebrating her 94th Birthday on April 15, 2012!!!  We would love to share Birthday Greetings from our members to our friend Gladys, whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time, and visiting at her home last year!  

Please send your Birthday Greetings to me, Judy Highfill ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or to the IALRW Facebook page, and I will have them printed and then "snail" mail copies to Gladys at her home.  PLEASE DO THIS BEFORE APRIL 9, so we can print and mail them to her in time for her to receive them before her birthday on Sunday, April 15.

IALRW Members:

Take a look at the most recent IARF-U.S. Newsletter (Click on "Resources" - IARF-U.S. International Association for Religious Freedom) and it will take you to their website.  

I attended their recent meeting in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and had a wonderful time meeting old and new friends, and learning more about this parent group of the IALRW.  It was also fun to once again tip my toes in the Atlantic Ocean...the weather was warm and sunny...and it was a nice change from the winter (though unusually mild) we are experiencing in the midwestern U.S.

The IARF-U.S. Newsletter also notes that a group from the U.S. is going to Japan for a visit in October, 2012....and that at a meeting in Japan in April, the LOCATION of our NEXT (2014) IALRW Meeting will be determined!  I'm looking forward to finding out WHERE and WHEN we will all be able to meet again!

Here's a poem from their Newsletter, which makes me think of the coming spring:

“You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest, 
and I smile, and am silent, 
and even my soul is quiet: 
it lives in the other world which no one owns. 
The peach trees blossom, 
The water flows.”                      Li Po

"Think Spring!"  And I hope to see you all at the 2014 IALRW meeting, WHEREVER it will be held.  And we will put that info on this website as soon as it is available. Namaste and Blessed Be to you all.

 

Judy Highfill, IALRW website & Newsletter Editor

I'm sure many of you have heard recently about the death of one of the world's leading women of our generation who died Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011, in Nairobi, Kenya, of cancer at the age of 72:  WANGARI MAATHAI.  The organization she founded planted 30 MILLION TREES!!!  And its members inspired the UN's worldwide campaign which resulted in the planting of another 11 BILLION TREES upon our beloved planet earth.  For her work toward these endeavors she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, the first African woman to be so honored.  

Geir Lundestad, Director of the Nobel Institute, said this about Ms. Maathai:  "Many said, 'she's just planting trees.'  But that was important...not only from an environmental perspective--to stop the desert from spreading--but also as a way to activate women.  Wangari Maathai combined the protection of the environment with the struggle for women's rights and fight for democracy."

Ms. Maathai once said, "The tree became a symbol for the democratic struggle in Kenya.  Citizens were mobilized to challenge widespread abuses of power, corruption and environmental mismanagement." 

What can you do to help in this common cause around the world?  Well, YOU CAN PLANT A TREE...in her honor, of course! Then send us an email (to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) about what kind of tree you planted and where, and maybe include a photo of yourself and your tree!  (Or post this information on your Facebook page, which our website is linked to.)

I have just received an email from a friend, Carol Christ, a religious scholar and author of several books on women (including "Diving Deep and Surfacing:  Women Writers on Spiritual Quest," (1995) "Odyssey with the Goddess, a Spiritual Quest in Crete," (1995) and "Weaving the Visions:  New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality" (1989) by Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ.

Carol, had recently read Ms. Maathai's book, "Unbowed," where Wangari told a story of a fig tree she remembered from her childhood.  Carol's email explained that a fig tree volunteer came up in her garden this summer, so she decided to name it "Wangari" in honor of Ms. Maathai!  (You can also learn more about Carol Christ by going to her website, goddessariadne.org.)

And while you're planting your tree(s), you can learn much more about Ms. Maathai by reading books by or about her, including:  "Replenishing the Earth:  Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World" (2010), "The Challenge for Africa" (2010), "Unbowed:  A Memoir" (2007), and "The Green Belt Movement:  Sharing the Approach and the Experience" [including a German edition] (2003). 

Others books about Ms. Maathai include:  "Planting the Trees of Kenya:  The Story of Wangari Maathai (Japanese Edition) by Claire Nivola (2009), and "Flight of the Hummingbird, a Parable for the Environment" by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, the Dalai Lama, and Wangari Maathai (2008). Plus there's a DVD available called "Taking Root:  the Vision of Wangari Maathai" (2009).  (And that's only a small sampling of what I learned by just checking Amazon.com.)

This summer (2011) I was privileged to personally meet another extraordinary woman of our generation who is also an environmentalist and leader of women's empowerment around the world, as well as a prolific author, a psychiatrist, and Jungian analyst:  Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen of San Francisco, California.  She spoke on her new book, "Like a Tree:  How Trees, Women, and Tree People Can Save the Planet."

Some of her previous books include "The Tao of Psychology," "Goddesses in Everywoman," "The Millionth Circle," and "Urgent Message from Mother [Earth]," plus many more, most of which I have read.  She also appeared in two documentaries, the Academy-Award winning film, "Women--For America, For the World" and the Canadian Film Board's "Goddess Remembered." 

More importantly today, she is a major advocate for the next United Nations 5th World Conference on Women.  You may recall that the last one was held over 15 years ago in 1995 in Beijing; in fact, you may even have been one of those privileged to attend.  Or if not, you may be looking forward to the next UN Conf. on Women, which YOU CAN HELP BRING ABOUT....by going to Dr. Bolen's website at:  jeanbolen.com and signing her petition to help make it happen (sooner rather than later)! (Oh, and take a look on our website, under Resources, at "5th UN World Conference on Women.")

So, please do your part.  Plant a tree....and sign the petition.....and send us YOUR suggestions for what we can all help do to make the world a better place, to bring about world peace, to keep our planet healthy, and to make friends--lots of friends, GOOD FRIENDS--around the world!  (Oh, and if you haven't already, JOIN the IALRW!!!)

 

 

 

How can I live life to contribute to the betterment of Earth’s life?  This question was ringing from my heartstrings while returning home from the September, 2010 IALRW Bicentennial Conference and still rings in my heart.  I have found so many of those bright IALRW women’s thoughts integrating into my daily core values ever since that September experience.  However, now, as I savor the rays of the brilliant moon coming through my window, I realize the Conference’s new insights I want to exercise are like the moon’s light, blocked into darkness by intermittently passing clouds.  

For the sake of recollection, I am defining how three of the Conference presenters affected my thinking so I can better become a woman of action.

Mrs. Tsewang Dolma Yokhang lives in Leh Ladakh, India.  Her community had been recently devastated by the Himalayan floods.  Dolma’s journey to the Conference was terribly arduous.  
I was so glad to be with my friend whom I have seen at every IALRW conference (but one) since 1993.  She works at the Ladakh Women’s Literacy Center, a long standing project IALRW helps to support.

“Peace means being one with life itself – having no fear or bitterness.”  Dolma’s presentation begins.  Her name for that precious state of being is a “kingdom of freedom.”  As a Unitarian Universalist, this resonates deeply since I most value my belief in the liberation of each person’s true, inner self to become interdependent for evolving toward a peaceful, Earth-friendly civilization.  To me that is “being one with life itself.”

Dolma’s paper is entitled “Presentation of Peace Education – Women’s Role.”  She describes peace education as being “directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”  With “the process of acquiring the values, the knowledge and developing the attitudes, skills and behaviours to live in harmony with oneself, with others and with the natural environment.”  
Dolma talks about how a commitment to care for others, comes out of the quality of caring given to the student.  This rings true to me as an early childhood teacher, mother and grandmother.

Under her heading of “Women’s role as peace envoy,” Dolma goes to the matrix of women’s roles as mothers, wives and aunts for their ability to give “health, well-being and freshness to teaching enduring human values” and fulfilling a need for “rebuilding the key values of the family.”  This thought takes me to the Carol Flinders’ discourse on human’s natural living with “belonging values” as described in her Rebalancing the World.

Here are examples given by Dolma for IALRW women in action:
“Disarmament Education – Women have long denounced the scandal of colossal sums spent on arms to the detriment of social and development investments.  They make statements to the Conference on Disarmament and cooperate, locally with disarmament for development initiatives.

“Women perceive the links between equality, development and peace – There is no development possible without peace.  Destruction leads to refugee displacements, the land cannot be cultivated and populations are famished, deprived of their most fundamental rights.”

To be a woman of positive action, the central focus is to act out of one’s “enduring values.”  This centering gives freedom to express one’s own spark of life and self-respect.  Seek the women’s role in daily life as “peace envoy.”  Thank you for your wisdom, Dolma.