Community, Jorja's Story, Stories

Who Now Can Believe in Winter? (written several months ago)

3 Comments 21 November 2011

I wrote this post on a very sad day and I haven’t written a post since.  There are lots of things going on in my life that seem to keep me from writing.  When I wrote this post, I didn’t feel like I could put it out there at the time, it felt too raw. [...]

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Community, Jorja's Story, Stories, Voice

Are you living on the Edge?

2 Comments 11 April 2011

  I know I haven’t posted in a long, long, long time.  I have been slow to write as I have discovered, in the process of encouraging others to find their voice and to live beyond their personal pales, that I am not necessarily practicing what I preach.  That won’t come as any kind of [...]

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Community, Stories, Voice

Pull That String (Part II)

8 Comments 15 February 2011

So, now I want to address those who would consider themselves ‘liberal’ or committed to the ‘social gospel.’  Or, quite honestly, those who do not espouse faith at all.  There are a limited number of individuals that do not see themselves as having some sort of responsibility for humanity at large.  And quite frankly, I [...]

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Community, Jorja's Story, Voice

Pull that String (Part I)

10 Comments 01 February 2011

In reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide I have begun to contemplate what really is at the bottom of this oppression and abuse of women around the world.  And for that matter, the inequity that women suffer in this country.  The statistics are overwhelming and truly I could not begin to [...]

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Community, Jorja's Story

Sitting with Grief, Looking for Hope

8 Comments 31 January 2011

Today is my MH’s eleventh birthday.  I love her more than I ever knew I could love her…today.  I laugh constantly at her wit, her charm and how mischievous she can be.  Yet, as I write this, and even as I sat yesterday morning and giggled with my dear friends at all of the “Mari-Helenisms” [...]

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Jorja's Story, Learning You, Voice

Graces We Have Received

11 Comments 18 January 2011

The significance of the MLK holiday is not lost on me.  I know up close, a small part of the world in which he lived and worked.  I live in Birmingham, Alabama.  I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, just three short months before Dr. King’s life came to a tragic end.  I was taught marginally [...]

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Learning You

Taking the Holiday

4 Comments 06 December 2010

Hello people…iI know my posts have dwindled…I hope to have a clear vision of what i am going to write about beginning with the new year.  I am torn, a lot, when I sit down to write and I have sought a bit of counsel as to how to give myself permission to write what [...]

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Learning You, Stories

Do you know WHY?

0 Comments 01 December 2010

My husband sent this TED video to me today.  It is very thought-provoking.  Do you know what you believe?  Do you know your own WHY?

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Community, Jorja's Story, Stories

What The Students Heard

7 Comments 18 November 2010

My time with the students was good.  I cried more than usual.  I think it was just one of those days, a day when the grief and fear of my life with MH just needed to come out in big ol’ crocodile tears.  As I read the letter from a parent, (from The Thinking Person’s [...]

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Community, Jorja's Story, Stories

Burnt Popcorn & Broken Hearts

7 Comments 15 November 2010

“I burn house down.”  Those were the words that came flowing out of MH’s mouth this morning.  She was referring to her ‘cooking’ of some popcorn while I was out of town this weekend.  I knew there had been a slip-up when my husband called me and asked, “What makes the smoke smell go away?” [...]

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why i write this blog ~


I write to help other women know and value their authentic selves and to help them move towards contributing with passion to their worlds!

I believe women are the greatest life-givers in our society, yet many women, by mid-life, have fallen prey to losing themselves in the roles and expectations of their families, cultures and inner critics. They have lost their way and I believe, a true sense of self and ability to use their voices. Eleanor Roosevelt said that she believes we decide who we really are and then live with that decision.
I write with a two-fold purpose: to document my journey of learning and owning my true self and how it impacts my life, and to help other women do the same. I am not one who as arrived, but a fellow traveler. As I write, I hope my vulnerability connects me with others as they see their hopes, their foibles, their fears and aspirations in my story. And as we learn, and come to value our voices, we are not turned inward, but, on the contrary, we will become more connected to those around us.
Women who are able to learn, value and contribute are women who are living beyond the pale!

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things to make you wonder~

“I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wondering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty bats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them...” Annie Dillard

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