Spirited Woman Blogger Team

Sweet Potato Pie - With More Than a Little Bourbon

During the holidays, many of us will spend time with our loved ones, family and friends. As a child, these events were dreaded but as an adult, I now look forward to favorite traditions and catching up with cousins and family that we don’t see on a regular basis.

Within my family, I am honored to inherit the legacy of one of my favorite aunts, Mildred Nork. Aunt Mildred was very Bohemian - totally glamorous with a cocktail in one hand, cigarette in the other, telling stories of living around the world. Aunt Mildred lived completely in the moment, a notion that as a 12-year-old I could not really grasp.

Aunt Mildred always made the sweet potato casserole at holiday gatherings. As a Southern cook, there is much debate about the “right” recipe and Aunt Mildred’s potatoes were heavenly – probably thanks to a generous splash of bourbon. Every year, the kids fought to be the first to dig through the crust of toasted marshmallows and into the sweet, succulent concoction.

As the kids aged, so did our parents and cousins. I moved away to pursue a career but still came home for holiday dinners, where Aunt Mildred’s potatoes reigned supreme. In the last few years of her life, however, I noticed that the amount of bourbon increased with each recipe – up to the point where we were all afraid to light a match too close to the casserole dish for fear it may go up in flames! My sister and I still laugh about it…

Aunt Mildred’s memory lived on this weekend when our extended family gathered for a holiday meal celebration. This time, we had four generations of laughter, from ages 18 to 90, celebrating our many blessings and drawing strength from each other.

This holiday season, whatever your personal practices or beliefs, stop and give thanks for the memories, traditions and legacies of your life. Maybe you’ll want to start a few new ones for future generations to remember and celebrate. Leaving your legacy through a family tradition is a gift everyone can enjoy…

- Allison Blankenship, http://www.allisonspeaks.com,  http://www.UpsideTheBook.com
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Halloween Treats (As in Places to Get Spooked in the U.S.)

I'm a huge fan of Halloween and a Hitchcock aficionado. I love a good scare! If I could get away this year I'd take myself to one of the following haunted houses in celebration of the ghoulish holiday quickly approaching. If you get to one of these, I'd love a review.

Netherworld - located in Atlanta, Georgia, uses a combination of live actors and an almost universal herpetophobia among human beings to freak out its audience. What exactly is "herpetophobia?" Well, it's an irrational fear of reptiles---snakes and lizards to be exact. I myself have had pet reptiles and don't get grossed out easily, but this haunted house looks absolutely horrifying. What fun! Tickets are $22.

The Bates Motel and Haunted Hay Ride - this one I really must get to. It's a classic. That's right, Hitchcock's scariest movie was set at what is now the scariest haunted house in America, according to America Haunts. Located in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, the ride lasts until October 31. Tickets cost between $25 (for a child on a weeknight) to $40 (for an adult on a weekend).

Disney's Haunted Mansion - my very favorite haunted house of all times really has to be located at Disneyland, in Southern California, Walt Disney World in Florida, and in Tokyo Disneyland. A Ghost Host will introduce visitors to his dearly departed friends who take a mild ride through the mansion which is only a little bit scary but a whole lot Disney. Entry to the haunted house is included in the theme park entry fee.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Cami Ostman, www.7marathons7continents.com, www.camiostman.net
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The Same Moon Shines Over Us All

Chinese believe when the moon is at its brightest and roundest, families should all get together to enjoy happy reunions. For us a bright round moon symbolizes abundance, completeness, continuity. And every year this blissful moon will come out to greet us on the eight month of the Chinese Lunar calendar; this year it fell on September 12th according to Western calendar. Chinese call this special day the Midautumn Moon Festival.

In the evening we bring lanterns to any kind of open space – parks, gardens, courtyards. In the warmth of the lantern light we sit down and appreciate the full moon, munching the sweet moon cake with a crunchy crust stuffed with sweet bean past hiding the special treat: an egg yoke, a miniature version of the full moon above. When we look back down, we see a glittering sea of lanterns – like a hundred glowing moons on earth.

Chinese love the moon for its feminine beauty and soothing brilliance.

Most important, we like to believe that the moon can understand us. The famous Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo once said, “Thousand miles apart, the same moon shines over us all.” Following his poem, we look up at the ivory disc and send our love out to our loved ones – whether they’re beside us or far away, whether in this life or the next. Our love will be felt everywhere, like the moonlight shining over us all.

Mingmei Yip, http://www.mingmeiyip.com
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Ten-Year Remembrance

My most vivid memory of 9/11, 2001, is looking at the TV screen that morning and being convinced I was watching a movie. Surely that's what I was watching. It couldn't happen that a plane would deliberately fly directly into one of the Twin Towers in the heart of New York City, followed a few minutes later by another plane targeting the other Twin Tower. 

Such a scenario was outside the realm of possibility, right? All the smoke, the debris, the chaos, the dazed men and women crying as they ran through the streets in Lower Manhattan, the nearly 200 people who were forced to jump to their deaths because of the smoke and flames, or were blown out the windows from high up in the Towers -- it was just a made-for-television horror show, right?

Wrong. It was all too real.

My reactions of shock and disbelief were those of countless Americans who could not comprehend what they were seeing on September 11, 2001. As the hours went by and we all learned the terrible truth of what had transpired that day, I realized that just ten months earlier, in November 2000, my then-fiance Ed and I had been at that very spot in Lower Manhattan.

His San Francisco job required that he attend meetings at the New York Stock Exchange, so we made reservations at the Marriott World Trade Center for a long weekend. We had lunch in the Tall Ships Bar and Grill of the hotel, I had a hair appointment at Olga's Salon in the hotel lobby, we made reservations for dinner at Windows on the World in the North Tower (no reservations were available). All those places were destroyed on September 11, 2001, and if we had been in the Marriott World Trade Center that day, we would likely have perished also.

I don't know anyone personally who died on September 11. But I do know that the horrific event in New York personally affected me. We were expecting several friends and family members to fly to California from Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland for our September 29 wedding. We were sure all of them would cancel their trips out here because of the fears surrounding plane travel.

Wrong. All of our out-of-state friends and family flew out here for our wedding.

The events of September 11, 2001, are forever vivid in our memories.

Linda Jay Geldens, www.LindaJayGeldens.com
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Watch and Wonder in the Night Sky for the Full Lunar Eclipse

June 2011 is a very busy month with several important celestial events. There are three eclipses and the summer/winter solstice all taking place this month. The first eclipse took place on June 1st and the most powerful and interesting one takes place on June 15th. It is a full moon and a full lunar eclipse, in fact, it is the longest lunar eclipse in more than 11 years. The moon will be blocked from view for over 100 minutes, it is one of only three lunar eclipses in the last 100 years to have this long of an eclipse duration.

Take some time not only on the night of the 15th to look up into the sky and the wonders it holds but all this month. We are a part of our celestial neighborhood and it's a really good time to stop and notice what you see, sense, and feel when you look up into the night's sky. Since I live on Martha's Vineyard and will not be able to see directly this powerful lunar event I really enjoyed watching this video created to give me a view of the total lunar eclipse from many different perspectives. I can feel like I am watching it from earth, the sun, and the moon's surface.

Here is the direct video link: http://youtu.be/JhZ-bd7R9Yg.

BZ Riger www.artofallowingmindset.com, www.internetradiowithjuice.com
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Royal Wedding - Red, The Color of Good Fortune

I don’t have a TV, so I only saw pictures of the royal wedding in the newspaper. I don’t really follow the royal family, so I didn’t know whether there was anything special to look for. But my eyes immediately fell on Prince William’s (does he have a last name like we all do?) red outfit. I don’t think any of the royal grooms ever wore red before (correct me if I’m wrong).

For Chinese, red is the color of good fortune, and yellow is the color of emperors. That’s why during the new year we set off red fire crackers, post red lucky couplets sprinkled in gold flecks, and give away lucky money in red envelopes with gold borders. Red is the color of good fengshui. Did William – or his wardrobe advisors -- pick red because of fengshui?*

There have been so many disastrous royal unions, not just in recent years, but all the way back. Adultery was common not because either, or both, let their hormones run wild in all four auspicious directions, but because marriages were not based on love, but politics. To marry off a princess was to solidify the relationship between two countries. In Chinese history, two women were married off to remote “barbarian” lands to build good relationship with northern invaders who were considered violent, offensive, and coarse by the Chinese. Imagine the future of their marriage – if there was any.

But sometimes there was romance in spite of all this. In the 2,500 year old Shijing, or Book of Songs, a famous line states “Let me hold your hand and grow old with you.” Now, when couple marries, Chinese like to write this couplet as a blessing. Another well-wishing saying is “In old age, let’s raise our tray to our white brows.” The tray was to hold tea or wine, raising high the tray was to show love and respect to each other.

This time it seems that the young royal couple’s union is based on true love. So I wish them to keep holding their hands till their brows turn white.

- Mingmei Yip, http://www.mingmeiyip.com
Click here to read more of Mingmei's posts.

*(no actually - it is the ceremonial uniform of the Colonels of the Irish Guards in the British Army, Buckingham Palace - which he is).

Super-Impressive Influential Women

As you may know, since 2004 TIME magazine has presented the TIME 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Well, there are 34 women on the 2011 TIME 100 list, more women than ever before. In fact, this year, women make up slightly more than one-third of the total prestigious list. And the 34 women on the 2011 list run the gamut of occupations. Some are presidents of countries, while others are media moguls, comediennes, princesses, authors, politicians, actresses -- certainly Spirited Women all! Here is the full list. 

Some of the names you're sure to recognize: Amy Chua, Arianna Huffington, Oprah Winfrey, Kate Middleton, Michele Bachmann, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Gabrielle Giffords, Michelle Obama, Patti Smith, Blake Lively, Angela Merkel, Amy Poehler, Michelle Rhee. 

The idea for compiling an annual list of the world's most influential people started at a debate among academics at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 1998. Those participating in the debate were: Dan Rather, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Mario Cuomo, Condoleezza Rice, William Kristol, and TIME Managing Editor Walter Isaacson. At the end of 1999, a list of the most influential people of the 20th century was published in TIME. Then for the past eight years, the TIME 100 list has been published every year.

People frequently have the misconception that making the TIME 100 list is an honor. In truth, the criteria for being chosen state that a person is being recognized only for having changed the world through his or her ideas, talent, example, or discoveries. Whether the world has been changed for better or for worse is irrelevant to the selection process.

So click on: www.TIME.com/time100 and proudly read about the 34 women who have been chosen by TIME as among the 100 most influential people in the world!

Linda Jay Geldens, www.LindaJayGeldens.com
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Earth Day 2011: Appreciate Every Aspect of Mother Earth

I would like you to take a slightly different focus on this 41st year of celebrating Earth Day. I encourage you to spend not only the 22nd, Earth Day but the whole weekend appreciating every aspect of mother earth. Let your focus be not on what is wrong or polluted... instead let your focus be on the brilliance of our blue planet. Take a few moments each day to feel the air on your cheek, to feel the grass between your toes, the life force energy of the planet you can easily tune into when you are in a state of appreciation.

If you have a camera take some pictures of different moments where you let yourself expand to become one with different expressions of mother earth. Let your thoughts, your ideas, your feelings, your words... be of appreciation. When you appreciate something it expands. Come back and let us know the wonderful things you experienced.

Using Art as a Helping Hand

One of the most wonderful parts of being an ex-pat in Paris is that I meet fellow ex-pats from the world over. Other cultures fascinate me and I feel it is such a gift to have the opportunity to meet people who come from all corners of the world and to learn their stories.

When I came to Paris over 13 years ago, it was to learn photography. In my classes, there were students from around the globe studying alongside me. I made a number of lifelong friends during that program - many of them extremely talented artists. One of the students that truly stood out for me, was a young woman named Miki Nitadori. Her art, even then was exceptional and it has bloomed even more since. I have stayed in touch with Miki over the years and one of the many things that is so beautiful about her is that she shares her talents for the good of others. 

Miki's work has been featured in galleries around the world which seems to be only natural for someone raised in multiple cultures and countries: Japan, USA (Hawaii), and France. She has an affinity for cultural understanding and perhaps thanks to this quality she is a very open and giving person. Through her art, Miki has worked on various charitable projects and one that she has been deeply touched by is the one she is currently undertaking: Combat for Tohoku people.

Deeply disturbed by the tragedies in Japan, Miki decided to do something to help. She therefore launched a mission to assist through her photography series entitled: Combat.  She chose to put her sought after artwork online and allow people to offer a donation in exchange for the print itself or for the print to go to the people in the affected areas. She began this effort five days after the natural disasters in Japan and it has been a great success both in support for the people of Japan and also on a personal level for Miki.

She wrote on her blog on April 3rd, "This experience of donating my works and people buying pieces from this series, I am experiencing something that is important. If I resume this experience in one word, it is "Trust". Trust in my action, my feeling, my thoughts, my instinct and who I am. In other times, when people bought my work, they trusted my work but reasons and goals varied. As this moment, I have never felt this strong sense of collaboration with people who bought my work. We are taking a common action together through this series. We know that this action is important as we are deeply touched by what is going on in Tohoku."

Send Our Thoughts of Love and Gratitude to all Water in the Nuclear Plants in Fukushima

Masaru Emoto has done remarkable research on the power of thought and emotion to change the molecular structure of water and other fluids. He has documented how anger, hate, fear.... love, compassion, inspiration... can change the physical structure of a substance and have positive effects on us when we come into contact with those positively charged substances such as drinking water that has been charged with Love.

Emoto has issued a call to everyone on the planet to help change the water at the Nuclear Plants in Fukushima, Japan. Here is his open letter to the world. I hope you will take a moment Thursday to be part of this energy of love and healing for the people of Japan and the whole world. Thank you, BZ

To All People Around the World

Please send your prayers of love and gratitude to water at the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan!

By the massive earthquakes of Magnitude 9 and surreal massive tsunamis, more than 10,000 people are still missing…even now… It has been 16 days already since the disaster happened. What makes it worse is that water at the reactors of Fukushima Nuclear Plants started to leak, and it’s contaminating the ocean, air and water molecule of surrounding areas.

Human wisdom has not been able to do much to solve the problem, but we are only trying to cool down the anger of radioactive materials in the reactors by discharging water to them.

Is there really nothing else to do?

I think there is. During over twenty year research of hado measuring and water crystal photographic technology, I have been witnessing that water can turn positive when it receives pure vibration of human prayer no matter how far away it is.

Energy formula of Albert Einstein, E=MC2 really means that Energy = number of people and the square of people’s consciousness.

Now is the time to understand the true meaning. Let us all join the prayer ceremony as fellow citizens of the planet earth. I would like to ask all people, not just in Japan, but all around the world to please help us to find a way out the crisis of this planet!!