Mindful Women Meet the New Voice Movement

Hallelujah!  Thanks to copious notes taken the last time Deb explained this to me I have managed to log in.  From little acorns great oaks grow;)  At our last meeting I talked about how inspirational my friend Martha Randolph Carr's journey has been because less than a year ago I was talking was encouraging Martha during one of those friend to friend talks where you feel comfortable wailing: "I don't know what the heck I'm doing!" and "How could little old me possibly imagine I could ever get there [to that place, that level of success, whatever it is you're struggling with].  That time it was Martha wailing: "I'm not a writer!" and me pointing out: "But Martha, you've already written two books and you're going to write this one too."  And she did [not that my words held any sort of magic but sometimes just being with a friend and telling them you believe in them gets them to the next step].  That book was A Place to Call Home.  The book didn't turn out at all the way it was envisioned at the start -- and it was all the better a book for that.  Behind the book Martha created The Shared Abundance Foundation www.sharedabundance.us  to provide a place for those raised in the orphanages that were the subject of the book to find each other and reconnect and for people to provide support to these homes.  

  Working in support of The Shared Abundance Foundation, Martha was writing news releases and columns that lead to her being offered a spot as a nationally syndicated columnist -- check her out at www.caglepost.com where, by clicking on her name on the left you can read some of her columns most of which end with the inspiring phrase, "more adventures to follow" which is the beautiful way Martha has adopted of seeing her life as an adventure, a view that can perhaps only be adopted after you've faced your worst fears, like having the money to pay for a roof over your head, and survived them.  I especially like the column I'm Too Busy about successful and unsuccessful volunteers but all the columns are fun reading.

   So then Martha, of the lineage of Thomas Jefferson -- a tight knit family unit who hold yearly reunions at Monticello -- like they have free run of the place! -- and her cousin, of the lineage of Jefferson and slave Sally Hemings, spoke together at the University of Virginia.  Martha's talk is not about white vs. black but about the potential for each of us to exceed our own expectations -- EVEN WHEN WE DOUBT WE ARE CAPABLE OF DOING SO -- you can see some videos of the talk at www.newvoicemovement.ning.com and they're worth watching because they're my friend Martha at her encouraging best and, just between us, that is saying something.

   So to top it all off, as one opportunity led to another, Martha ended up with the New Voice Speakers Bureau www.newvoicespeakers.com which is the business she gave me the opportunity to buy into and is what I was talking about at our last meeting.  What does this all mean?  When I talked Martha off that ledge of "I'm never going to be able to write this book and I've already spent the publishers advance and I have no money and am not going to be able to pay my rent this month"  my biggest goal was to support a friend and furthest vision was that she'd manage to write the book.  Now look at what she's done.  And, just between us girls, Martha is a mere mortal.  So if Martha can do it so can we.  

Yippeeee!

Brooke