It’s Joan of Arc‘s birthday (c.1412):

“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”

Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment,

you recognized yourself as a friend.

This is one of my favorite quotes from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. My sister gave me the book last time she visited, so when it came time for her birthday, I thought it would be fitting to get the quote inscribed on a bangle bracelet for her.

I took the “Buy Handmade” pledge and I am really trying to buy gifts that are handmade (kinda hard to do when your kid really wants a gameboy for her birthday!). Plus, it helps me justify my etsy.com addiction!

By Diane Lockward
From Eve’s Red Dress, copyright 2003

Today I dress for you

in scarlet. I am

a tomato, plump

and luscious. I pulsate

with seeds.

Today I clothe myself

in yellow. I am

a peach, succulent

and ripe.

For you, I swathe myself

in gold. I am

all melons, oranges,

tangerines, nectarines.

I am a garden of earthly delights.

I am the red apple

you would fall for

a thousand times.

I am the apricot you would die for.

I am all strawberries,

blueberries, raspberries,

and cherries, all these and more.

Today I am royal for you.

I dress in a gown

of purple plum.

Come, lift me out of my skin.

A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.

- Leonard Cohen

image by Kellya, found on etsy.com

I enjoy my Friday morning commutes, looking forward to hearing the weekly NPR StoryCorps segment. It’s not unusual for me to walk into work wiping tears from my eyes.

One story that left me especially emotional was when Myra Dean shared the story of losing her son.

She needed to go pick up the babysitter, but her young son asked if he could stay behind to watch the sunset with a new friend. She hesitated, but agreed and left. She returned a few minutes later to the sight of ambulances and neighbors gathered. A car had gone speeding through the neighborhood and hit her son, standing at the corner.. watching a sunset.. with his friend. What a sweet moment that ended so terribly.

This happened decades ago, but the mom still spoke with such sadness and grief. With two boys of my own, I immediately teared up, imagining the immense heartache…

“And the worst part is when you realize you’re going to live, because you just want to die. I thought I wouldn’t live 10 minutes and I was astonished when I’d lived 10 days and mortified when I’d lived 10 months, and not even grateful yet when I had lived 10 years. I was just mostly surprised.”

Hear the mom in her own words…

But on a much lighter note, a story that made me smile all morning was when a 94-year-old nana talked about her inflatable bra mishap while flying over South America.

LISTEN.. it’ll put a smile on your face!

The Panties for Peace campaign was launched by a group of women peace activists from a Burmese peace activist group called – Lanna Action for Burma.

Why panties?

One of the main reasons for which we are encouraging people to send out their panties to Burma’s foreign missions is because the generals ruling Myanmar are superstitious and they believe that touching panties or the traditional women’s outfit sarong will eliminate their powers. Our act of delivering our underwear to the Burmese foreign missions across the globe is of immense importance and symbolic in protest of Myanmar junta’s violent crackdown of monks-led rallies in Yangon, and to oust the generals ruling the country from power.

Find out more

Fertility
© 2003 Tamara Guion
Private collection of Christine Taylor

“The time of endless productivity without replenishing is coming to an end. We as women must use our inherent creativity — our womb power — to regenerate our planet as well as to produce the next generation. We can no longer have baby after baby with no thought for the consequences. Many of us already feel bad about disposable diapers because of what we know they’re doing to our planet’s landfills — but we must also look at the fact that the average child in the United States uses fifty times the resources of a child born in the Third World.”

- Christiane Northrup, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

Sexiness is not about looks as much as it is about knowing yourself sexually and feeling comfortable and confident in your desire to be sexual.

Another negative aspect of the power of the media is their tendency to offer a prescription or definition for what is “sexy.” This is dangerous because if we are inundated with images or advice on how to look or act sexy, we may begin to question ourselves. If the images or advice are different from how we actually dress or act, then we might end up feeling insecure, inadequate, or unattractive. My policy has always been if you feel sexy, you are sexy.

In my sexuality seminars, the women and men who were most confident about either sexiness-factor were those people who were at home in their own bodies. There wasn’t a single look for women or for men. The range of women included Rubenesque women, short women, tall women—in every possible combination of characteristics, from curvy to boyish to angular to lean and lithe. The women who feel sexy share an attitude about how they felt about themselves. Rather than putting on an act of bravado, “I am so hot, baby,” these women seemed quietly comfortable in their own skins. Don’t we all know someone who is not outwardly a “beauty” but who has always attracted men? We know intuitively that it’s something about what she knows. And what she knows is this: She is attractive, she is sexy, and she is desirable.

From the book The Big O by Lou Paget