The YouTube recording captures a two‑hour live women's gathering titled “How a Woman Can Make Her Dreams Come True.” The event opens with Dr. Angela Loria welcoming a global audience and introducing 4‑time New York Times bestseller Marianne Williamson as the keynote host. Marianne frames the session as a collective search for inner gifts and the courage to manifest dreams despite societal chaos and personal trauma. Six women then share personal stories and practical wisdom: • Megan Jo Wilson recounts a 2004 life‑coach training that sparked her lifelong habit of asking “What is your dream?” She describes how confronting the ego’s inner critic, visualizing the desired future, and taking concrete action led to a 6‑figure coaching business, bestselling books, and a fulfilled personal life. • Coltrane Lord speaks about embodying love as “love in the flesh,” describing her abusive childhood, the journey to self‑acceptance, and a framework of seven feminine‑genius pillars (earth, sensual, fire, heart, throat, knowing, Shakti) that guide manifestation. • Monica Brown shares a narrative of betrayal, abuse, and deep depression, then details how meditation, forgiveness, and listening to an inner divine voice guided her to intentional dating, a healthy marriage, and a purpose‑driven coaching program. • Charlotte Friborg contrasts Danish and American cultural attitudes toward happiness, recounts her own traumatic birth and childhood, describes a pivotal moment of self‑forgiveness, and challenges listeners with the questions “Who do you want to be today?” and “What story will you write?” • Angeline Toth introduces the concept of “radical trust,” illustrating it with her own experience of leaving a marriage, returning, and later building a 27‑year‑old retreat center after trusting a persistent inner guidance. • Shona Elliott describes carving an unconventional career path in biochemistry and healthcare, emphasizing humility, walking in others’ shoes, and trusting a higher purpose despite lack of credentials. Marianne Williamson closes with gratitude, a tribute to the late Sophie Savage, and a reminder that women’s journeys are often fraught with hardship but can be transformed into collective wisdom. Throughout the panel, themes of ego‑silencing, inner voice cultivation, forgiveness, radical trust, cultural context, and actionable practices (visualization, meditation, embodiment) are woven together to empower women to actualize their dreams. The discussion also expands into broader metaphors of collective pregnancy, spiritual gravity, the heart as a womb of divine intelligence, and historical references to suffrage, positioning personal dream‑making as part of a larger societal transformation.
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So excited you are here. Just taking a moment to come into the room. We're letting everyone assemble, but we are very excited you are here for today's presentation, How a Woman Can Make Her Dreams Come True. We'll get started in just a couple minutes, just letting everyone gather in the room and assemble. If you are just jumping on, uh, we are So happy you're here. We have had thousands of people registered for this event from all over the world. So wherever you are from, where I am, it is just after 2 PM Eastern. So maybe it's the morning where you are, maybe it's the evening where you are, but wherever you are, we are so glad you're here. We expect today's program to be around 2 hours. So get what you need. If you don't have a glass of water with you, if you don't have whatever you're going to need for the next 2 hours so that you can be here, be focused, I encourage you to put away your distractions, your cell phone, close the other windows, and dedicate this time to today's presentation.
Uh, we'll just—
we will get started in a couple minutes. So if you are just coming into the room, hang in there. You are in the right place for How a Woman Can Make Her Dreams Come True. Let's see, my water is in the picture. So, uh, grab a drink, settle in, get comfy, get whatever you need, uh, to get settled for today's presentation. I am so excited to welcome you all. We are going to get started in about a minute. I see the ticker still going up as people are coming into the room, and I don't want you to miss a second of today's presentation. So for those of you who are here, we're going to get started in just a second. If you are, uh, to staying tuned for that experience, it's a great time to get comfortable where you are. To take a deep breath. I know we all jump from one thing to the next, so whether you're in the middle of driving your kids to soccer practice, whether you're running around, this is time for you to connect. This is time for you to recharge, and we're so excited that you are here for today's event. My name is Dr. Angela Loria. I am the founder of the Author Incubator, and we are very excited I am so excited to bring on today's presenter and keynote speaker. She is a 4-time number 1 New York Times bestseller with over a dozen books. You have seen her probably on the Democratic National Convention debate stage when she ran, ran for president. You have seen her as an author, an activist, a changemaker in the world. She is bringing this event today, and we are so excited to have her here, your host for today's event, MaryAnn Williamson.
Thank you, Angela. I'm really glad to be here, and I want to welcome all of you to this women's gathering, and I welcome those of you who are men who are watching as well, but the conversation that we're having today is about women. About finding those deepest pearls of wisdom inside us, because we give birth to our dreams by giving birth to our gifts. And it's not always easy to activate either our gifts or our dreams, because a lot of times we have to go through a lot to get there. The journey of life, being a woman, being a human being at this point is not always easy. These are times of chaos and conflict. And I know many of us many people in the world feel that it's very challenging to truly find our radiance, our glory, our joy, and to really be out there and to make it happen. The women who are gathered here today are a wonderful group, and we are women who have known each other and worked together, heard each other's stories, seen one another, known each other's work for about a year. And this is a culmination of the work that we have done together. As all of the 6 women that you are going to hear from, in addition to myself, are telling you about how they found their gifts and how they found a way to give birth, to give manifestation to the dreams that live within their own hearts. Each woman's story is different, and yet at the same time, you will see these very, very common themes, the challenges that we have to go through and that we know that you have to go through too, the things that every woman finds not only in our own personal stories, but sometimes just living in our culture or living in the world today. Today that can obstruct us, that make it more difficult to step forward. These are women who found a way. These are women who are now at a point where they're ready to tell their story, and most importantly, they're ready to present to you and to the world the wisdom that they have gained, the lessons that they have learned, the keys that made all the difference in their life, and hopefully will make a difference in yours as well. Welcome. I will see you, talk to you a little bit later. Right now, please join with me in giving within your heart a very, very warm welcome to the women who are gathered here. I'll turn it over now to Megan Jo Wilson.
Thank you so much, Mary Anne. What is your dream? In 2004, this question changed my life. I was 28 years old. I had a degree in media and communications, so naturally I was working as a farmer and a musician. But on this day in 2004, I was standing in a hotel conference room in Providence, Rhode Island, with a room full of strangers. My big brother had demanded that I spend all $300 I had in my savings account to drive to this hotel on a Friday morning in my old dilapidated Honda Accord for a 3-day life coach training, and he assured me that it would change everything for me. I didn't really know what life coaching was. But he had taken the same training a few months earlier, and he was doing yoga and going for his dreams and talking about gremlins. So I trusted him. So here I am in this hotel conference room with my dirty jeans and my sweatshirt and a cold cup of coffee in my hand, and my partner, the other person in this class, asks me this forward question. What is your dream? I was stunned. I was overwhelmed. I was excited to contemplate the importance of that question. And I thought about it for a second, and then I looked into my partner's eyes, and I said, my dream is to make a difference. And I really hope we can find a good taco place for lunch. True story. But my brother was right. That weekend, that experience did change everything for me. I recorded my first solo studio album as a musician. I moved to Spain for a year. I got a black belt in martial arts. I had a baby that doctors told me I could never have. I was hired by the same organization to teach coaches in hotel conference rooms. I found the deepest and truest and wildest love of my life. I wrote 3 bestselling books and I built a 6-figure coaching business and became best, best besties with the woman who helped me do it. And now I circle up with women myself. Mostly on Zoom calls like this one these days, asking the same question: What is your dream? What is your most outrageous desire? What are you being called to now? What do you want? What do you really want? And I always hear the most beautiful, most righteous, most epic visions I dream of speaking on stages. I dream of finally writing my book. I love this one. I dream of starting a reggae band.
And she did.
I dream of true ecstatic love or lovers. I dream of traveling. I dream of traveling first class and by myself. I dream of opening an art gallery. I dream of meeting Marianne Williamson. I dream of a world where peace and justice prevail. I dream of a schedule with more naps. Look in any direction in history or in our present, and we know there is nothing more powerful than a person with a dream. So take a moment right here, right now, and ask yourself, what is my dream? And as we collectively tune into that dream, oh, it feels so good, doesn't it? But here's what I know.
Dreaming is easy.
Making the dream real is significantly more clunky. There are failures and embarrassments and annoying personalities and miscommunications, passwords you can't remember, delayed flights, workshops that no one signs up for. I have been there. There are mistakes and disappointments. There are nights when you find yourself in fetal position thinking, "How did I get myself into this?" There is laundry. Always laundry. The first coach I ever had was a woman named Bonnie Cohen. She was a Jew and a Buddhist and a mystic, and she was a goddess on this earth. And when I told her I wanted to make a record of the 15 songs I had written over the last 20 years, she had the audacity to dare me to go do it. But what if I'm not as talented as I think I am? What if no one likes the record, Bonnie? It was a very practical question, and her response was very practical. Well, honey, there's only one way to find out. Here's to Bonnie. Playing big is not just about dreaming. It's about going for it. It's about taking that idea from your journal into the world, into something you can see and touch and celebrate. But how, how do we realize it when there's so much fear and resistance and hesitation? I can say that one of the most profound principles I've learned by studying A Course in Miracles with Marianne these past 2 years is this: the ego speaks first and loudest. I wish I had known that. Since first grade. The ego speaks first and loudest. This was the gremlin voice my brother was talking about. This is the inner critic. This is the saboteur, whatever you call it. This is the voice that you will hear first when you sit down to write the book, when you contemplate asking for the client, when you're about to press go live on Instagram. When you maybe get serious about running for city council. This is the voice, and it plays many notes, and they are very loud. What will people think? What if I'm not smart enough? What if they reject me? I'm not ready. I'll be humiliated. I'll be canceled. I don't have time. I don't have money. Who the fuck am I anyway to do this? But if the ego speaks first and loudest, there must be a voice that speaks second and softer. So the first, and I— for me, the most essential how is getting still and tuning into that voice behind the noise every single day. So let's be still right here, right now. Close your eyes if that feels good. We're going to do this together. Hear the noise, feel the fear, and take a deep breath and listen to the voice behind that ego voice. This voice is your truth, the voice of your soul, the voice of your light. And see yourself living this dream, this vision fully realized. Bless your desire with legitimacy. You get to have it. See yourself walking it, speaking it, breathing it. Notice what you're wearing. Notice who you're being with. Notice the impact it has on the world around you. See this woman, this courageous, brilliant leader woman that you are. And ask her for the next right action. Because this is you. This is the real you. And for the rest of this experience, and for the rest of the day, and the rest of the week, and maybe for the rest of your life, sit and listen and move and speak as the woman who says yes to her dream with every fiber of her being every day, even if it's outrageous, even if it's unrealistic, even if people think you're out of your mind. Yes, yes to being out of your mind and into your heart. Yes to this calling. Yes to the blessings and victories and and synchronicities, and yes to the failures, yes to the uncomfortable challenges, yes to the annoying personalities and lost passwords, and yes even to the laundry. Yes to being right where you are and knowing it's perfectly designed for you. Yes, yes, yes. Together we say yes. To our dreams.
Thank you.
Okay, everybody, it is my delight and pleasure to invite up my sister Coltrane Lord. She's going to talk about how we are the miracle. Take it away, Coltrane.
Thank you, Megan. Thank you so much. You are We call you the rock star, and there's a reason why we call you the rock star. And I also want to thank Mary Anne for her voice, her power in the world, who shares with all of us women and just everyone how to be authentic and how to be true. And so I so appreciate you, Mary Anne, and I appreciate the space that we have to share our wisdom and our personal stories as well. So I love the Sufi mystic and Persian poet Rumi. Who says that love is the bridge between you and everything, including your dreams. My name is Coltrane Lord, and I help women to become love in the flesh. Being love in the flesh allows you to spread love, receive love, and make love. Love is a secret sauce to your dreams. I'd like you to consider, perhaps, that the mystery of dream-making, dream-having, is not actually in your doing, but in the being of you, the true you, the most divine you. A lot of people misunderstand me and other people who are living their dreams. They think that I have had it easy all my life, that I'm lucky, that I, that I, it just happens. And that is so far from the truth. And like everyone else, we go on a journey. My journey into myself started in an unsafe household. I didn't feel worthy or enough to even have a dream. We struggled with money. My mother, my beautiful mom, I hope she's listening to us right now, worked 5 jobs to support us and to actually support a habit that my dad had of gambling away the money. And my beautiful father, who I know is not listening, and who I respect and adore and forgive and am grateful for, had a lot of demons that he had to battle, and they were just too tough for him, so they turned into rage. They turned into domestic abuse, violence. We witnessed my mother with guns to her head. I felt the slap of the belts on my skin and that sting and that fear. I was in constant fear of being raged upon. So no offense to any men out here, but I did fear the power of men. I also witnessed my grandfather and my uncles beat my aunt for not dating a man who had money. So they valued money over the sovereignty of a woman's body. So when I was 5 years old, hiding in the closet witnessing this event, that's when I learned how to hold my breath, how to squash my voice, how not to dream. Rage, wrath, Misogyny was power to me, and it was gifted to men. Women to me were weak, very, very weak, and I am happy to prove that wrong, that my thought wrong. So again, I didn't have permission to dream. I was shut down. I was insecure. I had no purpose. I was lost to myself. I didn't even think I had a self. So as we grow up in the world, This stuff happens to give you imposter syndrome. And like Megan and Joe said earlier, you know, who am I to dream big? Am I even worthy enough to receive my desires? Do I even fit in in the realm of dream makers? I did not think I did. I never failed and I didn't succeed because I simply froze into being and doing nothing. I also thought, if I did succeed, do I have what it takes to even make those dreams last? I did not believe in myself at all, and I didn't even know if the dreams I had, that the dreams I snuck in, were even my dreams or someone else's. I promise you, I tried everything I tried to find the magic potion that would help me create in the world. I tried to discover the magic medicine, the perfect medicine to heal my wounds and everyone else's around me. I would beg the universe to please, please, please give me the miracle for things to happen for me. I searched and I searched and I searched and I searched and I searched outside of me for all the answers. And you know where I'm going, because it is the inward journey to finding myself, to loving myself, that led me to my spiritual awakening, which taught me how to manifest my dreams with grace, with ease, with juicy yumminess, and with fun. So the process of releasing my pains and releasing our sufferings and our misidentifications that hold us back From reclaiming our divine feminine superpowers and unleashing the goddess within to become whole, to become a love avatar, to become love in the flesh is the answer. Because when you are whole, you are holy, and your doing comes after your being, which is sacred, aligned, and easy. Or easier. The process is about embodiment, bringing the divine essence that is all around us into every cell of our bodies to live consciously, playfully, blissfully, and deliciously. After I found my beingness, my traumas flowed out of my body. I am now a healer, an author, a speaker, a super manifester like you can all be, and a creatrix of my life. I have soul family, soul love, soul purpose. I am healed. I have so much fun now representing the Divine Feminine who wants to awaken your superpowers and your exquisiteness because The truth is, you are extremely exquisite. I will not lie, it's not that easy to reclaim and unshame those hidden parts and those forbidden parts in us that Carl Jung called the shadow, those rejected parts that we would rather not people see. But after we do that and reclaim ourselves and love all these parts of ourselves, we embody what I call the 7 pillars of your feminine genius, which are your superpowers. I promise that the key of being is being in the field of manifested dreams. You all have divine feminine superpowers. I promise this too. And getting there, you will see that the magic and the medicine and the miracles will be revealed for you. You might even notice that you are actually the dream. And because each of us is unique, and we contribute to the song of the universe, you and your magic and your miracle, everything about you is essential. Your gifts are essential. The world needs you and your individual song. They need everything that you have to offer. So to wake up to your divine essence is the soul's purpose. And from there, you can do and you can serve and you can create in the way that your souls desire. Journeying with me requires that we tap into myth and metaphors so that we can bypass your logical brain and enter the realm of the goddesses through the portal of metaphors and myth. So we can talk directly to your soul. So I'd love you to join me now in the embodiment process and just feel into this. And so you can taste a little bit of your love essence. So your first feminine superpower is through the earth goddesses. And if you can focus on your pelvic floor, maybe to feel your safety, your worthiness, and your abundance in this world. This is where our primal magic lives, and it is worthiness and trust so that we can receive the gifts of the planet and that what the world has to offer you. You are safe. You are worthy to receive all the gifts you need. The Earth provides. You provide. This is the foundation of your love essence. Your next feminine genius is through the sensual goddesses. They live in the womb space, your womb space of creation. I like to call on Lalita and the goddess Venus. They teach me, and they teach you, that sensuality awakens us to all our senses and the subtle senses. All of creation is experienced erotically. The sperm meeting the egg, or the soul meeting her desires. We have this desire to connect, to create, to have dreams. And when we have this desire, we are passionately trying to have that happen. So as we passionately feel, there is a moment of creative erotic explosion into existence, into being. Our souls are held in this temple that is your body, and this body of yours, this erotic body of yours, connects us and helps us to communicate with the divine. So wake her up, allow her to be part of this process. And at this moment, I would love to remind everyone, because this is where I needed reminding, that women are so powerful. We have the ability to create, gestate, and birth life into existence. No man can do that. So you are not powerless. I have to remember that you have the greatest power in the cosmos, and that is to love through creation. The next pillar, your next superpower, is through the fire goddesses, and they offer us the power of transformation, the strength and the courage of empowerment and empowering others. This next level of beingness is when we transcend all of your survival instincts from fight into fearlessness, flight into freedom, freeze into flow, and fornicate, or the other word, into fulfillment. This pillar is your fierce fucking love. And now we go into the heart center, the Holy Grail and the fountain of youth, where your goddess of unconditional love lives. For me, they are Sophia, Lakshmi, Aphrodite, and Demeter. They show us the seat of the soul. They let you feel the seat of the soul by embodying the love trilogy, which is sacred love, romantic love, self-love, unconditional love. In this pillar, you feel your overflowing and intimate and infinite love. And then we move up into our body. To our throat area. And this was important for me and important for a lot of you, probably, where you felt cut off to your voice. Hear the expressive goddesses help you reclaim the voice, your original song, truth, and how to love, express your love, and asked how to be love. You remember I forgot to breathe, so this inhale and exhale is the pillar of your ex— your authentic expression. It allows us to just breathe life in. So the next knowing piece is the Goddess of Knowing, the Goddesses of Knowing, the truth of who you are, who you really are. Goddesses in the flesh, love in the flesh, divine Here's where we activate our cosmic mind, of course, the intuition. We can see here, we can imagine here, and this is the dream space, the quantum field. This love in you is cosmic. And finally, let's put the crown of sovereignty on our heads and introduce you to Shakti. This is where all the goddesses culminate into Shakti. Shakti is creation herself. She is in the space of infinite potential. She is responsible for creating and animating the cosmos. She is in you. She is you. She lives in each of us. She is a life force energy. She is the dream. Shakti, the space, is the eternal life force of love. So I hope in feeling the tingling in your body, in your whole body, that you understand or that you feel that becoming love, that unleashing your divine feminine superpowers and awakening the goddess within is the dream. And when you awaken to the call of the divine feminine, you might hear her whisper the secret to dream making. This is what you might hear: You are the dream. You are the magic. You are the medicine. And you are the miracle. Believe this. Please feel this. And please know this, because this is absolutely 1000% true. So thank you, Divine Sisters, Goddesses. Divine beings, I love you, and I'm so grateful that I got to share this with you.
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, Sister Coltrane. You are love. You are a miracle. Thank you for your teachings. Thank you for your voice. Before I bring up the next speaker, just want to remind everyone who's watching live, we're so, so glad you're here. There's a Q&A button on the bottom if you want to share a favorite quote or something you're learning, something you're taking away, feel free to, to put that in the Q&A or ask us a question. We'd love to hear from you and to feel your energy cheering us on. Okay, I am so thrilled to bring up our next speaker. Her name is Monica Brown, and she is going to tell us about Awakening to the Power Within. Thank you, Monica.
Thank you so much. I am so glad to be here today. Can you hear the voice of God? And if you can, could you follow it with direction? Whether you call it God, Source, or the Universe, I believe there is a larger being, larger than ourselves, that is constantly guiding us. My story begins in high school. When my first boyfriend and first love cheated on me and disappeared after 3 years of dating without a formal goodbye. My second boyfriend in college, after 3 years of dating, physically assaulted me and left me traumatized. I have been used, abused, and heartbroken more times than I care to admit. It left me reeling. It broke me open and I was in a deep, dark pit. This pit was fear. For in this pit, I had self-betrayal, self-abandonment, self-doubt, and self-esteem issues. How did I let myself get here? I had completely lost my identity and my inner voice was completely muffled by fear. I knew I had to reestablish a connection with myself first. So I meditated. I sat in the silence of my heart and mind, and I allowed past experiences, memories, and emotions to come out and to come through me. And it left me in a peaceful and quiet place, a space within in which I could both hear and listen. It was a peaceful place. However, this was a treacherous journey, which was not easy at all. For I had to face and accept where my life had become. I had to completely accept my decisions that had played into it, forgive myself, forgive him and all of the men who had hurt me before. I had to let go of my past, to grieve it, to accept, and to really just breathe life into myself again. For through this process, I was shedding the layers of pieces that no longer served me. I was becoming my authentic self, or who I was at my core. I was slowly finding my voice. The next thing I knew I had to do was reconnect with God. I had grown up in a very faithful home, and I had always relied on God to help me in times of darkness. But in this space, I could no longer find him, and it was a very scary, scary place to be. I had never been so far away from him. So as I sat in the silence of my heart, mind, and spirit, there he showed up. For I believe the kingdom of God is within us. He was not out in the clouds. He was actually inside me there all along. And I knew that I was being led in small and magnificent ways, for I would pray and meditate, pray and meditate, and beg God for direction, for I was emotionally stuck and did not know which path to follow or which step to follow. In this space, I had also come to realize I was not going to give up on love, for I believed it was my true calling to find marriage, to find a healthy marriage. And this was my dream that I was not going to give up on. So one night after meditating, I had gotten up and I heard a small whisper in my voice. And that small whisper said, "Keep going. His name will be Chris." I was perplexed. I was astounded. I was shocked. I was inspired. I was hopeful. For I knew that I was not alone. And this gave me supreme confidence and peace, for I had never known a man named Chris. I had no idea what it meant, but so I forged on. And I decided to follow my inner voice and to connect with myself and to let this experience transform me instead of keep me stuck. So I began to date and date and date again. In total, I dated the wrong men for 17 years from my first boyfriend until I met my special someone. But this time it was going to be different. This time I was empowered, for I had known what I did not want in a man. And so therefore, I knew what I wanted in a man. I believed that I had the solutions to my problems inside of me if I could connect to my inner wisdom. So I created a program called Intentional Dating, which I use to transform my personal dating life that I now coach my clients in addition to Intentional Love and Marriage for those who want to stay in healthy and fulfilling relationships. What this meant was I had to become very clear on what I needed in a man to feel emotionally and physically safe again. This meant I needed an intimate relationship with myself to deeply know what I needed. When before I would look at my list and evaluate men based on their degree, their career, their education, their looks, now I was seeing men in a completely different light. And I was evaluating and observing men on a much deeper level. I was now evaluating men based on their core, such as their humility, authenticity, compassion, and who they truly were in their hearts. For I believed if they had these qualities, vulnerability and, you know, not having anything to prove to anyone and they could just be themselves, I believed that we could weave ourselves together in a healthy relationship. Because we would both come from a space of knowing that we needed to grow and accept our weaknesses. And I also believed that in this space, God could meet us there because we would love each other unconditionally if we were able to be humble enough with each other to say we needed to grow and accept each other unconditionally as is. When a man came on a date and he showed any signs of arrogance or hostility, I ran in the other direction, away from my nightmare man and towards, hopefully, my future husband. With every date, it was disappointing, but I got closer and closer to the man that I needed to be with, and so did my clarity, which deepened my need for these virtues. One day, my life changed forever when I met my soulmate husband, and his name was Chris. Together we have a growing family. We have been swept away with our dreams and the adventure called life. We have an emotional and spiritual and mental relationship in which I believe intentional dating has guided us to, to the deeper core values that can shine through us. Such as the vulnerability and authenticity. In this space, we can share and express ourselves safely without any fear of shame, anxiety, or any negative repercussions. This is emotional safety and emotional intimacy at its finest. I can freely express myself. I can be authentic. I can unravel emotionally and I know that he will be there to help put me back together. For this is the way that God intended love, and he is with us in the darkest parts of our marriage. I believe that I was granted a gift of divine wisdom, a pearl of wisdom, in which I believe that we can all access within ourselves. If we silence the minds, the clutter that sometimes distract us from life, find our inner voice, activate it, use it, believe in the conviction of our dreams, and go towards it, having faith in the darkness and in the uncertain times. For we are not alone. We all suffer in this life. We all have dark moments and dark times, but it is in this space where our suffering calls us the closest to God and where He can turn the dark into the light. For looking back on my life, I see that it had completely transformed me for the better. It helped my relationships. It helped me realize what I wanted in a deep and loving marriage. And most importantly, I believe that it's calling me to God's purpose in which I can help other women follow their dream and find a loving and fulfilling marriage and relationship. So what I encourage you to do is silence the mind, activate your inner voice. And know that the path will unravel before you, step by step, breath by breath, breath by breath, and moment by moment, because there is divine timing, and what is meant for you cannot pass you by. Activate your voice within and follow your dream. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Sister Monica. Thank you for telling us your story, for your faith, and for the way you serve other women in this area. We are so grateful. So, so grateful. I am delighted to introduce our next speaker. She is a dear friend and colleague And she's going to talk about rewriting the story we were born into. Please virtually celebrate Charlotte Freeborg as she steps forward.
Thank you so much, Megan Yeo, our rock star queen. It's so nice to see so many here today. I wish I could see you all at once. As I was preparing for this presentation, I experienced a dream come true. We know the theme of today is what does it— what makes a dream come true for women. And I realized that a voice that I had been way too familiar with for many years was not there. Megan Jo talked to that voice. That voice used to say, "Who am I to speak here today?" Instead, I heard that more quiet but very friendly voice tell me, "Who are you not to speak here today?" I want to share with you also that had it just been a few years ago, I would not even have shared this with you.
Why?
Because I would have thought it would be too much. I would have taken too much space. However, I choose to believe that when I share this, I might speak to one woman who right now doubts her worth in the world. Some of you may right now think about the famous quote written by our keynote speaker here today, Marianne Williamson, "Our deepest fear." That quote I had framed and I hung it in my hallway to see it 7 years straight. And why I really would like to be able to see you all today right now is because When I was preparing this, I thought a lot about who will be here today. Who are you? What's your story? And what's your dream? Am I speaking to a Danish woman? Am I speaking to an American woman? Two very different countries. Two very different political systems and social cultures. Just to talk a little bit into this, what I can share is that in the World Happiness Report, Denmark has been among the top countries since that report first came out in 2012, 3 years as number 1, where United States, to compare, is this year number 2019, and this is out of about 150 countries. United States, the most impactful nation, many will say. I will say there's a lot of potential waste wasted. Let's do something about that. Let's go back to Denmark. What many may not know is that there is this an unwritten law that we call Jente Loon, translated to the Law of Jente. In many ways it expresses, don't think you are more than anyone else, and it's ingrained in many. It was in me for many years. We do, however, see more women in leadership roles. As a matter of fact, the current Prime Minister is a female, 43 years old, and she's the second Prime Minister. Only a small amount of the population really struggle below what we can call accepted living conditions, and on the other hand, we don't see as many very wealthy people. But what we see there is that there is a deep sense and skill of social connection. We often create these moments where we just pause and bring in an atmosphere. We call it "Hygge." The best word I can really use for this is "cozy." In America, we can play big. There's room, high ceilings. We can do new things, try new things. Things move fast, yet too many struggle below what living conditions that can be approved. However, we see more powerful and intelligent women stepping up to shake up the political system here. One of them is with us today, and she, I know, has paved the path for many to come. I want to say today that I am so grateful, privileged, and honored to be able to speak here and have learned as a citizen of both countries. I choose today to bring in those two identities and speak as a world citizen. We can learn a lot from each other, but we must stop and listen more than we speak. One of my first life-changing moments in America was our first Thanksgiving. I remember I was in the classroom of my youngest child, and the teachers and the kids had decorated the room and the table. Parents brought in food, and the kids were sitting around the table, and one by one they shared what they were grateful for. That was the first moment in my life where I witnessed that expressing gratitude, I felt it in my heart. I felt the transformation in feeling gratitude. Until that moment, I had taken most of my things in life for granted. My story started in a small and remote town. I was an accident when my mom was 18. It was a traumatic birth for my mom. I almost died. It was at the time when we had no highways, and when I was transported to the hospital in Copenhagen, they announced on the one and only national radio station to watch out for an ambulance with a newborn baby. I fought for my life and came home after a couple of weeks in the hands of nurses and doctors. I lived with my grandparents who held me in their strong and loving hands while my mother moved to another town to pursue her education and career. When my grandmother became sick and had to go to the hospital, I was sent to an orphanage. I was told later that, that time, I totally isolated myself. My grandmother came home and I came back, and I remember many times when we walked home from my preschool and I would ask her, Why do I not have a father like all the other kids? My grandmother was a wise woman. She said, you will one day. And I do remember that day in our living room when I was taken home to my mom and the new man that she found, and she told me, you now have a father. And with him, I was gifted an even bigger family. I thought about it when Monica spoke earlier. On the outside, my life might have looked pretty nice, in a house and with structure, but inside I built those walls. I carried wounds in silence. I was told not to ask too many questions. To be nice and quiet. We heard Coltrane talk about that. I learned to read other people and to do what would please them. I stopped singing, and I stopped believing in my voice. The fighter in me kept moving on, and I was successful on the outside. But inside, I did not know myself. I felt insecure, lost. And I remember one night when I laid in my bed with a knife in my hand and I was ready to cut myself. But the voice came in and told me, "Call your aunt." I chose to rewrite my story. I was very mad at my mother for many years. I blamed her and I was becoming that victim. But I learned to forgive her and today I see her as a courageous woman and I am amazed of what she went through at such a young age. I released my childhood story and made peace with it. And I want to say to that, that before that, it felt like I had carried around with a heavy backpack with anger, blame, and resentment. But when I dropped it, it was like being free again. That's the power of forgiveness. Success, dreams, and results. Take time. And often in our busy lives, we give up, or we settle, or we compromise, or we use excuses for not following through on our commitments. And worst, other people will approve us to play small. In reality, what I learned is that most of our dreams are just around the corner. But we get blinded and afraid of that light. We must learn to protect our dreams. Consider an oak tree, how many years it takes for it to grow big and stand strong in a storm. First it was just a little acorn. If we care about it, we will put a fence around it when it's just a little sprout so we don't stomp on it. We will not rush it. We will not judge it for how fast or slow it grows. We and our dreams are like that acorn. And it's our job to start to pay attention to our pace, our rhythm, and our heartbeat. Pay less attention what others think, what others' expectations are, because we do not know what story they were born into, and we do not know how they rewrote their story. Now we can learn gratitude, we can forgive, and we can accept who we are, and we can find people in our life who would be a part of that strong fence in our garden There's one thing that I find more essential, and that is how we show up each day, because that defines how we fall asleep at night. Before I end, I want to share a quote written by Viktor Frankl. He survived years of the most incomprehensible suffering while imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps. He wrote, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Now I'd like to ask you two questions. Who do you want to be today? What is the story you would like to write? These are my experiences on how we rewrite our story and what it takes for a woman to make her dreams come true. I cannot wait to hear your new story.
Thank you.
Thank you, Charlotte. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for rewriting your story and inspiring us that we can do the same. And thanks to everyone who's sending us comments and cheering us on. I hope you can all feel that energy coming at us. I'd like to introduce next Angeline Toth, who's going to talk to us about radical Trust.
Thank you, Megan Jo. Wow, I'm so inspired by everybody's talk today, and there seems to be a bit of a common theme showing up. And today, what I discovered— I discovered one of the keys, or the biggest factor, in living your dreams, and is radical trust. And radical trust is not, you know, a little bit of trust, 70% trust. Radical trust is 100% trust. And I'm going to share more about what that is. But trust in what? What, what do I want to trust? Trust in that intrinsic truth that knows the way, that knows, can see around the corners. And that helps you and assists you and guides you. You've been hearing about it today with Monica, how she tunes into that voice, that, that knowing. Some people refer to this as the— as God or Holy Spirit. Others refer to it as high self, inspiration, the universe, the source, whatever. I like the word divine intelligence. That's the word that really speaks to me about this essence of who I, who we are at that core level. And so tuning into that space is where we need the radical trust. And sometimes when we're guided to do something like go left when we want to go right, it's like, well, no, I can't go there. Um, it can be a very scary thing. And so I like to illustrate that, how I learned radical trust. And, and as I say, radical trust is 100%, all in, jumping off the cliff. Where I discovered that was— we go back many, many years, when my daughter was 1. She's now 34, to give you a reference. When she was 1, I left her, her dad, my husband. It was a very painful marriage, and there was a lot of reasons to leave, which I won't talk about right now, but I left, and it was a very scary time. I had one month's rent, my baby, and off I went. And I kind of made my way in the world. And 2 and a half years later, I was in another relationship with who I thought was my soulmate. And he had all those qualities that you spoke about in terms of relationship. He was very authentic and really cared. He loved my daughter, and she loved him. So everything was great.
I thought I'd arrived in a beautiful relationship.
Relationship. We went to this, uh, spa, this hot spring spa in Breitenbush one weekend. And when we were sitting in the spa, I suddenly had my first really deep message: you have to go back with your husband. I'm like, what was that? No way, no way. I ignored it. The next day in the spa, the same thing. It was this gentle, just this deep, deep kind of message. 'You have to go back with your husband.' I couldn't understand it, and it wouldn't even be responsible to go back, and a lot of my friends would have been very, very mad if I did. But it was so insistent. I even got the message when I arrived back in Vancouver, and suddenly I thought, 'Oh my God, I have to follow this.' So I, I did. I, I let go of my beloved relationship, and I moved back with my husband, uprooted our daughter. A lot of my friends were phoning me, 'No, no, don't! You're sabotaging your life! Everything was going so good. This is downright sabotage.' Everybody was pulling me in a different direction, yet this gentle nudging voice from inside was showing me the way. Well, within about 3 months— I mean, it was difficult put— bridging a frayed relationship is not the easiest thing to do on a good day, but there were lots of circumstances to get over. Within 3 months, I was depressed that clearly this wasn't going to be a good thing. He'd already had an affair in the first month, and think it— that was just the least of it. And I knew that I'd made a mistake. I started to lose doubt in myself, and 3 months and 12 hours later It's a very significant time frame here. 3 months and 12 hours later, I get a further message: you can let go now. I remember it vividly. I was driving out of a parking lot in the town, and I pull up, pull my car over. Let go of what? You can let go of the marriage. And it— I was like mad. What have I done? I did let go again. And over that next several months, I felt insecure. I lost my confidence, my self-esteem, and I started to really doubt myself. 11 months after we separated, my husband died. He died very suddenly, very tragically, and it was a complete— it was the worst thing I have ever had to do in my life, is to tell my then 5-year-old that her daddy was dead. Very, very tough thing to ever have to do. Over the course of the next couple of years, there was a lot of things to work out— the will and everything. There was a great deal of money that came to me, a great deal of money, money I didn't expect to receive at all. And through working everything out, it was about a couple of years later when two separate lawyers said to me, you know, if you hadn't gone back for 3 months, then it couldn't have been 6 weeks, but 3 months kind of invalidates the 2.5, 3 years that came before. And it was only now an 11-month separation, and so I was legally still his wife, whereas had it— had I not gone back for 3 months, it could have been like a 4-year separation and a de facto divorce. Anyway, now the significance of this is I had a dream that had followed me around, a vision that had followed me around for 9 years at least. And I could see in my mind's eye, it was of a beautiful retreat center in nature with horses. And it was like 38, 40 acres. And it was this beautiful place where people could come together, could come into nature and to find out what their dreams are and release their creativity. Tune into that voice that I had become accustomed to trusting. And here I was now, oh my goodness, I'm going to be able to do this dream. And I did indeed, 27 years ago, buy this broken-down old sheep farm, and it's got transformed into a beautiful retreat center. And then over the years, people came from all around the world, and I started to see so much transformation that happened in people's lives. And I realized that this had come to me, that this guidance had come to me to allow for this incredible retreat center to happen. And that is where, like, if you have a dream on your heart yet to be fulfilled, I like to say to people, make sure it's aligned. This alignment is so critical in terms of, is it a dream I've just thought up or want, or is it like, am I being guided, am I being shown? And The biggest part is it going to be a contribution? Is it going to contribute to the greater purpose in life? Because that is a key factor. And also, does it relate to maybe your childhood and some of the passions that you had as a child? I was a kid at age 6 or 7, I'd go to the back shed down the garden so that I could be quiet, I could contemplate, I could get away from the family and just I was just putter in the shed. And then when I went to work later in life, at lunchtime where everyone was going off to the restaurants, I would go with my sandwich and I'd go down through this graveyard, across a bridge over to this beautiful field, and I would sit there, have my sandwich, and maybe write poems. I used to love writing poems, and I loved horses and nature. So that this vision that came to bring people into This space was so, so critical. And I'd like to say, if you have a dream on your heart and you're thinking, well, I'm too old now, I don't have the money, I don't have a degree, who do I think I am? Who do I think I am to pull this off? Then all I'm going to say is, if you've been given this vision, if you've been given this dream, then you will also have the resources to make it happen. Now I know that my husband— it seemed like my husband had to die for me to have my vision. That was only the real beginning of it. You know, I was able to secure the land, but the rest of it, the 27 years and the rest of the situation, had to happen from me having another business as well that I also exceeded in. I became the top income owner of another business that sustained my retreat center. And again, that was guided. I was shown to do that, and I was doing it kicking and screaming. But as a result of that, I became tops in Canada, one of the tops in the US, and I did become a million-dollar earner. So that's just a little aside, but I had to do that in order to sustain and keep this beautiful vision that has now been here for 27 years. A little thing I'd like to say is In with radical trust, what if everything was already handled? What if the gift that you have, the seed that you have, already knows what it's going to be? An orange seed is going to be an orange, and a daisy seed is going to be a daisy. You don't have to sweat it. This, just nurture it with some water, tender care, But mostly, when you are guided and shown, when the Holy Spirit, when the divine intelligence is speaking to you, it means you, you're the one, you're it, you're it. And you will be given the resources, you will be given what you need. And it's about stepping forward, even when you think, oh no, I don't want to step forward. Step forward, step forward. You cannot make a mistake because it's all handled. At some level it is all handled. And even with this COVID situation that happened a year and a half ago, my retreat center got closed, and the business that I was working with for 15 years earning great money closed at the same time. But you know what was different this time is I didn't go into the terror and the fear that I used to go into because I have this implicit faith, this radical trust, this belief that it is all handled, and I will be shown day by day. And it's already happened. I've— it's already started this last several months. It's starting to show me. I am just a servant to this, and I'm an empowered— I, I don't want to take a servant as, you know, not an empowered place. In fact, it's the most empowered place of contribution. So thank you all for listening, and I hope you've enjoyed the talk so far. We have more to go, and we've got Marianne, who's been a beautiful, beautiful light for us, guidance, and we have all loved working with you. Thank you, Marianne.
Beautiful. Thank you, dear Angeline. You are a model of the power of radical trust. And as Angeline said, we have one more speaker and then we'll be hearing from Maryanne. We hope you'll stay with us. She's gonna do her keynote in just a little bit. So without further ado, I'm delighted to introduce you to Shona Elliott, and she's gonna talk about paving your own path to success.
Thanks, Megan.
It is such an honor to be here with these amazing women and with all of you today. And as I reflected on what I wanted to share with you all today, it really occurred to me as I reflected on my career that I did not— and as you will have seen with these other wonderful women— that they did not have a playbook for success. That each in their own way have paved their path to success. And all of you are here today and you've paved your own path to this very moment. And I was really struck listening to Charlotte in something that she said that has actually impacted my life significantly, which is the notion that others want you to play small. And I reflect back on several moments, including the, I think, pivotal moment that set my career off in the trajectory that it did. Where others wanted me to play small, and I found my own path through that. And it starts in high school, and it starts with a boy, often as it does. And in high school, I was debating as to what direction to go to in terms of university and what to study. And all of my friends at the time and my boyfriend were all gonna do pre-med and become physicians. And I knew, my mother was a nurse, a critical care nurse, And I knew from a young age, listening to her stories, that I was not going to do that. Residents have to learn their, their craft, and they make mistakes as they do that. Physicians are human, and they make mistakes as well. And so I did not want to be in the position of having to learn and cause harm, which is all part of the, the healthcare process. And so I knew pretty clear that I did not want to be anywhere in healthcare administration. Administration, but in the healthcare business as a provider. And I also knew what the treatment was of nurses, that my mom had shared many stories at the time as to how she was treated by her supervisors or by management and at times by physicians. And so I wasn't clear as to what I wanted to do. And my natural gift in high school was, was English, and I excelled and did advanced courses And so as the deadline for application was coming near, I sought the guidance of our guidance counselor. And he took a look at my grades and took a look at, you know, English being what I excelled at. And he said, well, English isn't for you. I said, well, I'm, you know, what can I do with English? And he said, well, you can teach. And I said, that's not really a passion. I'm thinking something in the science. I'm not quite sure yet what that will look like. He said, well, you don't have the grades for it, which I didn't, but I was very passionate about biology and science in general. I, and he said, well, you know, you're never going to be a doctor and you don't have the grades and like English was it. And he like, you know, that was the end of the conversation. So I left that discussion and spoke with my boyfriend and he said, well, you know, yeah, English is probably it, or maybe try one of the easier sciences if you feel like you need to. And there wasn't really any engagement with me in terms of that it was possible to do something bigger than perhaps teaching in English, which I wasn't passionate about. And I have great respect for teachers, and to me, you have to be passionate and you have to have a strong purpose in terms of entering into that profession. And so I left that discussion and I decided to carve my own path or create my own path. And I applied for genetic engineering and biochemistry and ultimately did choose biochemistry. And much to my friends' surprise, a bit of a surprise to myself. And I was in a class of 7, and biochemistry was very challenging, and I made it through the program, and not with a very high GPA, I must say. And again, others were saying to me, well, what are you going to do with that? And it was at that moment in time that I really reflected on what is, what is my why, and what is my purpose in life. And my mother's stories over the years really made it clear to me that I wanted to make a difference. I wasn't sure how, but I wanted to make a difference in the healthcare space. So with a lowish GPA, uh, in biochemistry and not really a clear path in terms of job opportunities, I did apply for a new position, uh, that was created at a clinical laboratory and was successful in getting that largely because of a year's worth of hard work that I did for my undergraduate thesis, and the clinical advisor I had, unbeknownst to me, was actually on the selection panel. And through that hard work and effort and my passion to make a difference in the healthcare space, I was provided that amazing opportunity. And I was very excited. Oh my goodness. I graduated. I had a job at a clinical laboratory, and I start my first day, and I was not welcomed with any open arms. And I realized at that point in time Since this position was new and I didn't have any of the certifications for this position, as they were trialing this new role, I was not welcomed. I was an outsider, inexperienced, and didn't have credentials, and I was not prepared for that. And I realized pretty quickly that if I was going to have any type of career in the healthcare administrative space, I had to like learn the ropes. So I had to learn how to draw blood Thankfully, my mom was a nurse and she let me draw blood and practice on her, that and some oranges. And like, I had to work through, as Megan Jo said, that inner critic. I shouldn't be here. I don't know how to do this. I didn't want to hurt, uh, anyone to learn my craft, which is why I didn't want to go to medical school. And all these people hate me. And, uh, how am I going to do this? They don't want to teach me. They want to see me fail. And in those moments, I realized a few key things. One is I was in awe of the work that these healthcare professionals were doing. And I humbled myself to, to learn from them and to seek their perspective and to see what issues they had and what challenges they had and to find a way to be able to have a voice and to advocate and make some differences. And differences I was able to do along the way. A few months into the role, I got the dreaded position of what was called a home care phlebotomist, out on the road drawing blood in very challenging circumstances and very sad spaces where patients could not get out, so you went to them. No one prepared you for that, and there was very high turnover in the position, and the schedule was just, uh, was unmanageable. And one day I was talking to my colleagues. I said, well, this just can't go on. We're not helping our patients. These patients are fasting for hours and hours waiting for me to show up to draw their blood. The schedule doesn't allow me to get there on time. We need to build in space so we can talk to these patients and, and hear them because we're sometimes the only voice that they get to hear, or a kind word in days, if not weeks. And they said, well, you can't make a difference. Like, what are you going to do? I said, well, I'm going to go talk to the boss. And this was a family-run laboratory and everyone was family. And I went to the boss and I said, my direct boss, I said, listen, uh, if you really want to make a difference for your clients, the physicians and the patients, you need to come on the road with me and see what it is you're asking us to do and, and see what this environment is. I held my breath and she said yes. And that was such an amazing experience for me to not listen to all those around me saying, You can't do that. You will be fired and it won't make a difference anyways. I just followed my own intuition and asked her, and she welcomed the experience and was completely horrified as to the working conditions, and she was interested in making changes. And it was those moments with her that took me by surprise during the commute and our day together that served me incredibly well throughout the rest of my career. I call my leadership practice walking the shoes of others. And what that means is that you walk with the employees that you serve and that you lead, and then you learn what their environment is and you build relationships and trust through that process. And this is not a traditional path. And anytime I've done it in my career, I always get the fuzzy eyebrows from other senior leaders and from other managers and employees. And I always get asked, why do I take the time to do that? And I'm always very clear as to, I, one, I think of my mom and I think of the working conditions that she had. And I would never want anyone else in the healthcare organization I'm supporting to be feeling like that. And how else would I know what's going on unless I walk around work alongside or in the shoes of others and understand those conditions. And those experiences have humbled me. Many times in my career, I've said, "Yes, we have a great culture and we believe in our people and support them," to find out that through my experience of shadowing or cleaning hospital rooms or delivering food trays, that that culture that I would pontificate about indeed was not the case. And so my greatest message to all of you is that all is possible if you stay true to your why and you humble yourself along the way to not assume that all is what it is, that you seek to understand the reality and the perspectives of others as you enter into conversations with them that you don't assume that they're coming at you from whatever position that they're coming at you with, that there is another story behind it, and your job is to listen. And Charla said listening is one of the key things that all of us need to do more of. And as I look at how I paved my own path and I look at all of these other women who have paved their own path as well, I am amazed at the gifts of God and the belief in something bigger than ourselves and how that has played such an important part in our own paths, which it has for me as well. There has not been a position that I have had where I've been the most credentialed person that has applied. God opened those doors for me, and I trusted in his guidance. And as I've moved through my career, the inner critic, as Megan Jo had mentioned, always was in my head. I'm the least credentialed. I'm the least tenured. I— why am I doing— what am I doing here? How am I going to get through learning the ropes? And I trusted God in that process, that I was going to be where I was supposed to be and to trust and rely on him. And so you've heard amazing women today speak about dreaming big, and there is no way in my career I would have dreamt that I would be here today with these amazing women and have had the opportunity to work with Mary Ann. And so I say to you, do not get fixated on the how. Get fixated on your dream and to dream big and get fixated on your why and your purpose. And then trust in something bigger than yourself, that they will open up the right doors and that they will guide you along the path. And know that the inner voice you do hear, your ego, as Megan Jo said, will try to talk you out of it. And as Charlotte said, they will— others will try to have you play small. And all of that is, is life and normal, and you still move forward. You believe in yourself, and you believe in something bigger than yourself to help you achieve your wildest dreams.
Thank you. Somebody needs to put me on. Hello, hello, hello. Thank you so much. I, I know that everybody here feels as I do, that there was not one sharing, whether from Coltrane, Charlotte, from Angeline, from Monica, from Megan Jo, or from Shona, that was not filled with pearls of wisdom. And everybody who spoke, there was something in their talk that made me feel, yeah, I have been there. And one common theme in one of the things that everybody said was that it was not always easy, whether it had to do with abuse from men, abuse from family, financial hardship, cultural differences that made for hardship, whether it had to do with the fact that we were charting our own territory that was uncredentialed. Every woman who spoke talked about the harshness of the journey at times, and how she made her way through to a a better place. I know that as you listen to the tape of this and you listen more to these stories, you will feel as I do that each and every woman here has traveled a journey not only that enabled her own dreams to come true, that enabled her to find her own gifts to present to the world, but I'm so moved, as I'm sure you are as well, by the ability that each of them has developed to then present that wisdom as a gift to you. So on behalf of all of the women who have spoken, I thank you for listening. And on behalf of all the women who listened, I say to all of you who have shared, good on you and bravo. I'm proud to know you, honored. You did really, really beautifully. To all of you, in about a moment, we're going to take a 10-minute intermission, and then I will come back and do my own sharing. But before I do, I want to take this moment to pay tribute on behalf of all of us who have shared so far, also Angela, and also all of the women who have been part of this women's group that has been together for the last year. We want to pay a memorial tribute to a dear friend and sister. Her name was Sophie Savage, and she passed this week after a very long battle with cancer. Sophie was a writer. She was a wise woman. She was a teacher. She made tapes that are absolutely extraordinary. You can find out more about the gifts that she has left that you too can receive at sophiesavage.com. S-O-P-H-I-E-S-A-B-B-A-G-E dot com. Sophie, wherever you are, I I think that all of us agree that souls can feel and vibrate and resonate beyond death. And I hope that Sophie can feel the love that all of us have for her, the thanks that we feel in our own lives. The world was a better place because Sophie was here. And I like to think the world will continue to be a better place because of the gifts that she left us. All of us hold in our hearts and minds today prayers for her husband and for her daughter and for all those who knew her. So wherever she is, and for her family to know as well, this day is dedicated to Sophie. God bless you all. Thank you again for the marvelous sharings of the women who have already spoken. We'll take about a 10-minute intermission, and when I come back, as you can imagine, I'll have some things to say. Thank you so much.
Stars. Let me see what springs like a Jupiter in my eyes. In other words, hold my hand. In other words, baby, kiss me. Fill my heart with song and let me sing. Forevermore. You are all I long for, all I worship and adore. In other words, please be true. In other words, I love you. Let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on 2nd of March. In other words, hold my hand. In other ways, baby, kiss me. Feel my with song and let me sing forevermore. You are all for all I worship and adore. In other words, please be true. In other words, I love you. Fill my heart with song and let me sing forevermore. You are all I long for, all I worship and adore. In other words, please be true. In other words, I love you.
L is for the way you look at me. O is for the only one I see. V is Very, very extraordinary. E is even more than anyone that you adore can love. It's all that I can give to you. Love is more than just a game. Two, two in love can't make it Take my heart, but please don't break it. Love was made for me and you. Yeah, L is for the way you look, you're looking at me. And O is for the only one I see. V is so very, very extraordinary. And I'll eat. Here's even more than any, any, anyone that you adore can allow. It's all that I'm going to give to you. All love is more than just a game for two. Two. If I can't make it, take my heart, but please don't break it, young Love was made for me and you. I'm telling you that love was made for me and you. Don't you know that love was made for me and you?
Woo!
Oh, the shark babe has such teeth, dear, and it shows them pearly whites. Just a jackknife as old Mackie the Babe, and he keeps it out of sight. You know, when that shark bites, with his teeth, dear. Scarlet billows start to spread. Fancy gloves though wears old Mackie, babe. So there's never, never a trace of red. On the sidewalk, oh, Sunday morning, lies a body just too thin, like And someone's sneakin' around the corner. Could that be our boy, Mack the Knife? Oh, there's a tugboat, yeah, down by the river, don't you know. Lots of men bags just droopin' on down. That cement's there, yes, just for the weights, dear. 5 will get you 10. Oh, Maggie's back in town. Miss Polly Peachum and Old Oatsen Brown. Hear the line phones on the Wright Steer. Now that Mackie has backing down. Jenny, tie the hose to kitchen drain. Look out, Miss Polly Peachum and Old Oatsen Brown.
Hear the line phones Somewhere beyond the sea, somewhere waiting for me. My lover stands on golden sands and watches the ships that go sailing. Somewhere beyond the sea, she's there watching for me. If I could fly like birds on high, then straight to her arms I'd go sailing. It's far beyond a star. It's near beyond the moon. I know beyond a doubt my heart will lead me there soon. We'll meet beyond the shore. We'll kiss just as before. Happy we'll be beyond the sea. And never again I'll go sailing.
Hi everyone. I'm so glad that we have this chance to talk about something so very, very important today. I don't think any of us are unaware that there are tremendous challenges on the planet, and so many of us are experiencing challenges in our own lives that are like microcosms of the larger dynamics in the world. Sometimes it feels like one whole world is falling apart and another world is struggling to be born. You know, one of our speakers today, Angeline, was talking about your dreams being in alignment, and I think that there is an intentionality in the universe. You know, every acorn is already programmed to become an oak tree, every bud is already programmed to become a blossom, and every embryo is already programmed to become a baby. Well, we too are programmed, but what we have is free will. You know, the acorn can't say, "Nah, I don't want to," but we can. We can say, "No, I don't want to become my very highest expression," or "I'm too afraid to become my very highest expression," or "I don't think other people will allow me to become my very highest expression," or whatever other voice that we come up with. It was also— we heard about today, talking about that voice inside all of us that keeps us from doing everything that we know that we can do. Well, I want to point out that in the world today, it is not only still possible for us to live our dreams, manifest our highest level of creative possibility, it is imperative that we do so. And I think it is particularly imperative that women We need to give birth to this next phase of human existence. It is true that one world is falling apart, another world is being born. These two phenomena are occurring simultaneously. And it's a difficult birth. It's a difficult labor. Many women know about that. But we've been pregnant with this new phase of human history for a very long time. Once again, each of us feels within ourselves a microcosm of this process. All of us, everybody who has spoken today and everyone who is listening to me now knows we have been pregnant with the next phase of who we're capable of being on this planet. And yes, it is not always easy, whether it has to do with the voices of other people, or as Megan Jo said, whether it has to do with just the burden of knowing that we have to do all that laundry before we can get to the next thing on our agenda. And yet today, there is a yearning. There is that intentionality. There is that forward movement, that growth that we feel. We feel ourselves pregnant with a new world. You know, in the Jewish book of wisdom called the Talmud, it is said that over every blade of grass, there is an angel bent over whispering, grow, grow, grow. You know, so many women who have spoken today have pointed out that each of us carries that dream. When Angeline was talking about the fact that long before she ever had a retreat center, she had a dream of having a retreat center. Monica talked about how years before she met Chris, she had a dream of, of finding the love that was good and true and holy for her. Shona talked about the fact that she didn't even know what it looked like, but she kept getting signs from the universe. Maybe it might be here if I become more humble, if I become more relational. If I become better at what I do, the next thing will unfold. All of us feel that growth. All of us feel that pregnancy within ourselves. But all of us feel, as every woman has shared here already today, the kind of resistance from within and without. Now, there is a key to allowing ourselves to manifest the dream that lives inside our heart. And that is by living a bigger dream. And that has also been mentioned by women here today, that there's something bigger going on than just me having my dream, or you having your creative possibility that lies before you. And that has to do not with me and not to do with you, it has to do with us. It has to do with history at this time. It has to do with the fact that we are living in an extraordinary time of phase transition. We are living at a time when it is up to us, not our children, not our children's children, but us. It is up to all of us to give the particular gift, to give the particular piece, to tend the piece of the garden that is ours to tend. Now, all of the women here have different assignments. Angela's assignment is to have the author incubator and to tend to the author incubator. The people who work with her join with her in that endeavor. It is Angeline's job to have a retreat center. It is Monica's job to help women find intentional love. It is Coltrane's job to help women find the goddess and the sensual goddess and the truly liberated goddess within her. It is Megan Jo's job to help every woman and man who comes to her for coaching to find that rock star within them. It is Shona's job to help people in the organizations that she leads to actually find a place within them where they can do the most excellent job. It is Charlotte's job to help two cultures understand each other better so that the gifts of one might be appreciated and embodied more by the gifts in the other. Each of us has a job to do, and nobody's job and nobody's gifts are any more important or any less important than anyone else's. And that is one of the ways we make our own dreams come true, by continually affirming the dreams in other people. Because on a spiritual level, we only get to keep what we give away. And that was one of the things that activated the gifts in every woman who spoke here today, the fact that by telling her story, she was giving to you the wisdom that you can find useful in your own journey. I hope that the things that women said here today, particularly about their own struggles, will inspire you to keep going, to think about the stories that you've heard here today and say to yourself, well, if she could do it, if she could go through that and then get there, if she could be raged on by an angry, violent father and get through it, then maybe I can. If she could do it when she didn't even have any money and didn't know where any money was going to come from, If she could do it, maybe I can. Every woman told of the challenges that she had to get through. And you and I, when we have our challenges, I think it's important to remember. Sometimes I tell myself, Marianne, you're not the only one going through this. All of us feel these days it's so easy to be pulled down emotionally by everything that is going on in the world. There's so much sadness and there's so much hardship, and there is environmental degradation, and there is an assault on democracy, there's rising authoritarianism, there's economic hardship, there's a pandemic, there are so many things that can take us into this emotional spiraling down. And whether you call it God, or you call it spirit, or you call it divine intelligence, whatever you call that counterforce, it is anti-gravitational. More than one woman spoke here about her relationship with God. Monica talked about her relationship with God. Angelene talked about her relationship with the divine intelligence. Shauna talked about it. The spiritual principles of life are this anti-gravity. And when we stand within the challenges in our own life, and we all feel them, we all have felt them in the past. And unless we're totally in some state of complete enlightenment, we continue to feel them in little ways. I'm sure that every woman who spoke about the big traumas in her past or the big challenges in her past still has the little ones that come up in our lives every single day. We're still on the journey. But one of the ways that we can support each other— and remember, we will only get there if all of us get there. That is one of the tenets of feminism. One of the tenets of feminism and sisterhood is the idea none of us are going to get there unless the space is created for all of us together. We must support other women in living their dreams. We must celebrate other women when they do live their dreams. We must find the capacity to forgive each other when we don't always get everything right. And we must find the capacity to forgive ourselves. And on those days when we ourselves feel ourselves falling down, sinking down, let's remember, number one, everybody else is going through this too. It's not just us. Number two, we can't let the world down. If the world— if you don't give your gifts, the world will be less. I mentioned earlier about our friend Sophie Savage. She gave such gifts to the world. And I feel that when people die, you know, sometimes you leave one person your books, you leave one person your jewelry, you leave one person your money. I think we also leave people our gifts. All of us can now receive from Sophie the gift of her elegance, the gift of her generosity of spirit, the gift of her commitment, the gift of her forbearance, the gift of her perseverance. And the gift of her love. Sophie will not be here to inhabit that space, but we are here to inhabit it for her. Think of all the women in the world, particularly today, in nations, in other places, where a woman cannot speak her mind without threat of terror, a threat of violence, possibly even threat of death. Those of us who live in societies where we have the where we do not have external shackles on us. But as we were talking about today, we still might feel internal shackles, those voices of fear, the voice of the gremlin that Megan Jo referred to. We must go forward, not only on our own behalf, not only because I want to make my dreams come true, but because we, in making our dreams come true, are ushering in a new era. A better world. This is not just about you or me. This is about something so big. And when we align ourselves with knowing that, then we don't feel that normal traditional idea of success of taking the bull by the horns. Taking a bull by the horns is suicidal. Rather, we feel like the angels are pushing us from behind. We feel those angels that are whispering over us saying, grow, grow, grow. And what does that mean to grow, grow, grow? It means be more forgiving today than you were yesterday. Be more generous today than you were yesterday. Be more humble today than you were yesterday. Coltrane and Shona talked about the fact that it's not just our doing in life that will make our dreams come true, but also the state of our being. It's hard on this planet today. Let us have compassion for one another. All of the challenges that you face, the tough relationship issues, the fact that not everybody has treated you the way you would love to be treated— do you think that that's not also the story of the person to your right and the person to your left? You can think of the times in your life that have been the most difficult. And I, I ask you to do that right now. Think of the times in your life that you have suffered the most. Think of that day. Think of that moment. Just like Coltrane and Monica talked about actual violence and rage against them. Angelina talked about that in her book. Charlotte referred to that kind of thing. Think about that moment in your life that was the roughest. And now please hear me when I remind you that statistically it is reasonable to assume that everyone you know has suffered that much. It is not just you who have been on the cross of fear and violence in this world. And when you allow yourself to realize that, you are overwhelmed with a love, not just for yourself, but for everyone. The transformational community has been so big in the last few decades. Love yourself, love yourself. Yes, we must love ourselves, but I want to tell you something. Jesus didn't come to the earth to say love yourself, love one another. Know that everybody suffered just the way you have suffered. Everybody's having a hard time right now just like you are. All of us are worried about our democracies right now just like you are. Everybody is worried about our environment right now, just like you are. And everybody's getting up every day trying our best and sometimes falling short, just like you are. Let us love the world the way we want to be loved, because the way we want to be loved is not just someone applauding us when we do it right, but also understanding when we might do it wrong. We're all stumbling towards the light. And just as that acorn is carrying that divine intelligence that will grow it into an oak tree, just as the embryo is carrying that divine intelligence that will grow it into a baby, just as the bud is carrying that divine intelligence that will grow it into that next manifestation, so each of us is carrying this divine intelligence. And as we pray, and as we meditate, I know for myself, if I didn't meditate in the morning, I can't imagine that I would not be depressed by noon. There's a lot to be anxious about these days. There's a lot to be depressed about given the state of the world. On any given day, there's enough to just bring us down. It's just like physical gravity, you know. You go to the gym and you practice working out your muscles so you can go There's also spiritual gravity, and we do spiritual exercise to give us the strength to be non-reactive and still in the knowing that we don't have to be pulled down by the emotional and psychological gravity of anger and judgment and blame and cynicism. In order for us to give birth to a new world, it's going to take a miracle now. And miracles arise from love. And that is the thread that was in all of the stories that we heard today. There was love there. There was love that was shown to all of the people who shared, and there's the love that they are now showing to the world. And I have come to believe in my own life that as long as I hew True love. I'll be okay. Doesn't mean I'll, I'll never make a mistake. Doesn't mean I won't fall down on any given day. But life is not just about— and also the life of success, the path of success, the path of making your dreams come true, it's a through line. Doesn't mean that every day you're going to be perfect. It doesn't mean that on any given day new challenges might arise, and it doesn't mean that on any given day you might not fall down. But life is not just about falling down. Life is about what it takes to get back up, to be humble enough to say, "Yeah, I got that one wrong," to apologize, to atone, to make amends, and to go forth and being better. And to go forth being better because the universe needs us to be better. The world needs us to be better. We must give birth now. You know, the planet, the species does not survive unless enough young people continue to procreate. One of the things we love in our group here, we see Monica's baby, we see Shona's little girl. But some of us are beyond our childbearing years. But the image of giving birth is just as relevant when we are past our childbearing years as when we are in them. Because even though it's true that the species will not survive unless the young continue to procreate, it also will not survive unless we continue to produce more wisdom. And sometimes it's those of us who are beyond our childbearing years, who have gone through enough experience in life, that yeah, we're ready to be wise. And that's what's going to give birth to the new world. Those who are still dreaming, and those who have become wise. That's why it doesn't matter how old we are. No matter what phase of life we're in, there are the dreams of that phase and there is the wisdom of that phase. There is the bodily wisdom and there is the wisdom of the heart. One of the women who spoke today, can't totally remember, I think it was Coltrane, but it might not have been, said, "Get out of your mind, be out of your mind and into your heart." Maybe that was Megan Jo, I don't know. I read a book called Into the Magic Shop by a man named Dr. James Doty. He's a neurosurgeon at Stanford University, and he was talking about the fact that they are now discovering that even in the human body, whereas there has been this belief that the body is constantly getting its instructions from the brain, they are now learning that just as much they are getting their instructions It's instructions from the heart. He told a story about some Buddhist monks that they were doing studies on having to do with where their brain patterns went when they were meditating. So they put all those little things on their brains. And then when they— when the researchers came back into the room, obviously not on their brain, but on top of their head— when the researchers came back into the room, the monks were giggling. And so the researchers asked, why are you laughing? And the research— and the Buddhist monks said, well, we want to know why, what you're doing. And they said, well, what we're doing is we're, we're trying to register what your brain does, that your brain knows what to do, why you're more effective, why you're more powerful and productive in the world after you meditate, what's going on in your brain. That's when they started laughing. And they said, when we pray, when we meditate, and it makes us more effective, and it makes us more productive, It's not because of something going on in our brain. It's because of something going on in our heart. I think it was Coltrane who mentioned that women get pregnant. Now the divine feminine in all of us, in men and in women, get pregnant. And the heart is the womb, the womb whereby we shall conceive get pregnant, be pregnant, and give birth to a new and better world. Now, the ego mind, that gremlin that Megan Jo spoke about, would say to you, "Who are you to think that you can be part of giving birth to a better world?" What I say to you, in addition to the line, "Who are you not to," is the fact that the world is in trouble is because so many of us have said that. A Course in Miracles says we have arrogance and humility upside down. We think that it's humble to think, "Who am I to succeed?" That's not humble. That's an excuse for not contributing. Because it takes a lot to say, "I will be great," because not because of anything inside me. In A Course in Miracles, it says all of the children of God are special, none of the children of God are special. The power of God just happens to lie within you. Nothing to take personal credit for. It just happens to be there. And to think that you are anything less than a container for that divine intelligence that will then flow through you is not humble. It's actually arrogant. Because if that's true, then that must mean you made yourself, because God doesn't make junk. It's humble to know that you, no more but no less than anyone else, carries the seeds of a new beginning. Humanity is collectively pregnant. Each of us in our own lives is bringing forth the manifestation, that little part of the garden that is ours, whereby something that was fallow is fallow no longer. Often because of our own suffering, because of the suffering that every woman here has mentioned, because Coltrane has been through what she's been through, she can have a compassion and she can speak as she spoke today to those of you who heard her story and went, yeah, I've been there. When Monica talked about dating the wrong men, being abused by men, there were women, you, who heard her and went, yeah, I've been there. When each and every woman spoke today about the challenges, but she got through them. And in ways that I, in my own life, see, but I can't put my finger on it. I can't even articulate it, but I know it's true. I've learned as much from my failures as I've learned from my successes. I have learned as much by my times in the valley as I have learned from my times on the mountaintop. When you have seen the darkness in your own life, and you have lived through the darkness in your own life, your suffering gives you x-ray vision into the suffering of others. And because this is a collective pregnancy, we can then take each other's hand and say, I know it's hard. We can do this. I know it's hard for you today. But we can do this. Don't go to sleep. Don't fall down. A friend of mine was saying to me just the other night, she said, for the first time, I feel like I've given up. No, no, no, no, we can't let each other— just like if you're on a mountain, and there was an avalanche. And until you're rescued, there's always a chance that until the rescuers get there, you might freeze to death. And when people freeze to death, what happens is they feel like going—
falling asleep.
And someone with them says, no, you can't, you can't, you can't. That's how we have to be with each other right now. Don't go to sleep. We must awaken. And if you feel I have failed, that's okay. Because God is brilliant at new beginnings. He specializes in new beginnings. The story of the prodigal son is that the father is more excited to see the son who left and came back than to see the son who never left. Of course, we're scarred. Of course, we've fallen down. Of course, not everyone has been nice to us. Of course, not everyone is nice to us today. Of course, not everyone believes in us, but God believes in us because God created us. And we are here to believe in one another. This is so much bigger than you making your dreams come true. This is about honoring the dreams of our ancestors. This is about creating a space where our great-grandchildren even have a chance to dream. That is the importance of the mission here. And that is how important you are, that you have been chosen to carry out your piece of it. In A Course in Miracles, it says everyone is chosen but few care to listen. Who are those who are chosen? Those who have heard the call. And the call is going on every unit of time and space. The call is going out to you. Megan Jo talked about the line in A Course in Miracles that the ego speaks first and the ego speaks loudest. There is a phrase used in both Christianity and Judaism, the small still voice within. So wake up every morning, and I know for myself, before you read the newspaper, before you go to the phone, before you get the download from the stress and the anxiety of the world, go to your practice, whatever your form of meditation, prayer, inspiration, and download that which takes you into your own silence, your own holiness, and hear the small, still voice for God. And it will remind you how beautiful you are, because we all are, because God did not create junk. It will remind you that yes, you've made mistakes, but God corrects them, and the point is to be a better woman now. And it will tell you as you go through your day, as you— like Johnny Appleseed leaving seeds, just like Shona talked about— you will be shown, you will be guided. And as you follow the passion in your own heart, and you do so always with the desire to give to others as you desire to be given to, to forgive others to try to be more humble, to try to be better today than we were yesterday, then we will continue to grow. This pregnancy will continue to go forth. The birth will happen. And one day, one day, the world will be in a place that it would not have been had this not occurred. I want to close by just reminding you that Susan B. Anthony, who was more responsible than anyone for passing suffrage in the United States, allowing women to have the right to vote. She died before that amendment was actually passed. But it always feels to me like every time a woman votes in the United States, that wherever she is, her soul must tingle. Don't just serve your own dream. Serve the ages. Think in much bigger terms than what you might even live to see. Because what you contribute to, and as it comes to pass, like Sophie, no matter where you are, when it does occur, your soul will tingle. Every woman who spoke here today made my soul tingle. I have often said to all of these women in our 18-month journey together, You write, you speak in the hopes that somebody is going to read something you wrote or listen to something you say and go, "Yes, that's it!" Every woman who spoke here today said at least one thing that made me go, "Yep, that's it!" And an idea, the Course in Miracles says, grows stronger when it is shared. A lot of really good ideas were shared here today. And I congratulate all the women who shared them, and on their behalf, I thank all of you who heard. I thank Angela Loria, I thank Carmi Cullen, I thank Jasmine White, I thank all of the wonderful women who were here today. Megan Jo, Coltrane, Monica, Charlotte, Angeline, and Shona. And now we turn it over to you, those of you who were with us, in the hopes that because of something we might have said, you'll have an easier time making your own dream come true. Now I'd like to invite all of the women who were here today to join with me on the screen. And we are going to give you a big goodbye, farewell, much love. We wish you the very, very best. It was an honor to be with you. It was an honor to be with each other and to all of you who are our audience. Here today. We, we hope for you what we hope for ourselves: a life of creativity, a life of joy, a life of love, a life that really does feel like a dream. God bless you. Bye everybody.
Bye everybody.
Bye everyone.
We love you.
Thank you.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you, Marianne.
More from Charlotte
You are not stuck.You are being asked to listen.#innerauthority #selfawareness #growthmindset
