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Feminine Nature?

Within ourself, in our own consciousness, we can enliven what is sometimes called the creative, nourishing, feminine aspect of nature. But what does it mean? How do we experience it? What does it do for

A Writer’s Perspective: An Interview with Sasha Parmasad

Sasha Kamini Parmasad, an educator, visual artist, and award-winning writer, is the daughter of a Trinidadian historian-poet-songwriter and a lawyer who devoted many years of their lives to the struggle for social justice. Sasha began composing poetry at age five and began performing her father’s Indian folk songs, poems, folktales, and calypsos before thousands in her native country from age six.

Her novel, Ink and Sugar, placed third in the national First Words Literary Contest for South Asian American Writers (2003) and her poetry placed first in the annual Poetry International Competition (2008). Her collection of poems titled No Poem: A Divine Rising will be published this year (2015).

Flawless

In the March 24 NY Times magazine section there was an article by Parul Sehgal called “How ‘Flawless’ Became a Feminine Declaration”. Most of the article is dedicated to the current uses of the word,

Cultural Harmony through Women and the Five Fundamentals

Last fall at a local college campus, the laughter from a group of diverse students caught my attention. They were from various cultural backgrounds: Hispanic, African American, Asian, European/Caucasian. A young man approached them—large, ebony, with intellectual-looking glasses—and was greeted with surprise and a high five by a skateboarding-toting Hispanic student. They exclaimed that they remembered each other from middle school. I watched as a young Caucasian woman shyly approached the students and was welcomed with quiet greetings. An atmosphere of lively friendliness and harmony radiated throughout the whole area.

I thought— what a refreshing counterpoint to today’s clashes between various cultures in our society!

Alarming Health Statistics vs Wellness Revolution

On March 23rd, Womens enews.org featured an article about Atlanta’s Spelman College. It said: The historically black college for women decided it was time to do something major to redraw its student body’s alarming health

NYC Ballet Principal Megan Fairchild On Dance, Stress and TM

Being a professional ballerina can be hard on your health, mentally and physically.

For Megan Fairchild, age 30, a principal at the New York City Ballet who danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in PBS’ telecast of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, stress almost derailed her career. On the fast track since joining the corps de ballet at age eighteen, becoming a soloist at nineteen and a principal by age twenty, she was suffering from debilitating panic attacks that put her out of work for days at a time.

Tolerance as a State of Being

As tensions rose in Paris and demonstrations swept Western Europe last January, people around the world wondered how to stop religious intolerance and promote peace and goodwill among all people.

Yet with racial and religious hostilities worldwide reaching a six-year high, as reported in the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, intolerance is a global issue that affects us no matter where we live.

Fault Lines: Whose Fault is it When Relationships Quake

Fault lines in the earth are lines that trace boundaries between Earth’s tectonic plates. In an active fault, the pieces of the Earth’s crust along the fault move over time and can cause earthquakes. Fault

Embrace Your Moods

“Women are moody.” We’ve heard this all our lives, usually as a criticism, and it’s a sure bet that if you’re a woman and a professional, you’ve spent a fair amount of effort trying to act the opposite of moody in order to succeed in the workplace.

It’s time to stop trying to be like a man and embrace the full range of your emotions. That is the advice of psychiatrist Julie Holland, who points out that being “sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children’s needs and intuitive of our partners’ intentions is not only hardwired into your feminine brain, but is basic to your survival and your children’s.”

Our Daughters, Our Granddaughters, Ourselves

I don’t know how old you are, but I’m guessing that if you aren’t a female between 13 and 25 years of age, you know one. I certainly know a few and am, in fact,