Tag Archives: female empowerment

Episode # 6 – ‘Thoughts, Think, Idea’ plus Cops and TM

02 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Child development, David Lynch Foundation, LAPD, Parenting, TM, Transcendental meditation

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I have been doing TM(transcendental meditation) since I was 19. And though I have explored other forms of meditation – chi gong, when i was doing martial arts, kundalini and buddhist meditation – TM remained my base. I had only gone back to have a TM ‘check’ twice in all these years.

So, then…

My chiropractor comes into town about once a month and I went to have an adjustment at his latest pop-up location which happened to be, the David Lynch Foundation, meditation center. I got talking with Lynne  Kaplan, who is a TM teacher and she invited me to come listen to a speaker and have a group meditation . Meditation has been such a private thing for me all these years but the women’s group that met once a month felt compelling.

I have been going now for several months and find it to be very nourishing. Lynne starts by asking a question which we all give a quick answer to, then we meditate, then we have a tasty snack and listen to a speaker, which leads to conversation. The time is always charged with honesty, strength and courage of women living on the cusp of their quest.

Last Sunday, I walked in to find two gorgeous women in full LAPD uniforms. They had both recently begun TM and were going to give a talk. So in their Kevlar vests, with their gun belts, wool uniforms and sturdy shoes on we all meditated together. That alone was pretty astounding. Meditating in a yoga class, sure. Meditating in a park, on a bus, in a laundromat, at the beach, sitting on a curb, sure, done and done. But never have I meditated with two fully uniformed police officers.

What does Rumi say “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there”. Well, that’s what happened, and with cops – our cultural’s perfect image of all things right and wrong. That’s the image that invokes fear of being weighed and measured, found guilty and punished that we hold over from childhood. And to go into that field with cops, yeah, it will change you.

Lead officers Julie Nony and Maggie Dillard are twenty one year veterans of LAPD. They told of their journey into compassion, of how just being a woman cop often neutralizes hostile situations and that some cops are assholes.

TM is bringing mediation into schools and it’s helping children. The LAPD is open to offering meditation as a tool to officers. Julie and Maggie bring a whole other kind of courage to their job when they come and meditate with the people they  serve and protect. How about cops and kids meditating together? Hmm interesting.

So for Lynne Kaplan,  Julie Nony and Maggie Dillard I dedicate this podcast to you.

Episode #6 is about our pesky mind and how it is not designed for frustration and worry. Enjoy!

 

 

Episode #5 – ‘Saddest History Ever’

23 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Child development, History, humour, Parenting, Psychohistory

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When I was a teenager I read ‘Holy Blood, Holy Grail’. It was a retelling of the story of Jesus by three different scholars using historical data. I didn’t come from a religious family but was aware of the basic plot points of the biblical Jesus. The thrill of having my brain scaffolding of ‘what I thought was true’ collapse from factual repatterning is something that I have sought out ever since. Robin Grille’s book ‘Parenting for a Peaceful World’ was one of those books. It is shocking and loaded with information that I feel is important to know. If you dare get yourself a copy.

In the book, Grille, mentioned a man, Lloyd de Mause, as being someone who he was getting information from. So, now this is some ten years ago, I went to New York City and met Lloyd in a coffee shop. He had a soft spoken passion and seemed like a man who was worn from swimming against the main stream. He gave me some literature and I signed up for a year of his newsletter. He was a corner stone for an international movement of historians relooking at all things ‘childhood’.

For many years,  my bedside table Bestie has been the books of Joseph Chilton Pearce. His ground in the truth about childhood development it essential reading. I was honoured to introduce him as a speaker when I hosted the 50th anniversary of the Highland Hall Waldorf school.

So, I present, Episode #5…for you.

You can got to itunes –

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-is-woman-because…its/id1088536792?mt=2

Or just click on the podcast link above.

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Thank you.

Podcasting

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in humour, Podcast, Women

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I decided to expand on the ideas in the book that I wrote from this blog. I had thought a theatre piece was next but it turned out podcasting was the next expansion and here it is. It’s serialized and meant to be heard sequentially. There are two episodes so far, each about 15 minutes long. I plan to launch an episode every two weeks.

If you are curious as to how they turned out you can connect below or click the podcasting button at the top of the page. Your listening and feedback would be much appreciated.

http://itsabsurdtobeawomanonplanetearthetc.com/

 How it all happened.

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 After some research I bought a blue-yeti mike, a mike stand and a mike cover.  That cost about 150 dollars and my husband had a mike stand. It’s important for sound quality to have the mike suspended as otherwise it will pick up noise from your desk and probably computer. I got advice from my brother-in-law John who podcasts and led me to some tutorials and helped with the initial sorting out which turned out to be quite horrible.

I had decided at the same time to rebuild my old website which was floating in the ethers since mobile me stopped operating at the same time I lost my website info on a computer transfer years ago. This created much confusion and the help person on my hosting site would tell me one things and it would screw things up and then tech help at GoDaddy where my domain was would tell me something else. It makes for a very terrible feeling in the brain to sit there hour after hour hitting dead ends and not being able to find that one little thing that is particular to your situation that will enable you to be up and running technically.

Once I was done reclaiming my website, I built my site in an hour and was then able to dive right into podcasting hell where Dean, who was my tech support on wordpress.com actually called me brave, so I must have sounded like I had scrambled brains even on ichat. The trouble with tutorials and people as well is that it is likely that your situation is unique somehow and one missing piece will lock you out of forward progress.

I recorded on the Audacity program which was free and very simple. It took a very few tests to settle on mike volume and how far to be from the mike. Then I sent my files to Patric Caird and we spent about 90 minutes a day for four days adding music and sound effects. It went fairly smoothly and we found that more often than not  the music we pulled from his library would fit perfectly with the dialogue. In each episode there was one place that became a boondoggle and took up the whole ninety minute session. He has a sound effects library as well and we added those as we went along.

Putting it up on itunes was another bit of hell. I couldn’t even find someone to pay to come over and help me get my first one up on itunes. Thanks to Sophie who sat with me through a lot of the frustration, and though she is tech savy was stymied by my particular roadblock. Finally it was solved with Patric figuring out the final piece once my hosting site problem was solved.

I ended up going to my naturalpath doctor who told me my corpus callosum had crashed under the stress! That’s the part of the brain that connects the two hemispheres and a crash basically means your hormones start firing improperly and you feel super crappy. He set me right and am back on track. It took a village! Thank you village.

Once you know how to do something it’s embarrassingly easy. Now I have other problems to solve like adding descriptions and pics to each individual episode and understanding how to spread the word.

Onward.

Adult Ballet.5 The Dreams of our Elders

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Adult Ballet, Align Ballet, Amargosa, Ballet, Elders, Learning, Women

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As I wrote in my first Ballet blog, Edwige, introduced me to her Adult Ballet class and started me on my ballet journey.

How thrilled I was when I was sent a link to a lovely short film by Sarah Marquelle Kruger and Paul Antico about her beginning ballet at the age of 70.

It’s only four minutes long. Treat yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKya793A_Cg

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There is a place in Death Valley called Amargosa, where Marta Becket refurbished an old Opera house. She painted her audience on the wall and danced there until she was 83. She lives out there still, rescuing burros and horses, she is 91. I know they have been having funding trouble and it seems her website is now down.

Here is a trailer to an Oscar winning movie that was made about her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkIS6_nIEtQ

You can rent the full movie here for .99

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KSvfq02QSI

Marta Becket article 1970 National Geographic

 

A Women’s Body is the Breadbasket of the World

08 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by in humour, Philosophy, sex, Women

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Everyone that ever lived was formed inside a women’s body. We owe our physical form to a woman. We nestled inside her and lived off 25% of her blood supply. We all emerged from a woman whose body is designed to care for us. One would think that a culture would have developed to learn from and nurture this form, in turn, building a world that respected her what she produced from her body – people!

Instead we grew to battle against the truth of our bodies because we are enslaved by cultural ideas that shame and control a woman’s body robbing us of the intimacy, grace and appreciation of our true home.

How is it we all share this first home but evolved not to ask mothers how we should be to ourselves and others? Why didn’t we value her innate wisdom and build upon her ideas about how to get through a day, plan a community, share our food supply?

How perverse we have become, hurrying our children to fit into a society that values our shopping ability over our humanity. Unconnected to our subtle instincts we push our biologies like machines, then medicate them. A greater crime than polluting the earth is how we have polluted the body of women – her image used for sexual fuel to be judged as to how much she is getting everyone off. And then we ask her to be silent. Who can listen to ideas while masturbating?

The programming is deep and often subtle. I participate in it as well as I am raised in it. To know it and to live it are a chasm apart.

Are women even inside women anymore?

Yes, they are. Their bodies know. Under the fashion and nail polish and dieting every woman is gifted with the voice of biological creation. There lies our hope.

Here’s the book for more;

 http://www.amazon.com/What-Woman-Because-Absurd-Planet/dp/0692245146/ref=la_B00MFRRKQS_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417552473&sr=1-1

OR in Canada you can order it here;

http://www.amazon.ca/What-Woman-Because-Absurd-Planet/dp/0692245146/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417553755&sr=1-1&keywords=pinkyluxschoolforgirls

Onward!

Give the Gift of ‘Women Explained’ – Finally!’

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in humour, Philosophy, sex, Women

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What better Gift for a Man, Woman, Teen, Couple or Undeclared Human than to finally unravel the idiotic ideas about women that have been masquerading as Fact.

Don’t allow yourself or a loved one to go into 2015 carrying around the same old crap in their bonnet.

Get the book!

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If you order from me in the next two weeks (until Dec. 16th) I will wrap your book(s) in this lovely pink ensemble;

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And include a message of your choice on this lovely note paper;

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So email me at wendel@wendelmeldrum.com OR in the US go to Amazon;

 http://www.amazon.com/What-Woman-Because-Absurd-Planet/dp/0692245146/ref=la_B00MFRRKQS_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417552473&sr=1-1

OR in Canada you can order it here;

http://www.amazon.ca/What-Woman-Because-Absurd-Planet/dp/0692245146/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417553755&sr=1-1&keywords=pinkyluxschoolforgirls

Onward!

Why, As a Woman, I love the UFC.

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by in sex, UFC

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1) Yes, I know that UFC is violent and people get hurt. Sports are risky. 30% of synchronized swimmers at the national level have to leave the sport due to concussions.

2) I do not love the way it’s hyped, as if all fans are meatheads needing to be psyched for a ‘war’.

3) I competed as a gymnast and performed as a dancer. I spent six years studying martial arts. I love the endless mystery of movement.

I began studying marital arts when my son was five years old. His father lived out of the country ten months of the year and I could feel that he needed something I couldn’t give him. I chose a dojo near our home and went to watch a class. The Art was called ‘Ninpo’ which is Japanese for Ninja. Everyone wore black gis, there were no mirrors and no fake sparing, as that would train the body to pull short when in a real  situation.

As I sat and watched the students I heard the voice of my Homeopath recommending that I study Martial Arts in order to help shift nightmares I was having of being chased by killers. I joined the dojo as well. The goal of the Art was that you would never have to fight. You would develop into a person that could sense danger before it happened and leave the situation.

This Art was developed so that little people could protect themselves if accosted by bigger people. It was perfect for a woman. There is no escaping the biological reality that  a man and a woman of the same size are not equally matched. 

Although I was athletic I grew up only with sisters and our fights were done with claws and verbal cruelty. I couldn’t even throw a ball. There were times in the training that I would sit quietly in the corner crying as I was overwhelmed and disoriented by all the punching going on in the class.

After about three years I did a self defense course at the dojo. The graduation is fighting, full out, a man in a padded suit who attacks you from behind when your eyes are closed. When I was grabbed an electricity snapped through my being and I fought this giant with a force so much faster and quicker that any thought could travel. I knew in my body absolutely that it is my right to fight for myself – something that my culture and upbringing had not encouraged in me.

I was training five days a week for almost six years. One Saturday after class I was lying on my back chatting with someone with my hands under my head, looking to my left. A Black Belt standing out of sight on my right quickly and playfully jumped onto my stomach. I didn’t flinch, I just kept talking but my stomach tightened naturally, he stood on me for a few seconds then got off. I realized then that I now knew what was killing intent and what wasn’t.  I could walk with a confidence that I didn’t know I didn’t have.

So the UFC is a place to experience the meeting of two equalling matched, highly trained athletes getting a chance to test themselves, to innovate, to surrender to the chaos after rigorous preparation. It’s the evolution, the innovation, the visceral grit and mental readiness  that reminds me that I am a fighter too.

And now there is a women’s division. And yes, it took the supremely talented Rhonda Rousey who is also a classical beauty to create the division. And we watch women fight. And maybe now men will start to experience woman as fierce unique competitors with bodies that have skill and not as objects here for their own judgment and pleasure. And maybe women will start to carry in their bodies a knowing about their own fierceness, their right to be clear, be heard and be safe.

Because we are the weaker sex we are encouraged to use our sexuality to manipulate  for power, for safety, for defense.  How’s that going for everyone?

And yes, we do need men to come to the aid of women but abuse of women rarely happens when other men are around. We need your change of perception not just your brawn.

In the words of Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda from his book ‘Law of Success’ –“always give one more punch”.

Hey UFC, now that there is a women’s division how about promoting the ring girls to front office jobs and having past champions carry the round numbers around the ring? Yeah, that’s what it feels like.

Wendel Meldrum is the author of ‘Pinkylux School for Girls presents ‘What is a Woman’ because it’s absurd to be one on Planet Earth’. Available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Woman-Because-Absurd-Planet/dp/0692245146/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415212707&sr=1-1&keywords=pinkyluxschoolforgirls

How’s your ‘Dog on Dog?’ The Ghomeshi Scandal as Evolutionary Tool.

07 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by in politics, sex

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By ‘Dog on Dog’ I mean our innate ability to sense another being through our whole body. Go to the dog park and marvel at the honest way dogs sniff, lick, tail tuck, snarl, snap, hump,rub, wag, play, bark, when meeting another dog. What are their bodies telling them – Is it safe? Can I play? Am I in danger? Should I run? Initiate a Game? Walk away?

We have our own ‘Dog on Dog’ response to ‘the other’ as well. Our challenge is our own unique imprinting through our ancestry, our family, our education, our community, our generation and our experiences that we have through those lenses. Our survival has many complex layers and filters that often contradict and override our bodies instinct. And unlike an animal we scent ourselves with deodorants, hair and body products, perfumes and colognes to mask our ‘smell’ which contains many secrets that ‘our animal’ can read with ease.

‘Am I safe’ can be filtered through an opportunity to get a job over our personal safety. The hope of ‘being connected’ to a life we dream of can erode our standards of behavior. The dream of ‘finding love’ can mask our gut instincts.

Our immune system has one basic job, to determine what is self and what is non-self. Air, food and drink comes in and gets sorted into ‘Yup, this is health building or nope, not a healthy item, sending it out.’  Our immune system weighs and measures itself against our most precious gift – our homeostasis, our innate equilibrium. Our whole being mimics this process as we build our unique selves.

We spend much of our lives discovering who we are not. Which actions, decisions and thoughts are ‘who am I’ and which are ‘who am I not’. Recovery from being a victim of a sexual assault (yes, it happened to me too) is a deep and profound rising up, peeling away, re-grounding of what it is to be ‘Walking While Woman.’

I hope we are not just waiting for the next newsy soundbite in the Jian story or the next shocking news story to take our attention for a few days. Beyond justice and victim/perpetrator identities are the voices of women to be heard in how we educate, govern and treat people. Because a woman’s body is designed for patience and survival through nurturing she asks not what is good for the economy but what is good for humanity.

Can women even hear their own deep wisdom anymore?

The answer is yes, yes they can.

If they listen for it.

If you listen for it.

The Book is now Available!

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in humour, Philosophy, sex

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With deep appreciation to all who have been reading the blog, the book is now available in many countries!

 I think the ideas in the book make it a perfect gift. It looks like a Dr.Suess book, each chapter is only a page, there are lots of pictures, built to inspire through laughter, rethinking and the odd fact. Perfect for a man, a woman, a teen, women’s shelters, bridal showers, charities, a bookstore or a bathroom this book is designed to share. Read it, sign it and pass it on – old school viral. As you know it’s my belief that it’s our misperceptions about women that keeps the madness in place.

Here are some locations that it should be available. Please let me know if they are happening. It’s been a bit clunky so far!

In Canada;

http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/176-2598955-2817406?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=pinkyluxschoolforgirls

In the US;

http://www.amazon.com/What-Is-Woman-Because-Absurd/dp/0692245146/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_dnr_1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/pinkyluxschoolforgirls?keyword=pinkyluxschoolforgirls&store=book

In United Kingdom/Europe;

http://www.amazon.co.uk  or  www.bookdepository.co.uk  or www.thebookcommunity.com

In Australia;

http://www.rainbowbooks.com.au or www.thenile.com.au

Onward, Ladies!

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Finally …News!!!

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by in humour, Philosophy, sex

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             Yes, it has been forever since my last post…Super true!!!

The wonderful reason is that I have been working on a book inspired by my blog. This way you can have something tactile and visceral to hold while mulling and musing over what a woman is. It will definitely be a page turner and perhaps a lovely gift to inspire rethinking about the Undercarriage and such.

It’s set to go to the printers next week so fingers crossed all goes well.

Soon.

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Women, Gossip & Competition. Yup it’s time!

23 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in health, humour, Philosophy

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You know by now that we are searching beyond feminist thought. Feminist thought remains a reaction to a patriarchal system that itself needs an overhaul. We are laying down a philosophy that begins and strives to remain true to the simple fact that everyone’s first home was inside the body of a woman. Children are what women produce. Children become the world. What the hell is going on.

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It’s time to take a look at excavating that pernicious veil that culture tosses over us as a survival tool – competition and gossip!

Gossip is a currency of cruelty that we are taught to use as a way to empower ourselves by bringing another person down!

Most often a lovely lady!

Gossip is part of the culture of competition where we make a ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ out of every choice that another human being makes as they attempt to live out their bag of tricks that they were handed as a child. Gossiping is a way of shaming and criticizing in absentia and boy does it feel good! Tasty morsels of ‘I am right’ delicious bonbons of ‘aren’t we better than’, glorious chats between people that are bonded by the common cause of diminishing another while harvesting a feeling of winning!

No wonder women struggle to have a voice! They are being nitpicked about their every move by other women!  It would be quite shocking for woman to become known for discourse over new ideas that aren’t about nail polish, body image or love problems!

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You know what’s in your conversation.

Stop trying to get women to be equal to men!

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by in humour, Philosophy, politics, science

≈ 4 Comments

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A man and a woman cannot be equal. Must we keep seeking equality that is measured by a system that is in dire need of a makeover? Why are women trying to be equal to men? Maybe men should be trying to be equal to woman!

But wait.

What does society show us about women – gossipy, menstruating romantics that live for a diamond ring. Bad at math creatures who are taught that ‘acceptance’ comes from controlling your appearance so you can then control others with it. That shopping is a skill equal to inventing. That love is getting someone to do what you want. No wonder we are trying to be equal to men! Even though the system that defines what a ‘man’ is puts men in a misogynist mind state! So women are trying to be equal from inside a philosophy that establishes them as objects to be managed. Can this battle be won?

Romantic comedies continue to  show us that if a man stalks you and tricks you he will eventually ‘get’ you.

One of the greatest movies ever made ‘the godfather’ is the story of a love struck young woman who falls for a man with a big fun family who keep her in the dark about how she lives in luxury and gets a smack when she steps out of line.

 Let’s stop trying to force women to be equal to men. Men aren’t all that super happy with the pressure and perverse values that are hanging around their necks. What we need are new creeds to aspire to, all of us together. We don’t have to destroy anything we simply have to add so much true female intelligence of body, mind and soul that the cake of our culture becomes something tasty for everyone.

When my niece was a little girl her mother was explaining to her what college was ‘ A place where you can go and be a veterinarian or a teacher or a lawyer.’  My niece said, ‘Oh, can’t you just go and be yourself.’ Yes, women, just go out into the world and first be yourself, a woman. A type of human who is loved by nature simply because you are sporting it’s greatest design in the universe – the female body, the maker of humans. Don’t want to make a human? Bring forth a new idea, a political system, an economic theory, art and stories and shove them down our throats because we need female designed thought to stand up and inspire us into a new way of being together. Where men, women, children and pregnant woman are considered and respected and supported by reason that is born from reason.

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There is a hole in the ozone.

Your voice is missing.