While on a personal retreat for women at the Christine Center, where I’ll be hosting a Venerable Women retreat in June, I reconnected with one of the Center’s leaders. She is a dear soul, who when seeing me exclaimed, “Dawn, from Valuable Women!” We both laughed and hugged when I said, “Yes, Venerable Women are Valuable Women!”
One of the women at the retreat was there with her husband—and her young daughter. The three of them showed up at our dinner on the first night and I wondered—how is this going to work—a man and a child at a women’s retreat?
The agreement the three of them had made, I later learned, was that the dad would take the little girl to the cabin they’d rented on the grounds while the mom attended the retreat.
As I walked by the young mother sitting in contemplation with her journal, I felt tremendous gratitude for the gentle man who supported his wife’s spiritual journey.
Later on I told him I admired his kindness and that his actions provided a beautiful example of respecting the wishes of someone he loved. He blushed and said, “it was important to her and we made it happen.” The man saw the value in his wife’s happiness and did what he could to honor her.
The theme of valuable women, valuable men, and valuable humans of every kind traveled with me on the two hour drive home from the Center—and later as I watched the 90th Academy Awards.
I have watched the Oscars for 50 of its 90 years and saw something last night I never could have imagined. I saw a living portrait of many faces, races, and those who’d been deemed out of place, represented at the awards ceremony.
For some watching, the Oscars may have seemed too different, unfamiliar to what these viewers have seen in years past.
Watching a kaleidoscope of diverse sparkling creatives in this year’s awards being honored and respected, shows how humanity is evolving to be more inclusive—and appreciative of the multiple ways our Divine designs humanity.
We bless and are blessed when we value the worth of all people.
In the audiobook I am about to release, we will take a loving and kind transformation journey together—starting within ourselves and expanding out to the world.
Like the gentle man honoring his wife, the sweet leader calling Venerable Women Valuable Women, and the Oscars showing respect for diverse creativity, the stops along our shared journey show us more and more the vision of our new world.
