November Monthly from Woman's Way Red Lodge

WWRL
Enlivening the Sacred Feminine through Education,
Service and Sustainability

NOVEMBER MONTHLY for Friends and Members of WWRL

Issue #45 - 2009

And we are an experience! We are a constellation of sparks igniting. We are creating sacred time and space in our communities. We connect to nature, live authentically, and know we can make a difference. We listen deeply to each other. We accept and challenge ourselves. And when change is afoot, we find the song, dance and rhythm to carry us. Welcome home.

Red Lodge Re-invents Herself

Like any self-respecting Goddess and every living form, Red Lodge re-invents herself as she grows. In response to this year's Action Research Project and nominations process, the WWRL Board is announcing some radical changes. We are excited to be evolving to a new form:

a simplified, sustainable board comprised of 3 officers and up to 9 at-large board members and a Long Dance Representative.
In 2010, board members will meet 4 to 6 times in person, to build relationship and to tend administrative tasks necessary to maintain a non-profit. Following their interests and talents, board members may initiate projects to serve the whole. The first board meeting in 2010 will be a 2-day retreat in late January or early February.
Councils are being dissolved, with much gratitude for all they have accomplished!
We share the intention to fan the sparks of Red Lodge members becoming woman's way leaders in self-organizing ways in their own communities

Since 2005, when Woman's Way Red Lodge got her name, we've been listening for the conditions that can support us to self-organize and grow organically. How will our programs, publications and website develop without councils? The questions we ask each other, and the answers we discover will help us to find our way. And you, our members are an essential part of this re-invented picture. See She's in Our Hands, below.

Are you inspired to join the board in this year of re-invention? We envision an energetic and committed board to keep the hearth fire of our non-profit going strong. Nominations have been extended until November 7. Contact Sarah ASAP at nominations@wwrl.org

ByLaws revisions and changes to our Leadership Document will need to be made to accommodate this shift in Board structure. This will be researched, and this month we are focusing on how to get the word out to you, our membership and subscribers, about our creative impetus to shapeshift to a form that more naturally fits who we are. Thank you to all of you who have to-date contributed your ideas to make this shift possible.

In This Issue

Red Lodge is Us

Red Lodge Re-Invents Herself

Grateful

She's in Our Hands

Board Takes a New Shape

Trust and Leap

North Gathering/ Annual Meeting

Giving Thanks Lodge

Vashon Drum Circle in 2010

Grateful

Blessings on all that fills your bowl in this Autumn Light,
May you be connected in your heart to all relations.
May your family be nurtured and your inner home
renewed.
Blessed be.

She's in Our Hands

The Red Lodge experience thrives as you, our members, self-organize and come forward with the creative leadership you wish to offer. The vision to find joy as we bring woman's way activities to our families and local communities is in all of our hands. There are infinite ways members can support this vision in 2010. We humbly offer a few ideas to consider:

1] Start a Circle: Take the initiative to start a circle sponsored by Red Lodge in your local community. The possibilities are limitless: drum circle, women's hoop, sweat lodge, book club, sustainable dinner circle, crone mentoring circle, dream-sharing circle, song circle, poetry or writing circle. The circle could be ongoing or meet for a limited number of times. Check our 15 Principles list to decide if your idea is in harmony with Red Lodge. Talk a little about Red Lodge to your circle. Invite them to subscribe to our free newsletter. Collect donations in a Hearth Jar and send to WWRL Treasurer. It can be that easy.

2] Lead a Ceremony or Mentor: Serve organizations, individuals and communities with woman's way mentoring or ceremonies. Again, there are boundless possibilities. Bless or clear a home or office. Have a solstice, equinox or full moon celebration. Mentor young women and men preparing for a coming-of-age ceremony, or post-menopausal women preparing for a crone ceremony. Consult with a community that wishes to build their own mother drum and start a drum circle. Mentor sweat lodge fire tenders, doorkeepers and lodge pourers. Provide a way for mentees or ceremony participants to give back to Red Lodge, with donations or gifts and talents shared.

3] Share Your Gifts with Red Lodge: Write, paint, take photographs, share your perspectives, stories and wisdom with our members and subscribers through Red Lodge online publications. Share your talent at a fundraiser/friendraising event. Step out and be seen and appreciated.

4] Service to the Red Lodge Hearth: Share skills to sustain the internal workings of Red Lodge. Manage our website presence and visual/graphic identity, design, proofread and edit publications, organize a fundraising event, volunteer for conflict evolution teams, share financial, legal or administrative services.

Any sparks igniting? Bring them to the North Gathering/Annual Meeting Dec. 5th at Kent Unity, and we'll help you blow on them! Can't make it to this meeting? Send thoughts about how you would like to offer your leadership in Red Lodge 2010 to: chair@wwrl.org

2010 Red Lodge Board Takes a New Shape

New developments since the last newsletter: We are thrilled that Mary is re-inspired to continue for a fourth year as Chair and that Deb will be continuing as an At Large member! There is room at the table for 5 more At-Large Board Members. Inspired to join us? Contact Sarah this week! e-mail: nominations@wwrl.org

Slate-to-date for 2010 Board:
Mary G.L. Shackelford, Chair
Willow Dreamfeather McKean, Secretary
Cathie Stone, Treasurer
Long Dance Representative: TBD
At Large Members to-date: Kristina Turner, Mariah Hoyt, Bonnie Lee Cleverdon, Debbie Fank

Trust and Leap

In this new shape Red Lodge is taking, leadership and accountability are in the hands and hearts of our entire membership. Trust is at the core of this experiment. Our shared 15 Principles, Vision, Purpose and Mission are here to guide our actions. Decisions will be made by those directly doing the work.

Look in your heart. Are you called to be a part of this exciting turn of the wheel? If so, how? We would not be here without you. Mark your calendars for December 5th and join us at the North Gathering and Red Lodge Annual Meeting to celebrate us reinventing ourselves.

North Gathering / Red Lodge Annual Meeting

SATURDAY, DEC 5
1 to 4 PM
Kent Unity Church
Kent, WA

Our Annual Meeting is a time to appreciate where we've come this year in Red Lodge and look ahead to the adventure of 2010. We will welcome incoming At-Large Board members (TBA) and honor three outgoing Board members:

Elder Chair, Pam Tillson
Conflict Evolution Chair, Christiann Howard
Long Dance Representative, Kathleen Hanning

Looking to 2010, we'll fan sparks arising from our member's interests and passions to seed self-organized Red Lodge programs in more local communities in 2010. Bring glimmers.

A special guest, Cathryn VanWetter will be with us to lead a lively and meaningful transition ceremony. (To check out the wonderful work she does, visit: www.totheheartofthematter.com). Many of us are planning to go out to a restaurant after the meeting. To be included in these dinner plans, contact Bonnie so she can reserve enough space. Click this link for directions to Kent Unity

Giving Thanks Sweat Lodge
Friday, November 27, 10 AM - 4 PM
Burton Hill Lodge, Vashon Island, WA

Claire d'Gaia, waterpourer and Sarah Strafford, firetender
Open to all women
Contact sweatlodge@wwrl.org for info and driving directions

We welcome all women to the Giving Thanks lodge! As your waterpourer, I invite you to begin creating your gratitude bundles (intention bundles) now. Drums are welcome inside this lodge. Please bring your water bottle and nourishing food to share after sweat. You will need a towel to sit on and another to dry off with. Dress warmly for the weather. Bring waterproof storage for your things. This sweat lodge is sponsored by Red Lodge; please bring a donation for the Hearth Fund to support WWRL activities. It's also a nice custom to bring an offering for Mary as caretaker of this lodge (tobacco, wood...and/or whatever moves you).

My own personal commitment to this lodge includes challenging myself, raising my own bar as to how much more gratitude and appreciation I can run through my being, feeling it emotionally, thinking mentally in appreciative thoughts and physically feeling calm, and happy. Really taking more response-ability to being the spirit having a human experience in being a midwife for this mother earth and humanity going through our next stages of becoming more enlightened.

I perceive that for how much more chaotic 3D life may seem, we must be more happy, more grounded and more in tune with that which we are--divinity. I am noticing a greater and growing intolerance for my own worrying, fear, judgment; therefore it is time to consciously lay down those old ways of being. So. When we enter sacred space together and become a beacon of the vibration of gratitude and appreciation just because it feels good and this is who we are, when we anchor this into our bones and then send it out into the world, what a blessing we are to all life, and how blessed we will be!

Our intention is to be finished with all work and ready to leave by 4 PM. See you on Vashon.
~Claire

Red Lodge sweat lodges are open to all women. Two lodges are scheduled each year, at Imbolc in early February and this Giving Thanks lodge in November, both on Vashon Island. We welcome requests for sweat lodge to honor personal passages or healing. For information, contact sweatlodge@wwrl.org.

Vashon Drum Circle to Begin in New Year

announcing Vashon Drum Circle

2nd Fridays in 2010, 7-9 PM
at the
Co-Housing Common House

ALL ARE WELCOME!!!
Youth and elders, women and men

The Red Lodge Mother Drum, Buffalo Heart, has come to live on Vashon Island offering us the chance to gather monthly to listen to the healing heartbeat of her voice. These big community drums are big medicine, and we welcome and encourage everyone to gather to feed the drum energy and share her gifts in our community. She will help us re-member who we really are. She will show us who we are already becoming.

Please join us! Bring your own drums and rattles and join us for drumming, singing and maybe even some dancing. It's free with a request for Hearth Fund donations to pay the rent and support Red Lodge activities. For more information, contact: motherdrum@wwrl.org

Upcoming Events

Join an intimate circle of women to drum, sing, and share ceremony, prayer, and wisdom teachings in an informal, friendly monthly gathering. Experience the healing power of working with a women's Mother Drum, hoop drums, rattles, and more and have fun connecting with other women through drumming. Bring your own drums and rattles if you have them. No experience necessary.

Visit our Online Calendar to browse or submit more Events of Interest

Readers Write for Us (and send photos!)

Submissions to The Monthly are welcomed from WWRL Members. Send photos or brief articles (100-400 words) with news of Red Lodge events, programs or human interest stories. Deadline is the 20th of the month preceding JAN, MAR, APRIL, JUNE, JULY, OCT and NOV. Send to: monthlyenews@wwrl.org

Contact Us

Woman's Way Red Lodge is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization

We are grateful that contributions and co-creative members support our programs and ongoing services in many Northwest communities. We are excited that several Lodge Sister Members are percolating visions to bring WWRL to more states.
www.wwrl.org
Click here to join us or make a donation.

Beat for Peace

Exploring Clay with Jade Weinbrecht

South Sound Women's Drum Circle