When Sleeping Women Wake…
It is 5:54am on Monday, September 12th. My morning song is ‘Unloved’ by Jann Arden and Jackson Browne.
I awaken with a song in my head every single morning.
And, more days than not, when I make my daily call to my parents a few hours later, I will say; “hey dad, what was your morning song?”
Yup. He’s got it too.
I always have a little giggle when my dad shares his morning song because his ‘jukebox’ is from a different era than mine so, invariably, his song is by one of the ‘old guys’…Guy Lombardo, Nat King Cole, or The Mills Brothers, to name a few. The morning that cracked me up was when his song was ‘Three Coins in the Fountain’ (recorded by the Four Aces way back in 1954)…they sure don’t write ‘em like they used to!
Anyway, I love the little ritual with my darling dad, and I love that I inherited such a cool little quirk from him.
Since adding the morning song to my morning pages two years ago, I now relish the practice of awakening in the wee hours of the morning and tuning into what my jukebox has offered up (and I hear it so clearly it may as well be playing through my phone). Sometimes I hum along and sometimes I sing right out loud.
Two mornings ago, as the harvest moon was setting so brilliantly outside my window, it was Rosemary Clooney’s ‘Shine on Harvest Moon’ that I awakened with and, as my morning kettle came to a boil, I serenaded the moon as she was setting over the rooftops outside my window.
Bottom line…I LOVE music.
And I love awakening every day to whatever the Universe decides to send.
And that’s the catch…’whatever the Universe decides to send’.
I don’t think my songs are random.
I believe they come from the Universe, from my Inner Wise Woman, from The Field…and I know they come with messages (which sometimes I can decipher and sometimes I cannot).
This morning’s song came as an answer to a question that I have been quietly pondering for weeks. And it has to do with social media, my new business, and with my World Work.
Bear with me while I connect the dots…
When the inspiration for my new business landed back in early April, it felt like the most profound eureka moment I had ever experienced. Having had such a fraught and bumpy ride into the afternoon of my life, I wanted to support other women my age to understand what was happening, how to navigate such a profound life transition, and then champion them as they figured out how to breathe life into their own extraordinary afternoon.
The thing was…I knew what I wanted to do…I didn’t know how I was going to go about doing it.
And so, these past 5 months have been a crash course in Squarespace website design (with the help of 2 extraordinary women), writing copy, having pictures taken, and the most daunting of all…launching a social media campaign.
When I first met Tessa (one of the aforementioned extraordinary women) back in early June, we got together to talk about websites, social media, and marketing. And, as we sat in that funky local coffee shop, I felt fairly confident that I could patch together a website. However, the social media campaign? That was a completely different story. And, as I listened to her talk about all that was available to me and how to utilize it, I knew she was speaking English, but I had no idea what any of the words meant.
Oh, dear!
The weeks following saw me working feverishly around the clock to meet my self-imposed deadline of Friday, July 15th. And, at 9:01 that morning, I did, indeed, launch my beautiful website out into the world.
Twenty-four hours later I escaped to the family cottage on Georgian Bay for a week of sun, fun, music, and family.
I must admit that I was a little loathe to come home at the end of that week. And not just because I would miss the loons on the lake, the Georgian Bay pines, the sunsets, and the family. But because, now that I had launched my beautiful new business out into the world, I literally did not know what to do next.
Monday morning saw me sitting on Tessa’s front porch having a ‘social media meeting’. We were talking topics and strategies and techniques. We were talking video and print and TikTok and Instagram and YouTube.
We were talking that alien language again and I spun into complete overwhelm.
When I got into my car after the meeting, I was so paralyzed it was all I could do to start the car much less drive myself home. And so, I followed a nudge from The Universe, and I recorded a TikTok video…right then and there. I admitted I was a newbie. I admitted I was overwhelmed. I asked if anyone else felt the way I did.
And I got a response!
I got a few hundred views.
And, as I watched the numbers increase, I realized that my social media overwhelm had less to do with technology than with how to come across as both authentic and vulnerable. I knew that, at 54 years of age, I did not want to talk about what I was having for breakfast, what knick-knacks were on my desk, or what I thought about the latest celebrity tidbit.
I wanted to talk to my fellow Wise Woman.
I wanted to get a conversation going.
And I wanted to feel like ME while I was doing it!
The ensuing weeks have seen me playing with the technology and finding my own voice. I have posted videos about ground flax, about Rumi’s ‘morning breeze’, and about the challenges of supporting my 81-year-old mom with technology. I have played with my opening and my closing, I have played with hashtags and with the bewildering world of algorithms and SEO.
I knew I was getting better…but I still hadn’t landed on my ‘why’.
My ‘why’ landed on Thursday, August 25th as I was driving to visit my girlfriend to deliver a loaf of freshly baked bread and to sit with her in a time of profound sorrow. As I was driving to her house and thinking about offering quiet comfort just by being present with her in her grief, I reflected on the fact that my Wise Woman was going to sit in solidarity with hers. There was nothing I had to ‘say’ or ‘do’. I was just to sit and ‘be’ with her in her time of need.
And that is when my ‘why’ landed. And unfolding right there before me was precise Guidance on the video I was to record while I was driving. I was to start by greeting my fellow Wise Woman and then I was to say ‘this is your morning message from the Universe…’
And, almost 3 weeks later, that video is still the one with the most views.
I have spent the past few weeks following Guidance on what to post and when. I do not record any video without first being Guided on the topic and the presentation. It is like I am shown a short movie reel of exactly where to be, what to say, and what the title is to be.
And I follow that Guidance…to the letter.
I must admit to a little personal dismay that many of my videos are to be recorded when I am not looking my best (like yesterday’s ‘morning message from the Universe’ that had me record my video on my bedroom floor…still in my pajamas!!!).
Oh well…I asked for authenticity, and I am sure getting it!
Once I release a ‘morning message from the Universe’, as fun as it is to watch the numbers rise on that morning’s video, that is NOT why I record them.
I record each video for the one woman who needs it. Others may be entertained, but there is that ONE woman who needs to hear that morning message and whose life will be changed as a result. I will never know her. I will never meet her. But I will know that I channeled a message from the Universe…just for her. And I will know that there is something in that message that will comfort her, inspire her, and alter her path, her perception, or her life, in some way.
I believe that there is a Plan.
I believe that this absolutely benevolent Universe has a Plan for me and that all I have to do is to send out an intention, hold it loosely, not be attached to what comes next (or doesn’t), and trust The Plan.
And I have enough experience with stunning synchronicities that land in my life out of nowhere to believe in The Plan.
I am usually very good at managing my own agenda, taking Inspired Action when it comes, and admiring the weave as I witness it all unfold with such stunning perfection moment by moment.
Yesterday, however, I stumbled.
After posting my PJ-clad morning video, I felt a frisson of impatience and petulance. I questioned what the heck I was doing and what these ‘messages from the Universe’ had to do with The Afternoon Coach and with building my fledgling business.
And at 5:00 this morning, on this 12th day of September, the Universe sent Jann Arden to deliver the answer…
When Jann Arden released her 1994 album ‘Living Under June’, I played the CD so many times it is a wonder that I did not wear it out. And the song I listened to over and over was ‘Unloved’ (her beautiful and heart-wrenching duet with Jackson Browne). At the time, it was September of 1995, and I was just home from my year of teacher’s college overseas and preparing to marry my sweetheart the following March.
I am sad to admit that I have not thought about or listened to Jann Arden for years. Somehow her music, in the course of the past 27 years of life, just slipped off my radar.
That is…until 2 days ago.
I was scrolling through TikTok on Saturday afternoon and landed on a video of Jann Arden performing ‘Good Mother’ in her dressing room. I listened to the whole song and sang along and wondered why I have not been listening to Jann Arden low these many years.
And that is where I left it.
The Universe, however, had other plans for Jann and me…
It was pitch dark and rainy when I awakened just after 5:00 this morning with an old favourite having been provided by the Universe. And, as I lay there with ‘Unloved’ playing in my head, I had that familiar feeling of time slowing down so that everything feels somewhat heightened….the sound of the rain outside my window, the feel of the pillow underneath my head, the steady breathing of my sleeping dog on the floor beside me.
I knew that something important was happening.
And so, I got up, put my kettle on, made my tea, and climbed back into bed. And, while my tea was steeping beside me, I followed the nudge to turn off my light and meditate.
As I sat in meditation, I was Guided to ask Siri to play ‘Unloved’, and, as I sat there in the darkness with goosebumps covering my skin and tears streaming down my cheeks, I got to the stanza that broke me wide open;
Hoping that the kindness
Will lead us past the blindness
And not another living soul
Will ever have to feel
Unloved…
That’s it.
It’s about love.
It’s about lovability.
It’s about the fact that, as we women move into the afternoon of our lives, we seem to become less-than.
We somehow become less visible.
We somehow become less lovable.
When we are young and beautiful and our bodies are taut and smooth, it seems that we are easy to love.
But what about when our hair turns grey, our breasts sag, and our once-taut skin wrinkles?
What then?
Isn’t it ironic that when we finally have the experience, the grit, and the wisdom of the decades that we have lived, our outward appearance has our society marginalize us and dismiss us as yesterday’s news?
We feel invisible.
We feel unlovable.
And it is quite possible that we respond by turning inward and ‘falling asleep’ to our potency, our sensuality, and our wisdom.
And so…that petulant question that forced itself into my weekend has been answered.
My ‘morning messages from the Universe’ are about wisdom, self-worth, and love.
They are about standing with my fellow Wise Woman and championing her to wake up and realize that she is a force of nature.
They are to help her clear the sleep from her eyes so that she can breathe life into the exquisite gift that she has to offer the world as she navigates her way into her afternoon. Whether it is writing the book that she has had inside her for years or finally learning to put herself, and her needs, first.
It’s not about what she is ‘doing’.
It’s about how she is ‘being’.
It has to do with self-worth and self-love.
It has to do with dropping the need to look for outside approval that she is ‘enough’.
It has to do with her finally realizing that she is a stunning piece of the whole and that the world needs her to shine her unique and beautiful light.
And when she does?
That is when Jann Arden’s heat-wrenching plea from almost 3 decades ago will finally be answered.
It is up to us Wise Women now.
We are the healers.
We are the lovers.
We are the wise ones.
We are the midwives of the light, the love, and the Divine Feminine that is awakening on this planet.
It is our time.
It is time to stand together and call each other forth.
It is time to drop the belief that our wrinkles, our grey hair, and our sagging breasts are anything but sexy, potent, and stunningly beautiful indications of our deep and abiding wisdom.
It is time.
I truly believe in the centuries-old proverb which says…’when sleeping women wake…mountains move’.
I believe that we have a responsibility to awaken our inner power, our strength, and our wisdom.
And when we do, our awakening will support the shift that is taking place on this planet even as I write.
The shift to connection.
The shift to meaning.
The shift to love.
…Hoping that the kindness
Will lead us past the blindness
And not another living soul
Will ever have to feel
Unloved…
Wake up, Wise Woman…we have mountains to move!
