A NEW WAY OF BEING.....

“You must learn a new way to THINK before you can master a NEW WAY to be.

-Marianne Williamson

It is clear to me that this Pandemic is allowing us to Rethink so much about our out-of-balance selves, our unequal society, and our multi-cultural nations and our mis-used Earth.

This Pandemic is slamming us all up against a WALL of inequality in our neighborhoods, our states, our nation and indeed the whole of humankind. For all the boundaries and walls that we attempt to erect to keep people out, COVID-19 is impervious to such illusionary safety nets. Death comes to all -- various time-tables, different END Times-- yet there are those that we seem to have brought to the front of the line in the great Pandemic of 2020. They are the poor, the unemployed, the homeless, those without insurance, the weakened and sick, those who have trampled on the NEW RULES for HUMAN DISCOURSE -- six feet away to keep from being 6 feet under. We are amazed at those who challenge the sanctity of science, as though the Creator of Everything and All doesn’t exist, has not set in motion the PRECISE laws of the Universe that govern us all.

As CONSCIOUS people it is our assignment to “learn a new way to THINK before we can Master a NEW WAY to be.” Especially during a world crisis and threat to our very lives. To me, a large part of NEW THINKING is fully WAKING UP TO LOVE. It is LOVE that dispels the darkness, that warms the HEART of HUMANITY, that kindles the spark of THOUGHTFULNESS and KINDNESS so needed if we are to recognize what separates us in our minds does not carry over into our hearts and our actions.

If we are truly to transcend this global challenge, we must conquer the habit of thinking in terms of US and OTHERS. There are no “OTHERS”. We come from the same SOURCE, and in remembering this, teaching this, demonstrating this in our everyday behavior, perhaps we will one day master a NEW WAY of BEING.

Timeline of the Women's Suffrage Movement begun in the U.S.A. in 1840

Dedicated to the memory and passion of Lily Gabrielle Wilkinson Thompson,

my Grandmother, born in Mississippi in1868 and an untiring advocate for the

Suffrage Movement and Social Justice in her home state until her death in 1942.

1840 Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are barred from attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London. This prompts them to hold a Women's Convention in the US.

1848 Seneca Falls, New York is the location for the first Women's Rights Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton writes "The Declaration of Sentiments" creating the agenda of women's activism for decades to come.

1849 The first state constitution in California extends property rights to women.

1850 Worcester, Massachusetts, is the site of the first National Women's Rights Convention. Frederick Douglass, Paulina Wright Davis, Abby Kelley Foster, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth are in attendance. A strong alliance is formed with the Abolitionist Movement. 1851 Worcester, Massachusetts is the site of the second National Women's Rights Convention. Participants included Horace Mann, New York Tribune columnist Elizabeth Oaks Smith, and Reverend Harry Ward Beecher, one of the nation's most popular preachers.  At a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth, a former slave, delivers her now memorable speech, "Ain't I a woman?" 1852 The issue of women's property rights is presented to the Vermont Senate by Clara Howard Nichols. This is a major issue for the Suffragists.  "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published and quickly becomes a bestseller.

1853 Women delegates, Antoinette Brown and Susan B. Anthony, are not allowed to speak at The World's Temperance Convention held in New York City.

1861-1865 During the Civil War, efforts for the suffrage movement come to a halt. Women put their energies toward the war effort.

1866 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all regardless of gender or race.

1868 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Parker Pillsbury publish the first edition of The Revolution.  This periodical carries the motto “Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less!” Caroline Seymour Severance establishes the New England Woman’s Club.  The “Mother of Clubs” sparked the club movement which became popular by the late nineteenth century.  In Vineland, New Jersey, 172 women cast ballots in a separate box during the presidential election.  Senator S.C. Pomeroy of Kansas introduces the federal woman’s suffrage amendment in Congress.   Many early suffrage supporters, including Susan B. Anthony, remained single because in the mid-1800s, married women could not own property in their own rights and could not make legal contracts on their own behalf.  The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified. "Citizens" and "voters" are defined exclusively as male.

1869

The American Equal Rights Association is wrecked by disagreements over the Fourteenth Amendment and the question of whether to support the proposed Fifteenth Amendment which would enfranchise Black American males while avoiding the question of woman suffrage entirely.

To The Company of Pilgrims

To the fellow travelers,

the unlooked for blessings,

the gifts on the side of the road, 

the angels in the shadows,

the unexpected saviors,

the protectors from the storm,

the hidden treasures in the wilderness.

You who have been the company of pilgrims,

who have journeyed toward the Great Mystery with me,

you have brought shared nourishment,

diamonds of enlightenment,

shelter from the rains of sadness,

the courage of community,

songs of the sisterhood,

reassurance of the brotherhood,

the clarity of truth, and the renewal of hope.

I have been in the company of pilgrims.

We have walked the way together, 

you who have the courage of commitment and the vision of faith,

and I

certain that the way leads ever inward 

to the shrine of the Beloved

our sacred center.

In my heart there is a sanctuary of gratitude

where the deepest prayers of thanks are offered.

I hold you there always.

Linda Beatrice Brown— June 2019