by Julie Neale | Jul 21, 2021 | Mother on a Quest
Podcast guest, long-term community member, and Mom for Mom‘s Graeme Seabrook has an amazing new program launching, Motherload Liberation. We asked Graeme if she would share what she means by Motherload Liberation and why it’s so important, especially in the wake of the pandemic’s impact on mothers.
The last 18 months have been brutal. But let’s not all pretend it was sunshine and roses before. We moms, all 43.5 million of us, moved into this pandemic period already bruised and on the edge of (or fully in the midst of) burnout. It’s how modern motherhood is set up. We are expected to manage the mental, emotional, physical, financial, and cultural/spiritual health of ourselves, our children, and our families. We’re expected to do this while also being contributing members of our wider society outside of those roles. We’re expected to excel in all of these areas as if patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy aren’t poisoning us and our world.
It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic, if so many millions of us hadn’t internalized these expectations. So yes, this pandemic period has been awful in many ways – and it has also revealed rot that was already there.
I work with moms. As the founder of The Mom Center™, I hear from all kinds of moms from all around the country (and the UK and Brazil so far) and I’m hearing the same thing – burnout, frustration, and anger.
Even while so many of us are celebrating our moments of reconnection with friends and family, while we’re trying to navigate this ‘new normal’ I know that we cannot let the lessons learned during the height of the pandemic fade.
The way it was simply assumed on every level from the national government down to individual households that mothers would bear the childcare burden.
The way that was assumed by moms, themselves.
The millions of mothers who were forced out of the workforce.
The millions of mothers whose spouses began to work from home, but who never acknowledged all the home-work that was being done on a daily basis to make that possible.
Each year, I teach a course called Motherload Liberation. Not in 2020, though. I spent last year reworking the entire thing from the ground up. I did that because what I was seeing in homes across the country and around the world broke my heart and filled me with rage.
Mothers were being ignored, discarded, undervalued. Fathers who were oblivious.
And now the talk has shifted to going back to offices and jumpstarting the economy and somehow gaining back the losses women in general and mothers, in particular, have suffered. I don’t see how that’s possible without both personal healing for moms and collective action to change the systems in this country (and globally).
Because this will happen again. Or something similar will. There will be some emergency that puts pressure on the idea of the 50/50 relationship and the lie will crumble right before our eyes.
I cannot, on my own, affect systemic change. I can help moms to peel back the curtain and understand how these systems have impacted them, their partners, and their parenting. I can help moms make sustainable changes in their lives and relationships that will alter the balance of responsibility.
Motherload Liberation is a 10-week course for mothers who are married or partnered with men that address how patriarchy and capitalism show up in your relationship and in your parenting. The course includes an entire year of support from me as well, so no matter what comes our way you will not be alone in navigating it.
This course supports the inner healing work necessary for you to make sustainable changes in your life and in how your family works. I’m not talking about reading an article and trying something for a week – I’m talking about a seismic shift in who is responsible for all aspects of raising your children.
This course is for the mom of young ones who have been under immense pressure to be your child’s everything while in isolation and is overwhelmed and exhausted.
This course is for the moms of older kiddos who navigated online school, and missing friends, and reentry drama.
This course is for moms of teens who think it’s too late to make real changes and who are just holding on until graduation.
If you’re a mom in a relationship with a man, this course is for you. And now is the time. You’ve seen how even though “he’s not as bad as my friends’ husbands” he still doesn’t carry anywhere near the load that you do. You’ve felt the exhaustion and cried out the frustration. And I’m telling you that you can, you absolutely can break these systems down within your own home.
That change will ripple throughout your life. That change will embolden you when you are in the world outside your home. That change will show your children what adulthood and motherhood can be.
Motherload Liberation is enrolling now. I hope that you’ll join us. I hope you’ll share it with your friends. I hope you’ll choose now as your time.
Graeme is offering 10% off* for Mother’s Quest members. Prices go up after August 5, 2021. Click here to sign-up today!
P.S. Did you ever tune into the Mother’s Quest Podcast episode featuring Graeme? It’s a powerful conversation. Check it out here. During the episode, Graeme and Julie conceived of the Manifesto Challenge, what became a 5-day experience, with recorded videos, daily prompts, and a reflective journal to help you reclaim how you want to live your life in motherhood. You can now follow-along in a FREE self-guided journey on the Mother’s Quest Portal. Sign-up here.
* This post contains affiliate links to courses and products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
by Julie Neale | Jan 21, 2020 | Mother on a Quest
In my last episode on the Mother’s Quest Podcast, Desiree Lynn Adaway and Pamela Slim challenged me to read only books from authors of color for three months.
I decided to start by analyzing just the bookshelf in my bedroom to first get a sense of baseline. Out of 63 books, only 11 were of authors of color. That’s only 17.4% of all the books I had on my bedroom shelves!!
That will change.
In addition to reading from the books on my shelf of authors of color, I’m committed to filling an entire book shelf. I’d love to know some of your favorites in the comments and what you love about them to help me diversify my bookshelf. All genres welcome.
And, I invite you to join me in our Diversity Bookshelf Challenge! If you too are of a dominant identity, and white in this western world that we live in, take 3 months (or 6 months!) to allow new voices to come into our world. In doing this, Desiree says you will never be the same. If you are not white, but interested in diversifying in a way that is meaningful to you, say “yes” to your own challenge too.
how the challenge works:
- Do an assessment first of your library or one bookshelf.
- Take photos, share and declare your intention to diversify your bookshelf too using the hashtag #diversitybookshelfchallenge
- I would love for you to tag me and Mother’s Quest as well so I know we’re in it together.
a few book recommendations:
(Note: This post includes affiliate links. For more details about affiliate links, please click here to see our website terms of service.)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
From Scratch by Tembi Locke
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker
Can’t wait to see how our bookshelves and our perspectives expand together!
Much appreciation,
P.S. Oh…and if you haven’t listened to this episode yet, where the challenge all began, with Desiree and Pamela, it’s a great place to start.
Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/
by Julie Neale | Sep 27, 2018 | Mother on a Quest, Uncategorized
A few weeks ago, in a workshop at Camp GLP, I was asked “what is your biggest scar and what’s the story behind it?”
It’s had me thinking a lot about the eight inch scar from the top of my chest to inches above my belly button, a result of open heart surgery at the age of ten.
And, because I’m a meaning maker, I’ve been looking for clues about how that experience connects to my passionate and purposeful work and life today.
I was born with an atrial septal defect, essentially a hole in my heart, but we didn’t detect it until I was ten years old. Within weeks of hearing the heart murmur, and determining the cause, I was in open heart surgery at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, having my hole repaired with my own tissue, sewn over just like a patch.
It was truly miraculous. I had one of the only heart diseases that is 100% curable. And able to be fixed from something I had within myself.
The Connection to Coaching
This idea…that we have what we need already inside ourselves is why I fell in love with the model of coaching, trained as a life and leadership coach, and have coaching as a core element of the Mother’s Quest community.
When you work with me as your coach, I hold that you are resourceful and whole, even if there are parts of your life that need repair or shifting. And I believe the person closest to the truth of what you seek, and to the solutions to the challenges you face, is you.
At the same time, I know that it’s very challenging, if not impossible, to tap into that wisdom and those solutions by yourself. A great coach can hold space for you to reflect, listen deeply, ask empowering questions that clarify, help you craft a plan of action, and provide accountability from a place of kindness. We can also share lessons learned from our own experience and offer powerful perspective that can shift your thinking.
When I think about my heart surgery as a metaphor for living our E.P.I.C. lives, it’s true that my own tissue was the cure I needed for my hole. But, it’s also true that it would have been absurd to expect that I could open my own chest and do the repairing myself.
That’s why I believe its a powerful investment to work with a coach like me. Why I feel in alignment when I charge money in exchange for my coaching to you. And, why I invest in coaching and mastermind circles for myself.
One morning, after reflecting on all of this, I looked in the mirror and noticed I was wearing a tank top that revealed my scar. In a flash, the lesson and meaning of my experience came to me quite clearly, along with the realization that I was literally wearing a heart. So, I snapped a photo and share it with you along with this message and invitation to invest in coaching for yourself.
Journey to Right Livelihood
Over the next few days in the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, I’m inviting you to learn about a program starting this Thursday provided by my own coach, Lindsay Pera, called Journey to Right Livelihood, some of the reasons why I value working with Lindsay, and lessons I’ve learned from her along the way.
And we’ll explore how Lindsay’s Journey to Right Livelihood, along with some coaching bonuses I’ll offer as an affiliate, might support you. If you’re not yet a member of the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, come on over and join us for a facebook live with Lindsay on Wednesday morning and more personal posts. Visit www.mothersquest.com/community to join.
I look forward to reflecting together on our quest for right livelihood, our answers within, and the power of coaching to help us live our E.P.I.C. lives.
If you know you’re ready to learn more about Lindsay’s program, send me an email and I’ll get you the links to get more information and sign up.
Much appreciation,
Journey to Right Livelihood
Are you, like me, on a quest for Right Livelihood? 
🙋♀️
✨Do you ever tell yourself that you can’t make money doing what you love?
✨Do you sometimes feel as though you can have financial success OR you can be happy, but you can’t have both?
✨Do you believe that you must sacrifice one for the other because they are mutually exclusive?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, or begun shifting your beliefs on these but still have days of doubt… my coach, Lindsay Pera, has a fall program, “Journey to Right Livelihood” that could be for you.
Watch the replay of a conversation I had with Lindsay in the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group last week to learn more or learn more and sign up at this link https://lindsay-pera.simplero.com/purchase/65304-Journey-To-Right-Livelihood
I’m so looking forward to participating in Journey to Right Livelihood as a learner as well. And, I’m honored to be an affiliate and offer some special Mother’s Quest bonuses for any from my community who come along for the journey. We’ll explore this inquiry and move into action in our E.P.I.C. lives together.
When you sign up with Journey to Right Livelihood will get a Mother’s Quest bonus.
Interested in exploring other ways to work with me as your coach? You can sign up for a free discovery call and learn more.
>>Book a Discovery Call<<
by Julie Neale | Aug 11, 2018 | 52 Tales, Mother on a Quest
52 Mother’s Quest Tales of our Humanity…. (4/52)
Week Four
This week, I reconnected with filmmaker Kirthi Nath. Kirthi and I crossed paths years ago, when she worked at the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) and submitted a film from youth she mentored to the Project YouthView film festival that I co-founded.
That film, called the APOLLOS, was my favorite film across a decade of showcasing youth-created film shorts, because it highlighted a story about young people, who in 1979, lobbied in Sacramento successfully to create Martin Luther King Day as a state holiday. They succeeded after others failed.
I highly recommend you click the link above and listen to this story. It will inspire you by the power of young people to make a difference, to have their voices heard, and to tell stories that need to be told.
That belief in the power of young people for change and to use their voices, is what drives the mother I’m highlighting in this week’s Tales of our Humanity series, Yong Pratt. Read on to hear about how Yong is harnessing the power of technology, much like Kirthi did for the youth creators of APOLLOS, to help her children and others to tell their stories.
Here’s to the power of young people. Here’s to the possibility of technology to tell stories of resilience and change. Here’s to our humanity 
By Yong Pratt, Our Young Creators – She’s a veteran podcaster, author of the book, Raising A Superhero: How to Unleash Your Child’s 8 Super Powers & Propel Learning Through the Arts, mom of 2 daughters, wife, and lover of travel, coffee, reaching, and archery.
Teaching kids to share their voices for good using the devices they love
What if we could take an adventure with our kids to locales worldwide to serve communities AND teach them skills to use their devices to:
- Report of their adventures
- Share the impact they’re making as family in the world
- Document the good work and the changes they’re creating
Can you imagine?
By equipping kids with real-world, hire-able skills (like podcasting and video production), we are demonstrating that we acknowledge their inherent value and all the gifts that make them unique.
We are opening doors to all the possibilities that exist for them now and in the future.
We are enabling our kids to use their voices to be beacons of hope, inspiration, and action.
We are giving them opportunities to become the innovators, servant leaders, and the creators of their own brighter futures – futures THEY control AND can fund.
And just so you know, I’m right in the mix with all of you.
My own kids have been my lab partners in this very experiment of teaching them real-world, hireable skills.
This is my 12-year-old Daphne working side by side with me in our PJs to create a masterclass that she and I co-taught. She put together the entire themed and animated slide deck knowing we’d have both kids and parents in the class. She took the outline I gave her and made it her own and she totally rocked it! What she created was so different (and way better) than I would have put together. The masterclass was infused with so much of what makes Daphne unique and the experience was an opportunity to bond, laugh, and build memories.
Soon after we did our first Masterclass together, she was hired by another amazing business owner to help her with her website, YouTube videos, and social media graphics. She was compensated for her services and used a portion of the funds to attend a week-long math and technology camp. To say that I’m one proud mama is an understatement.
Soon after we did our first Masterclass together, she was hired by another amazing business owner to help her with her website, YouTube videos, and social media graphics. She was compensated for her services and used a portion of the funds to attend a week-long math and technology camp. To say that I’m one proud mama is an understatement.
My oldest, Sophie who’s now 15, was hesitant to join us in the experiment in the beginning. She’s since changed her tune as she thinks about how she’ll fund her college education. Here’s a pic (again in jammies – are you noticing a theme? 
) at the kitchen table working on our new Pinterest Page.
Each of us, kids included, has so much to share. Our gifts and our talents were bestowed on us for a very specific reason: to share our journey, our gifts, our successes, our failures, our moments of joy and bliss in the hopes that someone else can learn from us, reach success faster with our help and our stories, and be inspired to go boldly into the world to create more change, more positivity, more GOOD.
This, my friends, is the biggest gift we can give to our kids.
Let’s embrace the technology for what it is.
Let’s teach our kids to become intentional with the use of their technology.
Read the full article and watch the video here
Why these Tales?
I had a conversation with another mother about the state of our country right now and how hard it has felt to stay connected to our humanity…to turn our sadness and anger into responsibility and social action, to not shut off, to keep showing up to parent our children mindfully.
I decided I want to share one story each week for the next year about an engaged mother and her child that will reconnect us to perseverance, heart and resilience. To that spark in all of us, and in our children, to pursue the
things that matter, even when we feel like we might want to give up.
Get More Stories Like This
Get weekly inspiration like this by liking the Mother’s Quest Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/MothersQuest
or search for #52TalesOfOurHumanity on Social Media
Take this Play to Senate – Support our GoFundMe Campaign & Action Steps
In CA, at the time of the release of this episode, lawmakers are about to deliberate on two key police accountability bills, SB-1421 and AB-931. In advance of that deliberation, I’m working with Nikki Yeboah, the producer of a powerful play called (M)others, to bring forward the stories of those who’ve lost loved ones to police brutality to the Sacramento community and to the lawmakers who will vote on this bill. We need your help to raise funds, to spread the word, and to call CA lawmakers, urge them to attend, and to vote yes on these bills. Visit gofundme.com/slash take-this-play-to-senate to learn more about this effort and how you can support. Willing to make phone calls to CA lawmakers? Find additional background and call scripts for the CA bills (among others) from Indivisible herehttps://www.indivisible.org/resource/police-reform-california/.
Join us for a 2-Week Miracle Morning Challenge
As the school year approaches, with two big transitions (one son going to kindergarten and the other to high school) I knew I needed to tune-up my morning practice! And, I wanted to share the power of the Miracle Morning experience with my children.
So, I reached out to my friend and former podcast guest Lindsay McCarthy to see if she’d be willing to help. Lindsay is the author of the Miracle Morning for Parents and Families and an expert at inspiring moms like me to make these powerful morning practices work for our families.
If you’d like to come along for helpful daily prompts over the course of two weeks from Lindsay, personal reflections from me as I follow them, and group community and accountability, come over to the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group!
Spark Your E.P.I.C. Life
Join me for the first “Spark Your E.P.I.C. Life” Pilot! Four consecutive weeks of one-on-one coaching using a signature process I’ve been facilitating in my circles this spring 🍃
I have space for three clients to experience an intensive, one-one-one, four-week coaching process this summer. Could this be you?
✨Do you feel like you’re on the threshold of a powerful shift in your life?
✨Are you ready to spark new perspectives, new ways of being, and some E.P.I.C. action of your own?
✨Have you wanted to participate in the Mother’s Quest Circle but the timing wasn’t right or you prefer to work one-on-one?
We’ve had an amazing experience in the Mother’s Quest Virtual Circle and I want to bring the same practices and flow to work one-on-one in a more focused period of time…over one month instead of three.
Interested? I’d love to schedule a time to check-in about what’s happening in your life and how this could support you.
✏️Sign up for a discovery session at this link or message me some times that could work for you if you don’t see something that fits your schedule. https://mothersquest.as.me/discoverysession
by Julie Neale | Aug 6, 2018 | 52 Tales, Mother on a Quest
52 Mother’s Quest Tales of our Humanity…. (3/52)
Why these Tales?
I had a conversation with another mother about the state of our country right now and how hard it has felt to stay connected to our humanity…to turn our sadness and anger into responsibility and social action, to not shut off, to keep showing up to parent our children mindfully.
I decided I want to share one story each week for the next year about an engaged mother and her child that will reconnect us to perseverance, heart and resilience. To that spark in all of us, and in our children, to pursue the things that matter, even when we feel like we might want to give up.
Week Three
Closing the last few minutes of this week reading and sharing the latest Mother’s Quest Tales of our Humanity contribution, #3 of 52. It is a set of powerful reflections on the the E.P.I.C. framework from podcast guest and Mother’s Quest Circle member Nancy Netherland, informed by the latest health challenge with her daughter Lala.
I’m in constant awe of Nancy, Lala, and Lala’s sister, known as the “Commander.” Here’s to their courage, resiliency and positivity in the face of adversity.
Here’s to our humanity
By Nancy Netherland, KIDS & CAREGIVERS – Resources for caregivers, kids with chronic illness, and those who support them
Engaged- in the moment
My ten year old Lala looked good today – happy, relaxed, and healthy – and I realized it’s been years since that I have seen her without her face drawn in pain or swollen from the steroids used to keep her illness at bay. After a week in the hospital, an eventful and rough week, two weeks ago Lala began the infusions she will need for the rest of her life.
It was with total delight I watched Lala play with her puppy and her sister in the backyard yesterday. And with even more joy I sent her and her sister off to play with friends at a local pool today.
Lala has taught me to engage with the good moments, the people I love, and to the experiences matter. She has above all else taught me to be very much in the moment, to fully engage in each moment, and to remember that small moments cannot be taken for granted.
Passionate- about priorities
Lala is a force of nature. She is a fierce and funny ten year old with a wild mane of curly hair (half of which has fallen out the past few months) who wears formal party dresses and a wonder woman costume to her medical appointments and hospital admissions. She is fiercely and passionately committed to holding on to the magic of childhood and ensuring that her medical teams remember that she is above all else; a child. And because she often feels poorly, Lala has learned to do what matters. She is passionate about putting what she loves first.
Lala has taught me everything about being passionate about prioritizing. I used to worry about pleasing other people, making sure my house was clean and organized, and that the dishes were done immediately after finishing a meal. Now, I regularly say “no” to family and friends and sit at the dinner table with dirty dishes and play card games with my girls.
Invested – in learning new ways of being
We as a family have all learned to live with the unknown of a rare disease and chronic pain. That has required an investment in new skills and new tools.
“You are so zen and able to hold so much” – said the hospital attending to me after six of her staff had restrained a screaming Lala to insert an IV following a failed infusion, a blown vein, a second failed infusion, and a very long week in the hospital. Thirty minutes prior, I had led Lala through a guided meditation and breathing exercise to calm my child and myself as her medical team gathered around her bed at three-thirty in the morning for a final attempt to insert the IV my needle phobic daughter needed for health saving medications to drip into her veins. I had looked up to see four nurses and two doctors with one hand on their heart and the other on their lower bellies doing deep and measured breathing as I calmly talked us into a place of connection with calm breath. Because frankly, I didn’t know what else to do and “yoga breathing” sometimes helps Lala feel less frightened.
As a family we have all learned new skills – meditation, guided imagery, yoga, and how to insert as many opportunities to play and experience joy as possible.
Connected – to a community
I have yet to find the “What to Expected When the Unexpected Happens…” resource that will instruct me on how to navigate parenting a child with a chronic and often debilitating illness. But through Lala I have learned to connect and to be embraced by, and to create, communities that nourish and nurture me and my family. I have learned these skills through and on behalf of my children.
Lala is amazing at reaching out to her friends and making new ones. I recently watched her delightedly walk around the hospital with some young teens she had just met who also live with chronic illnesses and together they were talking about Instagram, infusions, and shared interests.
Lala has taught me to reach out to my peers as well. Lala and I are part of a community of families that have a child living with a chronic illness. I am have also learned to embrace and leverage connections of all types – from a those networks needed for medical advocacy to those friends who help me figure out the what is next.
EPIC
Lala has taught me how to live an EPIC life as a mother. She has changed my life trajectory, taught me everything about faith, and shown me how to be engaged, live with passion, invest deeply, and connect. She has also gifted me with my next career: to advocate for caregiver wellness and pediatric medical settings that are trauma informed.
If you want to learn more about Nancy, her girls, and her work underway to help other families, check out the comment below for the link to the show notes from our episode on the podcast, with all the ways to follow her.
Show notes with all the links here http://mothersquest.com/ep30-nancy-netherland/
Get More Stories Like This
Get weekly inspiration like this by liking the Mother’s Quest Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/MothersQuest
or search for #52TalesOfOurHumanity on Social Media
Milestone Rite of Passage Coaching Session
The focus of a recent episode on the podcast with my son Ryan was about honoring the milestones in our lives. I’ve learned that when we’re moving through these periods of transition, it can be so powerful to slow down and reflect on our experience. If you’re on the verge of a new chapter, or your child is as we approach the new school year, and would like coaching to cross the threshold thoughtfully, email me at julie@mothersquest.com to find out more about my Milestone Rite of Passage Coaching Session. I’d love to help you gather your lessons learned and clarify your vision for what’s ahead. When we do this for ourselves, we can be powerful guides for our children!
Spark Your E.P.I.C. Life
Join me for the first “Spark Your E.P.I.C. Life” Pilot! Four consecutive weeks of one-on-one coaching using a signature process I’ve been facilitating in my circles this spring 🍃
I have space for three clients to experience an intensive, one-one-one, four-week coaching process this summer. Could this be you?
✨Do you feel like you’re on the threshold of a powerful shift in your life?
✨Are you ready to spark new perspectives, new ways of being, and some E.P.I.C. action of your own?
✨Have you wanted to participate in the Mother’s Quest Circle but the timing wasn’t right or you prefer to work one-on-one?
We’ve had an amazing experience in the Mother’s Quest Virtual Circle and I want to bring the same practices and flow to work one-on-one in a more focused period of time…over one month instead of three.
Interested? I’d love to schedule a time to check-in about what’s happening in your life and how this could support you.
✏️Sign up for a discovery session at this link or message me some times that could work for you if you don’t see something that fits your schedule. https://mothersquest.as.me/discoverysession
by Julie Neale | Jul 25, 2018 | 52 Tales, Mother on a Quest
52 Mother’s Quest Tales of our Humanity…. (2/52)
Dedicated to the memory of Nia Wilson
Why these Tales? – I had a conversation with another mother about the state of our country right now and how hard it has felt to stay connected to our humanity…to turn our sadness and anger into responsibility and social action, to not shut off, to keep showing up to parent our children mindfully.
I decided I want to share one story each week for the next year about an engaged mother and her child that will reconnect us to perseverance, heart and resilience. To that spark in all of us, and in our children, to pursue the things that matter, even when we feel like we might want to give up.
Week Two
This week, on the heels of attending Kate Schatz’ launch event for her new book “RAD GIRLS CAN,” and in the wake of the tragic loss of life and promise of Nia Simmons, I’m honored to share a series of stories about an incredible 7 year-old girl, Havana, written by her mother Bethany Edwards.
Along with the support of her parents, Havana is already proving there are so many things she CAN do to make a difference, defying stereotypes based on the color of her skin and her age, at every turn.
Havana sees the potential in herself and in her peers. She said it best at a recent event where she spoke “Every single girl in this room is a warrior. And every girl here can change the world.”
Here’s to Havana, here’s to her mother Bethany, here’s to our humanity
By Bethany Edwards, BIRACIAL BOOKWORMS
CHANGEMAKERS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES
Changemaker– a big word that simply means starting something that matters. Furthermore, being a changemaker could matter to 1 person or 1 million people. But to act on injustice or inequality, I recognize that changemakers come in all shapes and sizes.
Recently, my 7-year-old daughter Havana was featured on national and international news. From the outside looking in, there were millions of people applauding her for being a change maker. They even went as far as calling her a hero.
From inside looking out, we were in disbelief watching a simple act get millions of heads to turn in her direction for simply doing what she thought was right in the moment.
Read more here…
FIGHTING FOR GIRL’S EDUCATION IN GHANA
One of the most incredible opportunities I have ever had is spending 9 days on a literacy adventure to fight for girl’s education with not 1, but 2 future astronauts!
My daughter Havana met up with philanthropist, activist, as well as all around wonderful Taylor Richardson to travel to Ghana in West Africa for a literacy adventure.
Wrinkle in Time Ghana
It started with Taylor raising over $100,000 to send girls to see Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time. She had screenings and passed out books in cities all over the United States. Additionally, Taylor also donated books and sponsored a screening for the girls in her Havana’s book club with her choir.
After Taylor met Oprah Winfrey at the world premiere of the movie, as well as Good Morning America, Taylor and Havana decided to take their fight for girl’s education global. Learn more about their partnership: Changemakers Come in all Shapes and Sizes.
Read more here…
Meet The Dynamic Duo On A Determined Mission To Bring Books To Girls In Ghana Orphanage
In February, 7-year-old Havana Chapman-Edwards, one of the most inspiring girls we know, launched a crowdfunding campaign so she could buy books for kids in a book club she started; kids who she says, “look like me”. She met her original goal of $6,000 and is not stopping there. Havana just joined forces with 14-year-old Taylor Richardson, another inspiring change-maker we are honored to know. Together, this dynamic duo is raising $15,000 to fund a girl-powered, book-fueled mission that will take them to Ghana this July… and we can all help them get there.
Havana started her Rhymers Are Readers book club last year for members of her church choir. She says her original goal was to help “all 12 of my choir friends feel confident in their reading ability and to see kids who look like them in the books they read.” At each monthly club meeting, Havana reads a book aloud about “an amazing female black role model”, women and girls whom she counts as her “sheroes”.
Read more here…
Bethany Edwards is an elementary educator and reading specialist. She has taught in the U.S. as well as international schools in 5 different countries. Her goal is to encourage diverse representation in teaching literacy skills. She is a children’s book activist fighting for girls around the world to have equal access to an education.
Her website is full of resources to empower and arm families/ teachers with tools to teach children to read. She also promotes global citizenship through reading diverse books, traveling, and learning multiple languages!
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Milestone Rite of Passage Coaching Session
The focus of a recent episode on the podcast with my son Ryan was about honoring the milestones in our lives. I’ve learned that when we’re moving through these periods of transition, it can be so powerful to slow down and reflect on our experience. If you’re on the verge of a new chapter, or your child is as we approach the new school year, and would like coaching to cross the threshold thoughtfully, email me at julie@mothersquest.com to find out more about my Milestone Rite of Passage Coaching Session. I’d love to help you gather your lessons learned and clarify your vision for what’s ahead. When we do this for ourselves, we can be powerful guides for our children!
Spark Your E.P.I.C. Life
Join me for the first “Spark Your E.P.I.C. Life” Pilot! Four consecutive weeks of one-on-one coaching using a signature process I’ve been facilitating in my circles this spring 🍃
I have space for three clients to experience an intensive, one-one-one, four-week coaching process this summer. Could this be you?
✨Do you feel like you’re on the threshold of a powerful shift in your life?
✨Are you ready to spark new perspectives, new ways of being, and some E.P.I.C. action of your own?
✨Have you wanted to participate in the Mother’s Quest Circle but the timing wasn’t right or you prefer to work one-on-one?
We’ve had an amazing experience in the Mother’s Quest Virtual Circle and I want to bring the same practices and flow to work one-on-one in a more focused period of time…over one month instead of three.
Interested? I’d love to schedule a time to check-in about what’s happening in your life and how this could support you.
✏️Sign up for a discovery session at this link or message me some times that could work for you if you don’t see something that fits your schedule. https://mothersquest.as.me/discoverysession
