Women have the right to speak their mind and conscience. Women have a powerful individual and collective voice. Big Ocean Women believe that each woman has innate power to enact change. This power is magnified when women gather together and organize. We have gathered with other like minded organizations and friends to enact a national survey regarding the general support regarding the status of women’s right to privacy and safety. The results are in! The data overwhelmingly supports and affirms that a majority of people across the country support and are concerned about the right to privacy, safety, and well-being. This is a tremendous victory for women and girls!
This data places into stark contrast the messages sent via mainstream media outlets as well as from certain leaders in government who, whether overtly or unknowingly, are shutting down the voices of women. There is overwhelming proof that voters support the right for women to maintain safety, privacy, as well as individual and collective language based on a fully sexed female body.
The time is now to join with us in creating a safe harbor for women and girls throughout the world!
There is a thought that gets shared around this time of year in northern areas with four seasons about how the leaves are about to show us how beautiful it is to let things go. My mind got to wandering as I considered this the other day. Yes, the changing of the colors of the…
Twenty years ago, the September 11 terrorist attacks diverted 38 flights to Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Aircraft instruments, air traffic controllers, and pilots guided the planes to land at the quiet airport that had been threatened with closure. As the town of 7,000 swelled to twice its population, a more critical navigational aid guided…
Lyn Misner is a relatively new member of the Big Ocean Women community, and she brings with her a wealth of wisdom and understanding from her life. Lyn grew up in what she describes as a “wonderful family” as the oldest of five children. She feels it was a blessing to have had her paternal…
When leaders for the St. George, Utah, cottage attended the global retreat in Fairview, Utah in August, they were inspired. Since most of their members couldn’t attend, they organized their own retreat three weeks later with a light that is uniquely theirs. They described their purpose this way: As members of Big Ocean Women, we…
This post was shared with permission from the author, Kallie Dalley Rally for Dalley Tomorrow it will be 1 year. 365 days since our world stopped spinning as we knew it. I’ll never forget that day. The day cancer took a cure away & left us with a terminal diagnosis. I’ll never forget sliding down…
“The world is full of obvious things, which no one by chance ever observed” —Sherlock Holmes On Sunday evenings, my family goes for a walk. I am not sure when this tradition began, or who started it, although I have a sneaking suspicion it was my husband, and that he regularly dragged me along, as…
Thomas Edison never invented a compass. It was one of the few things, perhaps, that he didn’t invent or improve. By the time he died in 1931, Thomas Edison had acquired a record 1,093 patents for his amazing inventions. I wrote this article on a phone, which is powered by a battery, and the light…
The virtue words don’t seem to be used in our conversations much today. In fact, use of the word virtue itself is quite uncommon. I come across those virtue words such as loyalty, bravery, honesty, diligence, patience, humility, temperance, and integrity most often in social media memes. It is far too simple to pass along…
Gathering Wisdom This month as we seek to gather knowledge and wisdom, may I suggest we examine the power of gathering with others? Such a gathering was our Big Ocean Women Retreat last month. The synergy created by combining women with diverse ideas, knowledge, and talents enriched each participant. In addition to the roughly forty…
On August 21, Big Ocean Women joined like-minded organizations and 200 attendees in a vigil to offer prayer, hope, and support for the people of Afghanistan in wake of the Taliban takeover. See more in a Salt Lake Tribune report and our social media post.
I’ve been thinking about tomatoes. Not the uniformly red tomatoes of about the same size and shape that you can buy in the produce aisle at your local grocery store. No, I have been thinking about late summer tomatoes grown in a backyard garden, the gloriously uneven and brilliantly colored globes sheltered from the midmorning…
Twenty years ago, when I started having my babies, I was gifted some very lovely blankets by wonderful women I knew and loved. Some of my favorites had crocheted edges, and I would admire the handiwork when I held my babies wrapped in the beautiful blankets that offered warmth and reminded us of the love…
During the Renaissance, the idea arose that a person could study and become learned in all the knowledge of mankind. Leonardo da Vinci is often listed as a quintessential “Renaissance man” though there have been many other examples, even before the Renaissance era. The current term for someone who is greatly knowledgeable in many fields…
I love puzzles and mysteries. There is such a thrill in the victory of finally figuring out the solution. Last fall our family participated in a tropical island plane crash themed “puzzle room.” In order to escape the imaginary island, we had to solve a series of puzzles with only the items we found in…
https://youtu.be/5uSi_0NQlyI Margo Watson expresses her gratitude for attending the Big Ocean Women retreat in Fairview, Utah. The retreat took place on the 5th and 6th of August.
Lately my thoughts have been engrossed with the current chaos and division in the world. We are constantly bombarded with this reality in the news, daily conversations, and social media feeds. What an exciting yet terrifying time we live in! Among other things, Big Ocean Women are advocates for laws and policies to protect the…
There she was on the morning horizon shining! Her bright countenance ablaze with glory. Her heart refined to gold. Her mind sharp with knowledge. Her feet swiftly moving toward her future! She was richly dressed in feminine experience. Upon her flowing tresses she wore a crown of wisdom. Eternal and flaming love were written in…
In an ancient Hindu fable, six blind men encounter an elephant for the first time. Each man touches a different part of the elephant’s body with vastly different conclusions. The version of this story in poetic form was a beloved children’s picture book I remember fondly. As I contemplated our tenet this month on seeking…
As I thought about this month’s tenet, “We greatly value the unique and contributing role of families,” my mind went to the great variety of the makeup of families. It’s very true that families come in all shapes and sizes. In a perfect world, all children would be brought up in loving homes, with two…
In our society, blended families have been increasing in number. This video describes what it is like through the eyes of the children who have experienced the difficulties and the joys of joining two families together.
Few would argue that the traditional family–birth or adoptive–is without parallel in providing nurture, guidance, and support to the rising generation. As a child of divorced parents, I salute my mom who provided these essentials to me despite running our family business and rearing six children. Not every child is part of such a family,…
As a youngster I often walked the quarter mile up our country road to visit my grandparents. As I look back sixty years at those visits, I have come to realize that it wasn’t just the stick of Juicy Fruit gum from Grandpa’s pocket or the slice of fresh homemade bread that kept me returning…
The moment I knew my life was about to shift, there was what I can only describe as an internal earthquake at a 9.2 on the Richter scale. I had my youngest daughter on my hip, standing in our kitchen talking to my oldest daughter who was opening the fridge door. My oldest turned to…
Family, Such a simple word, yet it carries a magnitude of meaning. What is family? Why is this role important? If you’re reading this, take a moment and set a 30-second timer. I want you to close your eyes, take a slow deep breath in for at least 3 counts, then exhale for 5 counts…
I am a member of Rotary International. Rotary club members work to improve life for some of the world’s vulnerable populations. Rotary’s global grants support these efforts in communities worldwide. The grants must be sustainable, meaning they provide long-term solutions that community members themselves can support after grant funding ends. To apply for a global…
One of the realities for me of being a writing teacher is that I spend my life reading: reading books, reading craft theory, reading student drafts, reading the work of my writing group. I find myself frequently in a place to discuss with others their ideas and their opinions and their storytelling—whether they are writing…
We begin the new year with this powerful tenet: “We believe in God and are women of faith.” This is a common theme about which we speak and write. But it is more than words and ideas. It is most powerful when modeled by the examples of women who live it. We invited such women…
I met Dr. Ugochi Ohajuruka the first time I went to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in 2017. As I filmed her, I was so taken by her desire to lift women out of poverty and give girls the correct maturation knowledge and tools to build a good foundation for the future.…
