Linda’s mom taught her about abundance–to be grateful rather than looking at what others had and wishing it were hers. When she was about 13, her girlfriends got a treasure trove of clothes and wonderful gifts and she complained a bit to her mom. “I wish I had …” BRAKES ON! Before she finished the…
We met two “cheerspreaders” when the newly-completed walking trail behind our home opened. In case you’re wondering, these are cheerleaders with powerful impact. They don’t just lead us in cheering on the team, they inspire us to be of good cheer and pass it along. Athletes and regular people like us flocked to the trail…
Calibrating Your Compass A compass is designed to aid in accurately navigating our travels. Ships and aircraft have highly refined devices, but nearly all of us carry a compass around in our phones. For the most part, my phone GPS saves me time and aggravation. Except when it decides to misbehave and send me off…
Tenille Farr loves Big Ocean Women. She proved it by finding time to chat with me for this article in the midst of company, three teenage sons involved in homecoming, ball games, her garden “on full strength,” canning, and a truckload of fruit to distribute. Seeing her jam-packed life, I offered to wait until another…
A virtual cottage meeting in August included members from several cottages. Big Ocean leaders added their thoughts and encouragement. Each attendee came away with a better understanding of the challenges women face and that many of these challenges are magnified by COVID-19. Not only did these women increase their knowledge, they found wisdom to help…
Nyachangkuoth Rambang Tai, also known as Tai, is the cottage president of the South Sudan Cottage. She recently shared how the donations from Big Ocean Women made an important start in lifting and caring for women and their families there. With painstaking care, Tai itemized the purchases made, accounting for all the funds. Can you…
This week we ordered oranges to support our local scouts. We had ordered them a few months ago and they were wonderful. We were surprised this time that most of the oranges were more green than orange. When I shop for oranges, I tend to choose the ones with the deepest orange skin. Out of…
This month’s tenet focuses on choices and their consequences, so I’ve paid close attention to this subject all month. Conditions in the world, our community, and my heart provided ample food for thought. For me, the answer to correctly exercising our freedom to choose boils down to Cinderella’s mantra, “have courage and be kind,” from…
The seeds for the new cottage in Ecuador were planted in 2016 when Big Ocean representatives attended Habitat III there. Vilma Sagebin saw Ana Carolina Gualinga Cuji (also called Anita) and her friend enter a Big Ocean Women presentation and offered to translate for them. When she sensed their uneasiness as the hour grew late,…
Vilma Sagebin had an up-close and personal view of Big Ocean’s beginnings through her daughter and our founder, Carolina Allen. Carolina had returned from attending a funeral in Hawaii where an experience made her conclude she must do something about the current negative trends and their influence on the rising generation. She told Vilma she…