Saturday, October 22, 2016 was a full day of rite-of-passage rituals and sisterhood. We kicked it off with a Mother-Daughter Red Tent in the morning. Our monthly Red Tent was later in the evening -- but this one was extra special because we also performed a Blessingway ceremony!
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 After reading the novel The Red Tent in 2000, I became passionate about women coming together. Six years later, a vision came to me to create permanent brick-and-mortar Red Tents around the world. This vision consumed me and urged me to make it a reality. I worked on a plan diligently for 2 years and then the Great Recession hit. It was a challenging time. I had to shelve my Red Tent idea and focus on my existing gem and mineral business.
Thankfully, my business stabilized in the last couple years and I’ve been able to take Moondays off the shelf and put my plan into action. Ten years after conceiving Moondays, I now have two years under my belt hosting monthly Red Tents. It has been an amazing experience so far! I’ve met so many wonderful women and have witnessed many lovely connections among them. I get a lot of moral support for my vision as I journey forward. At this point, I am 20 months away from crowdsourcing the capital needed to rent a location, build it out and have enough working capital to get it going. I plan on using Hatch Oregon’s new crowdsourcing platform which allows people to invest in local companies without having to be qualified investors. (Meaning anyone who is an Oregon resident will be able to buy equity in Moondays!) I’m really excited about working with local investors and it looks like the perfect place for Moondays to get the right support. I plan on enrolling in their accelerator program in 2017 which will help me get prepared for the launch. The cost for the accelerator program is $2,500; my goal is to do enough fundraising next year to help cover that cost. The first event towards that goal will be a Pop-Up Red Tent next April. Stay tuned for more detail. Tiffany Prescott from Periodic, Inc. and Amber Carol-Lewis, who caters our monthly Red Tents, both agreed to help me with that project and I am so grateful! I will need a couple more volunteers to help out the day of the Pop-Up Red Tent, so please let me know if you’re interested. I recently joined a virtual sister-circle program for women who lead sister circles, in order to take care of myself and get the support I need. I’m excited about the program -- how I will learn and grow from it and the inspiration and connections that will be generated from it. I will keep you all posted about new developments! Thanks for joining me on this journey towards making Moondays a reality, and helping me “call it in.” I appreciate all of your support: the good thoughts (your thoughts alone affect things), the attendance at our Red tents, the financial and volunteer contributions and sharing the vision with friends and family. Blessings to you!  At our September Red Tent, we honored and celebrated the Fall Equinox since it occurred just two days prior. The three things that stand out most for me during this time of year are: harvest, balance (since day and night are almost equal,) and preparing to go into the darker months. This time of year, we welcome the Dark Mother or Crone in the Triple Goddess. In our sharing, we reflected on three things: what are we harvesting in our lives currently, how does balance play itself out in our lives and our shadow work. I’ve done a lot of personal development in my life, but the term ‘Shadow Work’ was relatively new to me. As one who likes to focus on the positive, I never really wanted to do that particular kind of work. Although, I’ve come to realize that the “shadow” doesn’t necessarily have to be “negative.” Like one of the women brought up in her sharing, our “shadow Selves” can be our inner warriors, a place we draw strength from. We talked about becoming aware of these parts of ourselves, not judging them, shining the light on them, accepting and loving them. We also talked about becoming aware of and working with the same shadows in others as well as in families and organizations. For many women, this topic resonated with them and we had some wonderful, deep sharing. Amber’s food and display were wonderful as always. I love the details she includes that often play off the theme. Like for instance, she had this beautiful, crystal balance scale on the table. (See picture below.) Afterward our event, I thought it was a shame that probably many of the women miss these details, so I vowed in the future to make sure we talk about them in the circle so everyone can appreciate them. I can’t believe we only have two more Red Tents this year, plus a Mother-Daughter Red Tent! It’s already time to start planning for 2017. Dear Father Time and Mother Earth, May you grant me/us all the time in the world to accomplish all we’d like to do in service. We are less than two years away from our crowd sourcing campaign. Please share, like and comment on our social media platforms and come to and invite friends to our Red Tents so that we may grow the tribe big enough to create a successful, permanent brick and mortar Red Tent. |
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