New Mexico Women's Foundation

From Remarks Delivered at the 2008 Annual Meeting and Awards Lunch, May 10, 2008

I am the daughter of a crafts woman and a crafts man.

I know intimately the life of abundance and beauty that can grow from capable and creative hands.

From my father and his hands came the home I grew up in — more sacred space than a house — in a remote corner of Northern New Hampshire. He hand hewed the beams from fallen timber, built Shaker tables and tall clocks from shining cherry, and cared for the land so tenderly that it provided our family with maple syrup and a profusion of flowers, berries, fruits and vegetables every year.

From my mother, and her hands came dolls, quilted pillows and wall hangings, dresses for my graduation ceremonies and high school dances, overalls for my brothers. From her hands, came breads and cookies and strawberry jam, and wreathes woven with spruce greens or from dried flowers collected on her walks.

From this place of knowing, I want to honor all of the grantees here today and your achievements. I honor you and your hands. I honor your talent and creativity and the talent and creativity of every woman in this room. I know how deep it is and how essential it is to the health and wellbeing of our selves, our families and communities.

I did not inherit my parents’ gifts. When I was a girl I would will my hands to draw, thread needles, or to assemble but despite all my trying, little of beauty would come from them.

So, instead, I climbed trees. I climbed trees with a book tucked in the crook of my arm, and read story after story after story high in the branches.

And I listened. I listened to the wind, and to the brook gurgling its way across our land. I listened to the people in my community and their stories.

I fell in love with words and voices and came to know within my self the power of stories to heal and restore, the power of stories to create a new and better world.

I also came to know the importance of ALL voices being welcomed, heard and valued. Because I experienced in my own way, as a young woman, what it is like to not be heard. I came to know the importance of creating and holding spaces where everyone and their story is held as sacred.

Because our way forward together depends upon it.

I come to the Foundation as a storyteller, as one who uses the power of words to make positive change, as one who holds space for all voices and perspectives, and as an activist with a fierce commitment to justice, equality, and to honoring our diversity and difference.

I am touched to the core by the mission of the Foundation and by the vision and dedication of Frieda Arth, the members of the Board and the friends of the Foundation.

Our mission sets a clear and steady course. One, that I know, makes a true and substantial difference in the lives of women and girls by supporting organizations and programs that create economic opportunities for them.

I am unspeakably grateful to have the opportunity to bring my passion, and all of who I am in service to this mission and to creating more abundant lives for the women and girls of New Mexico.

I invite you to join me. To stand with me in community.

Let us be as a community… dedicated to helping all of New Mexico’s women achieve self-determination.

Let us be as a community…dedicated to lifting all women out of poverty through meaningful and satisfying work of their making.

Come with your gifts and wisdom. Come with your leadership and caring. Come with your know-how and your dreams. There is no time left for us to indulge fear or hesitation, ambivalence or self-doubt. We are all so necessary to each other.

Let us see and call forth each other’s courage and beauty, and from that ground of strength and community, transform the statistics we know too well and their story of despair.

Let us come with our individual expressions — our spinning, our dancing, our painting, our voices — however it is that each of us knows best — and weave together a new story. A story about New Mexico women drawing upon the wisdom in their traditions and the very land itself, drawing upon their creativity, drawing upon all that they know and each other to create lives of beauty, abundance and meaning.

Thank you.