Currents: the Big Ocean Women Podcast

Carolina Allen interviews Dana Robb, our usual host, about her visit to the CESE summit to address ways to protect our children online. 

We need to start and, and be very, very basic with parents. What is extortion? Because I think that sometimes we as parents, we just can't fathom that this is happening and that it's as prevalent as it is. —Carolina Allen

TikTok's safety investigation team actually has done some really remarkable things. So they now have at least 20,000 safety investigators that are full time looking for child sexual abuse material on TikTok or harmful, extorting images on TikTok.

Compare that to Meta, they only have five individuals employed. —Dana Robb

What should we do? Yeah. First of all, the phrase that we kept talking about was delay is the way—delay, delay, delay, delay, giving your kids an iPhone or a smartphone. Delay giving them a smartphone as long as possible.

Practice recognizing content that's fed to you. , and tune your mind and take those things out.

In my opinion, I feel like we just need to step away from it, just reconnect to real life.

The biggest thing that we want mothers to know is that you are the greatest influential power for your Children. You need to be. For your families and for your communities, and assert ourselves and regain that kind of confidence in that position of leadership.

We're all pioneers in this, this age of technology, but we can take it as an opportunity and we can be inspired to know what to do for our families.

https://www.angelkids.ai/waitlist

Freespoke web browser

Delevit.com

NCMEC takeitdown.ncmec.org

endexploitation.org NCOSE

In this episode of Currents, special guest Grace Rajay, who heads up the global strategy committee at Big Ocean Women, discusses her experiences attending the UN hosted Nairobi Civil Society Conference and the upcoming Summit of the Future.

The conversation delves into the true happenings at the UN, the relevance of grassroots perspectives, and the importance of self-reliance and family-oriented solutions.

00:00 Introduction of Grace Rajay and Her Role 

01:20 Contrasts Between Textbook UN and Real UN

02:22 Youth Engagement and UN 2.0

04:34 Restructuring and Rebranding the UN

06:55 Documents and Compacts from the Summit

07:50 Experiences at the Nairobi Civil Society Conference

10:37 Emerging Themes and Debriefs

11:51 Concerns Over UN's One World Order Vision

15:18 Disconnect Between UN's Vision and Grassroots Realities

29:14 Pushing Digital Literacy Amidst Basic Challenges

35:21 Preparation for the Summit of the Future

37:00 Positive Feedback Loop of Effective Models

40:23 Successful Grassroots Projects

39:04 Upcoming Action Days Event

46:59 Call to Support Small NGOs

UN discussions with Carol on the Big Ocean Women youtube channel:

Exposing Social Engineering in Media and Protecting Family Values

In this episode of the Currents Podcast by Big Ocean Women, Carol delves into a conversation with Andrew Young about the troubling admissions from major animation studios like Disney that their storytelling has been tarnished by social engineering and political agendas. They discuss the widespread acknowledgment of this issue,

peel the layers back to see where the issues originated, the societal impact, and the backlash from parents.

The episode also explores global orchestration by organizations like the United Nations and their influence on social policies. Listeners are provided with strategies for protecting children and preserving family values amidst these challenges. Andrew shares insights on legislative efforts and personal initiatives aimed at countering these

issues, including potential film projects highlighting these themes.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

00:27 Disney and the Decline of Storytelling

01:56 Social Engineering and Public Awareness

05:19 Mothers' Outrage and the Power of Consumer Choice

08:17 Global Orchestration and the United Nations

12:55 Sexualization of Children and Alfred Kinsey

25:25 Parental Actions and Legislative Efforts

30:39 Screen Time and Family Dynamics

31:02 Maternal Feminism and Community Action

32:10 Challenges of Section 230 and Big Tech

33:15 The Dark Side of the Internet

37:13 Parental Vigilance and Child Safety

41:14 Hollywood Project on Exploitation

49:13 Cultural Preservation and Family Values

54:19 Conclusion and Call to Action

Find out more about NCOSE and get involved:

https://endsexualexploitation.org/legislation/

https://endsexualexploitation.org/action-center/

“I think that … we need an education; all of us need to know what's going on and we can't just live blindly.” - Carolina Allen

“Our love has to be bigger than our fear, and we need to know who we love. Who do we love? We love our children.” - Carolina Allen

“I think that as a humanity, we have to draw the line in the sand where if you have ill intentions towards children. I'm sorry, I can't negotiate with you.” - Carolina Allen

Carolina Allen is the founder and leader of Big Ocean Women, the international maternal feminist organization representing perspectives of faith, family, and motherhood throughout civil society. Carolina holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Utah with an emphasis in cultural religions and philosophy of science. Her inspirational and philosophical work has been presented at various international U.N. conferences. She is a native of Brazil, and a fluent trilingual. She and her husband Kawika are parents to 7 children. She is an avid soccer fan and had a brief career as a semi-professional player.

Andrew Young has worked for XBox, DreamWorks, and other kids entertainment companies. He has seen firsthand how deliberate decisions to insert specific scenes and vocabulary take place. He talks about his experiences with what he found out about social engineering when he worked as an animator at DreamWorks, the effects we see in our society, and what we can do to counteract it as we stand for faith, family, and motherhood.

The Importance of Fathers: A Conversation with Tim Rarick

In this episode of Currents, hosts Dana and Shannon engage in a thought-provoking discussion with Tim Rarick,a professor at BYU Idaho specializing in marriage, family, and human development. 

The conversation centers around the critical role of fathers in both parenting and society. 

Tim discusses his experiences speaking at the United Nations on the importance of fatherhood, 

addressing how societal and media influences often downplay the value of fathers. 

He emphasizes that his primary identity is as a father and husband, despite his academic credentials. 

The episode explores how fathers can combat toxic masculinity, contribute uniquely to their children’s development,and strengthen family dynamics. Practical advice for fathers, whether married or estranged from their children's mothers,is also provided, along with insights on how to build interdependent relationships between men and women. 

The discussion reveals that strengthening familial relationships is foundational to positively impacting society.

“I just found that the better husband I am, I naturally become a better father, and if I’m doing well at those, and it’s not just time allotment, it has more to do with focus and where my heart is.” Tim Rarick

“I think if we recognize that role first, you as a father, me as a mother, then it does influence everything that we do, every decision we make and where we’re going with our lives.” - Dana Robb

“It’s been said by Uri Bronfenbrenner, ‘The family is the most humane, the most economical, and by far the most powerful system known for building competence and character.’ He said that in the mid 80s after researching this quite a bit… but I wonder what he would say now. I still believe that statement is true, that the family has that potential. Sadly, what we’re seeing…is with the rise of screen media, we have now a competitor with parents.” - Tim Rarick

“Research shows that fatherless boys have a greater tendency to become toxic males than boys who have involved fathers.” - Tim Rarick

“It’s the whole idea that power equates worth, and you’ll get power any way you can get it, that’s toxic masculinity. And fathers who are involved and loving are one of the best antidotes to that.” - Tim Rarick

“Fatherless girls are more susceptible to believing that all men are toxic or allowing toxic men to use them.” - Tim Rarick

“The family is never stronger than the marriage.” - Tim Rarick

“What can I do to be intentional about my marriage rather than just being on autopilot? Because that will make you a much better father.” - Tim Rarick

“Sure, have a big goal, but break it down to something bite sized and what’s the next good thing that you can do, and make sure you’re doing it with the right heart because if you’re not, you’re going to run into obstacles and you may quit early.” - Tim Rarick

“I am hopeful that any person can change and anybody can improve their relationships.” - Tim Rarick

“Changing the world begins with changing the home.” - Dana Robb

“No matter where you’re at, what you’ve experienced, we all can decide what we’re going to do moving forward as husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, or sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, we’re all a member of somebody’s family, and we decide what we can do moving forward, if we get the right influences and we get the right information. Everyone can change, and there’s always a brighter future ahead.” - Tim Rarick

Tim Rarick is a husband and father first and foremost. He is also a professor at BYU-Idaho, a public speaker, writer, family advocate, and a Latter-Day Saint.

National Fatherhood Initiative: Fatherhood.org  

Keith Zafran, thegreatdadsproject.org

Take Back Your Marriage, William Doherty

Take Back Your Kids, William Doherty

Books recommended:

Girls on the Edge, Leonard Sax

Improving Father Daughter Relationships, Linda Nielsen

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, Meg Meeker

Families Without Fathers, David Pompenoe

Man, Interrupted, Philip Zimbardp

Of Boys and Men, Richard V. Reeves

Why Gender Matters, Leonard Sax

Dana and Shannon meet with Celeste Mergens, founder of Days for Girls and author of the book, The Power of Days to discuss how we are empowered by our feminine nature and honoring our procreative power.

“Today, Days for Girls has reached 145 countries. . . including the USA.

And in fact, I guarantee right where everyone listening to this is, it's happening in our backyard because anywhere where you have to choose between food and a pad, if you need a new job and you have to choose between fuel in the gas tank and pads, you're going to choose fuel to go get the next job, right?” - Celeste Mergens

“It turns out that this small thing that I woke up with to astonishment is a big deal. And sometimes small things create tremendous change.” - Celeste Mergens

“It's amazing what happens when we see each other, value each other, and listen to each other.” - Celeste Mergens

“We need to listen first, and then build a solution together and then enact it together with the power of we. . . it's pay attention, don't judge, keep working.” - Celeste Mergens

“We all have different experiences. We all came with different talents. And that means two really important things. One, we want to hear from the people that think differently than us. We don't have to be afraid of them. We can say, I don't understand. Help me see your mountains. And meet them halfway. And two, It means that the very things that we think are weaknesses, that we're mired in, we don't often see our genius. We don't often see our strengths . . . and we don't see the miracles sometimes because we're in our own path, but when you have that bigger perspective and you invite others in and you build together, amazing things happen. We are in a miracle. No matter what part of our life we're in, we are all part of miracles.” - Celeste Mergens

“Now I get to do the things I'm doing today, and I know there are nexts. And what happens when we're in the middle of our now, sometimes we feel like there is no more coming. Sometimes we feel like I have made my choices, and this is my limit. This is my limit. But in truth, God has so much in store when you say, ‘Yes.’ When you say, ‘Whatever it is, yes. I will do the smallest thing, the biggest thing. It doesn't matter to me. Just tell me what the thing is and I'll lean all in.’”  - Celeste Mergens

“I am so glad I said yes to my family and, and that beautiful opportunity that is my greatest blessing, even today, because it didn't mean it was closing the door on the other opportunities to use my fullness of my intellect and capacity. Because honestly, a mother takes all the things, right? So it prepared me to be a global CEO.”  - Celeste Mergens

“Sometimes the hardest things turn out to be the thing we needed.” - Celeste Mergens

“We actually matter in every role we hold and each one of them is like a jewel. So live the jewel. Don't fight it. Don't feel like you aren't enough. There's no time for that or energy for that.” - Celeste Mergens

“Every woman's life is like a song, and we don't have to sing every verse at once.” - Shannon Russell

“I just would like to encourage everyone to know that one pebble really can move a big ocean. One action, one day at a time really adds up to this amazing miracle. We're all part of: life.” - Celeste Mergens

Celeste Mergens is an author and sought-after speaker. Founder of Days for Girls, a global award-winning organization that has reached over 3 million women and girls in 145 countries, she has filled three passports with global evidence that what connects us is far more than what divides us.

A specialist in resilience, equity, building teams, and bridging cultural divides, she has been featured in Oprah’s O Magazine and Forbes and been named Conscious Company Global Impact Entrepreneur Top Ten Women, and Women's Economic Forum's Woman of the Decade, to name a few. Her #1 bestselling book, The Power of Days–A Story of Resilience, Dignity, and The Fight for Women's Equity, shares inspiring proof that we can all make a difference.

Whenever presented with the opportunity for adventure, Dana Robb is all in. Currently, this includes riding the local mountain biking trails with her husband, canyoneering, and climbing the hills of southern Utah. She loves to learn and explore with her six kids. She is drawn to the opportunities being involved with Big Ocean Women provides. Dana loves connecting to a global sisterhood where women’s issues are being addressed through reframing and an abundance mindset.

Shannon Russell

Andrew Young has worked for XBox, DreamWorks, and other kids entertainment companies. He has seen firsthand how deliberate decisions to insert specific scenes and vocabulary take place. He talks about his experiences with what he found out about social engineering when he worked as an animator at DreamWorks, the effects we see in our society, and what we can do to counteract it as we stand for faith, family, and motherhood.

Quotable quotes from Andrew Young during this discussion on social engineering in media, the devastating results of turning from traditional values, the power of families and audiences, and how to work toward a better future:

“If you are a church listening, if you are a tech company, if you are a media company, if you are a family, you have got to return to your anchored North Star vision of how you provide value.”

“The families have never had the opportunity to be explained, that, ‘By the way, we are providing you a movie… and it is laced with a political, anti-religious, anti-conservative, anti-male message.’”

“The reason I’m doing this is to try to help people understand what is happening.”

“This is why it’s very difficult for a parent to work against a professional storyteller propagandizing… a parent doesn’t know this technique, so let me explain it so you do.”

“If you want your kids to be able to weather everything that is going to hit them like a mountain and the winds just won’t topple it, they have got to know their identity.”

“Let’s do some deprogramming… I took all of these based on things we were socially engineering in movies, and I reversed them: Men and women, not in worth, but in design are not equal, meaning you can’t trade one for the other. They are complimentary. They’re not being told that. Take a man and a woman and join them together in marriage, and they become something greater than either could become alone.”

“A family - A man is designed to lead, provide, protect, and fill the need that a woman has: security. You want men to provide security… I’m talking about physically, I’m talking about emotionally, and I’m talking about financially.”

“So in turn, the woman does what no man can, and what even the world cannot do without her. And it’s not succeeding in an amazing career. It is that she gives life… The world can’t do it without her. And it has been socially engineered to be something that is negative and anyone who does it [is shown to be] someone who is frazzled, or doesn’t have it together. And it is the most rewarding and most consequential and most powerful thing a woman could ever do.”

“We need, children need, to understand this transparently and have the choice to say I don’t agree with that or agree with that. They are getting the opposite, non transparent, and not having the choice whether to agree with it or not.”

“Our culture is not prioritizing childbirth, families, marriages, it’s prioritizing wealth, and everyone’s in debt.”

“Number one: have kids. You can’t train the next generation if you’re not having one. Have kids, take care of them, and make them the priority. You can’t have that successfully without marriage, ok, so you have to get married and you have to commit … You have got to commit to the marriage and then you will be able to commit to the children.”

“One of the social engineering things we have lied to everyone about is that children know best. They do not know best. They do not have experience. They do not have the guidance and they don’t have the maturity that an adult has. An adult has to assume the role as leader and help rear them. In every single media we create, the adults are idiots. The tradition is worthless. The religion is not helpful.”

“If you want to let [your children] go and go on their hero’s journey, prepare them through structure, through those one on one meetings weekly, through those family dinners, through those trips.”

“The next one is time. You have got to be the parent or the person, time, time , time, time, time, time, time, time. So that’s your concrete thing.”

“You have got to start teaching your young boys, your young girls, that rebellion is okay if it’s against something bad. We’ve taught them so well to follow the rules and to do what they’re told, that now they’re being told the wrong thing and they’re doing it.”

“Let me read to you what a man is because most people don’t understand what a man is. ‘Despite being shown as useless idiots, men, at their core, and how you should look at them and treat them, is this,’ so I hope every time you see a man, you’ll say this word: ‘aspiring greatness.’”

“Here’s what a woman is: Even though we photo them, dress them, and package them as a product, a woman is a human that can bring something no other human can bring, life.”

“Men, if you’re listening, every time you see a woman, your brain is literally going to fire off in the tool zone…You’ve got to say in your head to deprogram your mind… ‘human. That is a human. That is not a product.’”

Other interviews with Andrew Young:

Cwic Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvNZRUtqqa8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFgERZAR_M

The Raising Family Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai0YR5dZ2Ag

Scripture Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDvqHbgDeAo&t=2s

Andrew Young, Into the Verse YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVw9kIhcj91SXhnXJMsT-MA

Danna Robb, Shelli Spotts, and Gloria Ezeonyeasi discuss being a woman of faith.

“Our faith tenet with Big Ocean really focuses on the fact that through our faith, we feel inspired to act in our communities and to be involved.” - Shelli Spotts

“That’s how we grew up . . . knowing that our faith is everything that we have; God is everything. [My mother] taught us to depend on God completely.” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“I can’t imagine a life without faith. Because when you’re faced with a challenge, where do you go for that … peace of mind?” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“I’m convinced that there’s nothing better than my faith, so it’s a treasure. It’s something that I treasure so much.” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“Faith should unify us, and not divide us really.” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“I think God has a very wonderful way of leading us down the path that he wants us to go.” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“I do think we grapple with those kinds of questions, of what are you willing to give up for your faith? … As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve decided I actually think living with your faith is almost more of an ask for me as an adult, right? How am I living my faith in my everyday, and dedicating myself every day to this faith and to changing the world around me and trying to make it better and looking at the world with hope?” - Shelli Spotts

“If I’m a good mom and a good wife it is because of my faith, because my faith will remind me to forgive, to love without any reservation. So again, everything I am and I’m able to do in this relationship with my husband, with my children, is all deeply rooted in my faith.” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“The faith aspect of the Big Ocean Women stood out, and I  liked how that was wrapped in with motherhood and family life and how with your faith as a woman, how you can actually challenge some of the thing that you see in your society, in your community and how you can stand in solidarity with other women of faith.” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“Whenever I talk about the Big Ocean Women, the first I say to people that I’m trying to get to join, I say to them, this is a group about faith. It’s a group about faith, about women and our faith. And the fact that it’s not just the Christian faith is also very liberating. So I don’t have to worry about somebody saying to me, ‘Oh, I want to join, but I don’t, I’m not a Christian.’ I’m free to say, ‘Oh, yes, of course you can join us. You don’t have to be a Catholic or a Christian to be part of us.’ But you need to be authentic in your faith.” - Gloria Ezeonyeasi

“We may not have exactly the same faith, and we may practice our faith differently, but we are all drawn together by the fact that our faith tells us that we can act to strengthen our families, and we can act to strengthen our communities, and that globally we can change things by acting together, and that we make real change happen.” Shelli Spotts

“Let’s use our faith to unite us and to work together. We can accomplish so much more when we are united. Even if we have differences, we find those commonalities and we work together.” - Dana Robb

Gloria Ezeonyeasi is 51 years old and married with daughters aged 23, 21, 20 and a 17 years old son. She has lived in London, UK since 1993. She has a Masters degree and presently works as a Social Worker with Children and Families.

She is an active member of her Church and has the privilege of serving in different groups in the parish. She has an unwavering passion for education and lifelong learning. She has a special love for young people and the whole family.

Her mission as a Big Ocean Women WAVE leader, is to empower women and girls to live their fullest potential as women. Her vision is to start a WAVE wherever she goes.

Whenever presented with the opportunity for adventure, Dana Robb is all in. Currently, this includes riding the local mountain biking trails with her husband, canyoneering, and climbing the hills of southern Utah. She loves to learn and explore with her six kids. She is drawn to the opportunities being involved with Big Ocean Women provides. Dana loves connecting to a global sisterhood where women’s issues are being addressed through reframing and an abundance mindset.

Shelli Spotts is an advocacy writer and creative writing teacher. She loves to spend time with her husband (usually in the garden) and their four almost adult children. She also loves to sew, to read, to write, and to drag her family outside to look at the sky. Shelli is passionate about poetry, Broadway show tunes, and telling stories—of ourselves, our families, and our communities.

In this archive episode from 2020, Carolina Allen and Shelli Spotts discuss the origin and roots of the gift economy, and the way maternal feminism rests on an alternative structure, a way of living that does not depend on getting ahead but the responsibility to lift everyone up. 

"We are born into a gift economy, one that starts with our own mothers. It is a far more natural way of living that does not depend on the economy of exchange, but on trust and generosity." Genevieve Vaughn

Genevieve Vaughan was born in Texas in 1939. She is an independent researcher. After finishing college in Pennsylvania in 1963 she married philosopher and semiotician Ferruccio Rossi-Landi and moved with him to Italy where they had three daughters. The couple participated in the beginnings of the Semiotics movement in Italy as well as in the Italian Left, where Genevieve got her political consciousness raised.

After her divorce in 1978 Vaughan became a feminist, participating in the Italian and international feminist movements. She began to see the fact of women’s free labor in the home as a gift economy, the unacknowledged free economy of women from which communication and community derive. Her two early essays ‘Communication and exchange’ (Semiotica 1980) and ‘Saussure and Vigotsky via Marx’(1981) deal with language and economics, a theme introduced by her husband but which she elaborated in alternative directions, and which she has been working on throughout the rest of her life. In 1983, Vaughan returned to Texas where she started the Foundation for a Compassionate Society, a multicultural all-women activist foundation which initiated many innovative projects for social change based on the political use of ‘women’s gifting values’. The Foundation closed its doors in 2005 after two final international conferences: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible: The Gift Economy Inside and Outside Patriarchal Capitalism, 2004 and Societies of Peace: the Second Congress of Matriarchal Studies (under the guidance of Heide Goettner Abendroth), 2005. Several other conferences have been held including one in Toronto in 2011 called A (M)otherworld is Possible in collaboration with Goettner-Abendroth and in conjunction with the Association for Research on Mothering.

Carolina is the founder and leader of Big Ocean Women, the international maternal feminist organization representing perspectives of faith, family, and motherhood throughout civil society. Carolina holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Utah with an emphasis in cultural religions and philosophy of science. Her inspirational and philosophical work has been presented at various international U.N. conferences. She is a native of Brazil, and a fluent trilingual. She and her husband Kawika are parents to 7 children. She is an avid soccer fan and had a brief career as a semi-professional player.

ShelliRae Spotts is an essayist, advocacy writer, screenwriter, and sometime poet who teaches creative writing and composition at Brigham Young University. She is passionate about exploring the ways we use stories to build bridges within our communities and her essays delve into the connections we discover through languaging our lived experiences. Shelli has attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as an advocacy writer for the last several years, and is dedicated to social justice and environmental causes. She was the co-director and writing mentor for "Words for Water: Dancing the Stories of our Home Waters," a collaborative writing/dance advocacy project focusing attention on the challenges facing our rural river watersheds.  She is the author of a forthcoming essay collection, "Radical Creativity: On a New Economy of Care." When she is not teaching, writing, or reading, Shelli loves to spend time with her husband and four adult children watching great movies, attending live theatre, or dragging everyone outside to “look at the sky.”

As Big Ocean women, we value our identities as women of faith. We represent 83% of women who identify with a faith tradition. This figure is considerably higher in women than in men, which might suggest that many of us are intrinsically connected with religion and naturally experience the world through a faith-filled lens. Of the many women of the world who carry children, families, communities, and nations upon their shoulders– and with such strength, courage, and grace– it can be said that they are each women of faith.

The language of faith is intuitive to women. It’s how we communicate and lift each other up. The faith-filled and religious voice is our voice. It is imperative then, that as women, we advocate for our freedom to live and worship as we see fit. Not only within the walls of our homes, but also in the public square. The freedom of conscience is inseparably connected to many other freedoms that will improve the lives of women, their families, and communities. Therefore, we must organize, speak up, and lead out on this critical social issue.

"Faith is integral to he way we seek to get involved in our communities and our neighborhoods, the way we serve our families."  Shelli Spotts

"Without faith we do not recognize our own power and our own sense of worth."  Carolina Allen

Carolina is the founder and leader of Big Ocean Women, the international maternal feminist organization representing perspectives of faith, family, and motherhood throughout civil society. Carolina holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Utah with an emphasis in cultural religions and philosophy of science. Her inspirational and philosophical work has been presented at various international U.N. conferences. She is a native of Brazil, and a fluent trilingual. She and her husband Kawika are parents to 7 children. She is an avid soccer fan and had a brief career as a semi-professional player.

ShelliRae Spotts is an essayist, advocacy writer, screenwriter, and sometime poet who teaches creative writing and composition at Brigham Young University. She is passionate about exploring the ways we use stories to build bridges within our communities and her essays delve into the connections we discover through languaging our lived experiences. Shelli has attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as an advocacy writer for the last several years, and is dedicated to social justice and environmental causes. She was the co-director and writing mentor for "Words for Water: Dancing the Stories of our Home Waters," a collaborative writing/dance advocacy project focusing attention on the challenges facing our rural river watersheds.  She is the author of a forthcoming essay collection, "Radical Creativity: On a New Economy of Care." When she is not teaching, writing, or reading, Shelli loves to spend time with her husband and four adult children watching great movies, attending live theatre, or dragging everyone outside to “look at the sky.”

“Epicurus said that it’s not what we have, but what we enjoy constitutes abundance. And I really love that because it takes it out of the material realm. We're not talking about an abundance of money or an abundance of possessions or properties. We're talking about the things that make our life fulfilling and joyful and purposeful and bring light to us.” -Martha.

“If we can find a way to focus on what we can do and what we can control in our life right now, then that's where we can find that joy. So for me, last year during the holidays, I decided to stop using social media. Because I was feeling a lot of jealousy and contention in my life because of that. And so I cut it out for a year. And for me, that was one solution that fit really well with my needs so that I wasn't constantly bombarding myself with jealousy for things that other people had, but choosing to focus instead on my own family and the people around me and what I do have in my life right now.” -Vanessa

“Find meaningful things to do with the people I've got right here. That is what is going to help me feel abundance and what God has blessed me with and give me that sense of gratitude and joy and what he's given me.” -Vanessa

“The idea of abundance has to come within…it starts with yourself and then it extends to our families, whatever your family culture looks like, and then it extends to our communities and in doing that, we do have power to change the world. So many people in the world think they don't have the power to make a difference. But if you start with yourself, you can.” -Shannon

“Sometimes it's counterintuitive and we think that until we feel enough abundance in ourselves, then we can't go out and either help out, serve other people or encourage other people or anything, but in my life, most often, even when I feel like I am not enough, if I can look outward, there just seems to be abundance that flows back and forth from the people that I am associating with in my community back to me. So it becomes this multiplying effect that increases to everybody.” -Angela

“My mom when we were kids, if we were unhappy in some way, she would say, well, you need to serve someone else. So you can serve me and do the dishes, which sounds ridiculous, but it invariably changed our mindsets. It made us look outward and also affected how we felt inside.” -Angela

“For me being open to revelation that says something needs to change and following that did bring me greater abundance, even though it meant giving up something that I had really prized or enjoyed.” -Martha

“The culture of abundance is like that. It's something we foster within ourselves, but it never stays there. It is meant to radiate out to those around us, and then the idea for them to then radiate and the radiation to keep going so that we become bright and help one another in a way that is pleasing to our Higher Power.” -Shannon