{"id":3107,"date":"2010-10-24T06:02:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T10:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/2010\/10\/06\/"},"modified":"2010-10-24T06:02:06","modified_gmt":"2010-10-24T10:02:06","slug":"moonrise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=3107","title":{"rendered":"Moonrise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Park Street Press was nice enough to send me a copy of \u201cMoonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart\u201d, which was edited by Nina Simons with Anneke Campbell. As I was packing for vacation I looked through the stack of books waiting to get read and thought to myself, an inspiring book of essays; that sounds like the perfect thing to read by the pool. I was wrong.<\/p>\n

Let me explain, it\u2019s not that \u201cMoonrise\u201d is bad, quite the contrary. It is full of stories from amazing people that really get out there and make a difference every day. The problem is, when your most charitable act of the day is tipping the bartender well for your Rum Swizzle, you feel a little bit like the laziest person ever. With each essay I read it felt like \u201cMoonrise\u201d was looking me in the eye and saying, \u201cWow Rebecca, two Rum Swizzles, you\u2019re really being the change you want to see in the world, aren\u2019t you?\u201d I suspect my reaction is what Nina Simons was hoping for.<\/p>\n

Nina Simons is co-CEO and cofounder of Bioneers<\/a>, \u201ca national nonprofit that identifies, gathers, and disseminates breakthrough solutions to environmental and social challenges\u201d. When attempting to explain Bioneers in a quick nutshell to my husband I went with, Bioneers is like TED and \u201cMoonrise\u201d is the equivalent of the TED talks. And this is why I suspect Simons would be pleased that I found \u201cMoonrise\u201d to continually be asking, \u201cWhat have you done today?\u201d<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>The cast of characters and the stories they share are truly inspiring. On more than one occasion I found tears welling up in my eyes. The contributors to this book spared no punches and held nothing back emotionally. Lateefah Simon opens her essay \u201cGirl Power for Social Justice\u201d with, \u201cWe are living in impossible times. I feel it in my bones. Last night when I was reading my daughter a bedtime story, I thought to myself: I\u2019m weary, but I\u2019m not weak. These times are hard all over the world. Young women are struggling. Young women are dying. Young women are fighting and resisting.\u201d She then goes on to chronicle how at the age of 19 she was appointed executive director of the Center for Young Women\u2019s Development, which made her one of the youngest leaders of a social service agency in the country.<\/p>\n

Judy Wicks, proprietor of the well-known White Dog Caf\u00e9, offers interesting economic and social insights with her essay \u201cLocal Living Economies\u201d. LaDonna Redmond, the founder and president of the Institute for Community Resource Development in Chicago, Illinois, discusses how her son being born with severe food allergies started her on a quest to attempt to make healthier foods available in urban communities. She offers the insight that, \u201cIn my neighborhood, I can buy designer gym shoes, every kind of fast food, every kind of junk food, all kinds of malt liquor and illegal drugs, and maybe even a semiautomatic weapon, but I cannot purchase an organic tomato.\u201d Artist Lily Yeh shares her journeys with readers as she outlines how she went from an artist to artist ambassador, working to bring art to impoverished communities. \u201cI often find it hard to define what I do as an artist, but I\u2019ve come to realize that broken places are my canvases. People\u2019s stories are the pigments, and their talents, the tools. Together we weave something magical, organic, and sustainable,\u201d Yeh shares in her essay \u201cHow Art Can Heal Broken Places\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say \u201cMoonrise\u201d isn\u2019t light, summertime beach reading. However, \u201cMoonrise\u201d should be required reading to anyone, particularly women, who are looking for inspiring ideas, unique perspectives, and calls to action with regards to the social and environmental challenges that we\u2019re all facing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"