LEAH JONES AUTHENTIC EXPRESSION

Miss Leah Jones has gone through so many inspiring reinventions, with her religion, career and personal life, but I’ll let her tell you about that.  

 

What I am most drawn to, and admire about Leah, is her spirit, she’s so open — to new ideas, new ways of thinking and constant reinvention. There’s fearlessness in her approach to life, an awesome quality. She’s an open book, genuine, goodhearted and warm. To know her is to instantly adore her.

 

Please welcome Dame Leah Jones!

 

Tell me about you: Your name, pseudonym, where you’re from and what your read is about?

Name: Leah Jones

Pseudonym: Eh, I’m pretty much Leah Jones anywhere you go looking for me these days. Once upon a time I was simply known as LeahJ, but started going by Leah Jones a couple years ago. My blog is called Accidentally Jewish, which is as close to a pseudonym as I get. Hmmm…. I should work on this.

My read: I don’t actually have anything published aside from a short-story in an anthology about Resident Assistants published in the 90s. Most of my writing is on my blog, Accidentally Jewish, and is about my life. I’ve got a lot essays about converting to Judaism and the intersection of Judaism and the internet. Now I teach artists, writers and musicians how to use social media to do their own marketing at my new company Natiiv Arts & Media. Once that blog is up, my writing will center around creative arts and marketing.

What does being a woman mean to you?

A story. About four years ago, I got a short energy healing from an Argentine healer visiting Chicago. She was doing major work on other people and was just giving me a little chakra tune-up for hanging out all night. Crown chakra, fine. Third-eye, a-ok. Feminine energy, blocked. Completely blocked. The energy work stopped and we shifted gears into a little more akashic record and information from my guides. I was coming up on 28 or 29, an important year, and she suggested I march myself into therapy. This whole “blocked feminine energy” thing wasn’t working and wasn’t healthy.

For me, it manifested in weight to hide my figure, baggy clothes and unrequited love. The only feminine thing about me in my late 20s was my very regular, period and the occasional dress. So I took her advice and went to therapy and took tango lessons. I started to shed the walls around my heart that kept that energy locked up.

To me being a woman now means so many things. Some tactile like kneading bread, lighting Shabbat candles, and occasionally hosting a dinner. Sometimes it is making eye-contact with men on the street, flirting when it can’t go anywhere and trying my best to flirt when it can go somewhere. A constant state of flux and learning for me… first I had to get out of my shapeless overalls to learn to be feminine, now I’m learning that I’m still a woman if I’m in overalls.

Have you, are you, or will you reinvent yourself and, of course, what does reinventing yourself mean to you?

Yes, yes and I assume I will again. A few years ago I converted to Judaism, which is probably the biggest reinvention. Although, honestly, getting bangs was harder than becoming a Jew. When I converted, I was coming home. Joining a religion, tradition and people that “is who I was.” I was born Leah Marie and the Hebrew name I chose in my late 20′s is Leah Meira. Very little change and that was on purpose. It was more coming into my own than ripping myself from my old life.

Recently I left my job in corporate America and started my own company. Yes. In the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression, I started my own company… with a mortgage. Crazy, but it was time to shift gears and reinvent. I went from working with large corporations doing digital PR, to working with artists, writers and musicians as a social media coach. I haven’t been happier in years.

I also in year two of a couple major undertakings. The first is doing Pilcrow Lit Fest with Amy Guth. Coming up in Chicago the week of May 17 to 23, we’ll be highlighting small press and indie literature events all around the city. The second is doing the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day walk for the second time. While breast cancer doesn’t run in my family, it seems to be working its way through every friend’s family. So I’m walking for so many women and men and for a cure. This time my team is the Titterati, all women from Twitter.com, and we’ll be walking in early August.

LYNN BREWER AUTHENTIC EXPRESSION

Lynn Brewer is the Founder and Editor of Cliterature Magazine, a gorgeous writer and exquisitely dark poet, and one of the loveliest women I have ever met. Lynn is very much her own woman, living life her way. Like Virgotex, your perception of her is irrelevant, what matters most is her perception of her, as it should be, and I admire the hell out of her for that, what a gift.

 

We sat on a panel together at the Pilcrow Lit Fest last year. During the rebuilt books auction, I was the proud winner of Lynn’s rebuilt book. To this day, it remains on my top shelf, I re-read all top shelfers, they’re my faves.

 

Please welcome Dame Lynn Brewer!

 

Your name, pseudonym, where you’re from and what your read is about?

Lynn Brewer (rarely known as A. Lynn Brewer), spent my first 22 years hopscotching the Midwest until I moved to Boulder. Cliterature is an online journal that examines women’s sexuality in writing. I founded Cliterature in 2006, and since then have edited and published all 11 issues. 

 

What does being a woman mean to you?

Being a woman means you have to stand up for yourself in a patriarchal world. Women have had to fight harder and longer for more rights than any other minority — the right not to belong to her husband, the right to vote, the right to own property, and the last major right won — abortion — is still a hotbed of contention and controversy. Even today, I can’t get my health insurance to cover my birth control, but if I had a middle-aged penis they would pay for Viagra. Being a woman means you have to sift through the injustices and dispute the status quo as much as possible. But, being a woman, you also have to pick your battles wisely. 

 

Have you, are you, or will you reinvent yourself and, of course, what does reinventing yourself mean to you?

I am always reinventing myself, but not always by choice. Reinvention of the self could mean gaining a new perspective, or it could mean showcasing a new facet of yourself to the world.  

MAUI GIRL AUTHENTIC EXPRESSION

Maui Girl and I met during a rough patch, which I’m not sure she remembers, but I do. An email was sent to me. An ear to bend, a warm heart to cry with and unbelievable compassion was provided. What a dame.

 

As I got to know her via her blog, Maui Girl’s Meanderings, I fell for this dame pretty hard. She’s smart, analytical and insanely objective. MauiG can see both sides of a story, even if she’s inclined to agree with a leftier side.  I love this quality and wish she could infuse just a spill of into me. She’s witty, clever and a gem of a person.

 

Please welcome Dame MauiGirl!

 

Tell me about you: Your name, pseudonym, where you’re from and what your read is about?

My real name is Miriam, but everyone calls me Mimi, and that’s the name that seems to fit me better. My pseudonym is Mauigirl, because, starting in those heady days back in the early 1980s, when frequent flier miles were all the rage, my husband and I used to go there every year. Since then we’ve cut back to about every three years and have branched out into other islands of Hawaii, but Maui is still the island I know best. Plus there is a clothing store in the little town of Paia on the North Shore of Maui called Maui Girl and it just sounded like a good name to purloin.

I’m a Jersey girl born and bred – lived in the town of Nutley, about 10 miles west of New York City, until I was almost nine. Then we had an all-too-brief stint in Penfield, New York, in the still semi-rural (at that time) outskirts of Rochester until I was 14. Although we only lived there five years, they were those formative years from age 9 to 14, and I made a lot of great friends and had a lot of fun there. It was in Penfield that I learned to love bird watching and camping with the Girl Scouts and doing other outdoor activities that were easier to do up there than in the more suburban environment in New Jersey.

At 14 we moved back to New Jersey and I’ve lived here ever since. I wouldn’t change a thing, since it was in New Jersey I met my husband and have had my whole career, but I do miss doing more outdoors-y things, which is probably why we just bought a little cabin in the Adirondacks, not far from Lake George.

MauiGirl’s Meanderings came to be because about three years ago, one of my newest neighbors told me she had a blog and I was amazed. I had heard of blogs (and had even read a few) but it had never occurred to me to start one of my own. But Google Blogger made it so easy that I decided to give it a try. I’ve always liked to write (I was a Journalism major in college although I ended up working in the market research field) so it is a great outlet. I started out not really knowing what to write about (hence the “meanderings” part) but I ended up focusing more on political stories, usually with a lighter take on them. About once a week I use my cat Baxter as a way to comment on current events from a cat’s point of view, for instance.

I also got very ambitious and started a medical blog and a travel blog, but I haven’t been able to put in the time to those that I’d like. I find that one blog is about all I can handle on a regular basis and still have a life!

What does being a woman mean to you?

I attended a women’s college, Simmons, in Boston, in the early 1970s when “women’s lib” was big, so there were some fairly militant attitudes about being a woman flying around back then. I was never a crusader, but of course believe in equal rights and equal pay and all the rest.

One thing I do believe, though, is that you can’t “have it all,” as the saying was back then. No one can. You have to pick your priorities and make decisions about what is most important to you. For one woman it may be her career, for another, her family, for someone else, community involvement, volunteer work or a hobby. It doesn’t mean you can’t still do some of each, but compromises have to be made. This goes for men as well, of course.

My philosophy is that your career can’t be your life, no matter who you are. It is important to do other things, spend time with friends and family, and not sacrifice yourself for the company. Because one thing I’ve learned in 30 years of corporate life is that the company will only be good to you for as long as you’re of use to them, and that’s it. So I do my job but I do not give up my life for it.

I believe that men and women are very different. When I think of how women interact, I see a collective, nurturing consciousness, a tendency to find consensus, to care about one another, and communicate. I can’t help thinking that if there were more women in charge in the world there would be fewer wars and less posturing and blustering. I know that’s a stereotype and there are men who are sensitive and who communicate, and there are women who don’t. But there are clear differences and I think in a perfect world we would more thoroughly understand and capitalize on those differences.

Have you, are you, or will you reinvent yourself and, of course, what does reinventing yourself mean to you?

On my Facebook page I have a quotation by George Eliot that goes “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

I like to think that we are always able to reinvent ourselves whenever it feels as if our lives are not going in the direction we would like, and I know I’ve done that on a gradual basis throughout my life. I have been at the same company (through buyouts and sales of the businesses I’m on, I’ve never actually had to interview again for a job!) but not in the same role, for all these years. But I feel I am getting to the end of what I can get out of this career and am looking forward to a new phase of life.

In my personal life, I’ve gone from a “live for today” mentality to a more serious viewpoint. I’ve become involved in my community, I’ve studied and gotten a certificate degree in historic preservation, and I’ve become a blogger. In each case these “reinventions” have opened the door to a whole new community of likeminded people who have become friends.

I’m sure as I continue in my journey, there will be more of these changes. I’m looking forward to getting more involved in environmentalism, conservation and animal rescue in the future, as these are all concerns of mine.

WOMEN FROM 1930 – 2008

Women in the 1930′s

Gloria Steinem in 1968 – Being a writer, but a woman.

Gloria Steinem in 2009 - Feminism and her book on the road

What do you think about opportunities for women in 2009?

If you missed Amy Guth’s Authentic Expression, give it a read.