It’s unmistakable. Women are making headlines.
Earlier this week, for example, the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee (NOW PAC), publicly endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president of the United States. The announcement was unprecedented, as NOW PAC rarely endorses candidates in a general election, but a statement on the organization’s Web site explains, “This is an unprecedented candidate and an unprecedented time for our country.”
According to the organization, women nationwide are supporting the candidate and his call for change – and last weekend women county-wide were too.
“I started the year excited that a woman was running for president and now I’m terrified that a woman might be president,” said co-founder and senior advisor of Omega Institute, Elizabeth Lesser, who spoke to a room of hundreds who came to the Rhinebeck campus for the institute’s weekend-long Women & Courage Conference. Each year, the Women’s Institute at Omega sponsors events that explore the roles women play in the world, and this year’s conference examined what it means to be courageous in the 21st century.
For years Lesser has been creating conferences and training women at Omega, but this time she got to enjoy the event as a speaker. Her message? Debunking the “warrior myth.”
“Historically the main character has been the warrior,” said Lesser, who noted that the message coming out of Washington is that the warrior is going to save us, “but now it’s about the restorer,” she said.
Other keynote speakers included acclaimed author and lifelong advocate for human rights Isabel Allende, author and clinical psychologist Tara Brach, author and gynecologist Christine Northrup, artist and philanthropist Sarah Peter, cofounder of Heal Thyself Natural Living Center in Brooklyn, Queen Afua, and Loung Ung – a survivor of Cambodia’s killing fields.
Each woman’s message was as unique as her story, and so were the stories of the women who attended the event.
“I requested a catalogue, and it never arrived, but I knew I had to come anyway,” said Jossy Jimenez of Tijuana, Mexico. “By accident it seems, I am where I have to be,” she said.
Jimenez was studying at a Catholic university in Mexico – first communications, then culinary arts – when she realized she wanted to change the world. She left school, got on a bus, and embarked on a grueling ride to a poor, mountainous region in southern Mexico. There she immersed herself in the culture, and camped out for weeks before heading north, this time to Alaska. But she wasn’t there long before returning to Mexico.
“It was always in the back of my mind. I knew I had to come to Omega,” said Jimenez, who discovered the institute earlier this year, when Oprah Winfrey launched a worldwide Webcast with author Eckhart Tolle, creating the world’s largest classroom. Omega’s Lesser helped coordinate the effort.
The topic? Tolle’s book “A New Earth,” which focuses on spiritual awakening and drew millions of people worldwide to take part. Jimenez read along too, and for her the experience was life-changing. She wanted to meet Lesser, and after a series of seemingly serendipitous occurrences, Jimenez booked her trip to Omega just one week before the conference – and as for her airline ticket, it’s only one-way.
“There is no doubt in my mind this is where I need to be,” she said.
Herstory
Omega Institute for Holistic Studies is an educational retreat which offers workshops, professional training and learning vacations that focus on wellness, personal growth and spiritual reflection. It was founded 30 years ago when Lesser and Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D. were inspired by Eastern meditation master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan to begin the institute. In its first year, Omega hosted a few hundred people a day, and today the institute hosts more than 23,000 people a year.
Lesser and the Omega staff have already begun planning next year’s conference, which will be devoted to talking across generations, and will feature mothers of the women’s movement.
“We’re at the edge of something new,” said Lesser, who noted that this year’s courage theme couldn’t have come at a better time. “We’re going to need it, because this is a confounding time to be a woman.”