you are…

Love and be loved: Meet Amanda Oaks and know that you are enough

Sep 23rd, 2011
by Amanda Oaks.
16 comments

Hello beautiful you! I’m Amanda Oaks, curator of Kind Over Matter & Words Dance.

I’m a multi-passionate creative, lover, mama, poet & kindness advocate living in western Pennsylvania.

My hands love to be covered in paint, carrying & clicking the shutter button on my camera, resting on a mouse creating digital books & art, tip-tapping the keys writing poems & stories, loving on my mister & hugging my two awesome little dudes.

I’m so honored to be here at Roots of She this season, I adore Jenn & the space she has created here, she’s a friend, a soul sister & as most of you know, together we created & ran Kind Over Matter side-by-side for a while.

True to my creative nature, you’ll find me sharing a medley of wholehearted goodness this season, even some hard stuff.

So, hi there! Nice to meet you! Happy Autumn! Looking forward to this season & what unfolds, would you like a glass of red or a mug of tea, perhaps?

Let’s Connect :: Facebook :: Twitter: @kindovermatter :: Newsletter ::


(Pssst… I’m giving one of these bracelets away this week,
a gorgeous reminder that you are, come enter!)

.
Enough

Zenin, my 3 year old, does this divine thing… he walks toward me with his arms outstretched for me to pick him up, when I do, he gives me this magical hug, pulls away, puts his little hands on my cheeks, looks into my eyes & then smiles this smile that could light up the darkest corner of the universe.

He opens my most precious & sacred gift—

my ability to love & be loved.

In that moment, his toddler-sized legs wrapped tight around my mama hips, he does not see what I am not or the dried snot hanging out on the left shoulder of my shirt, the dirty dishes in the sink, the extra pounds sitting on my frame like a thick-yarned cardigan, the crumbs grounded into the living room carpet from this morning’s snack, the emails that didn’t get answered yet, the blog posts that aren’t done—

he only sees love

& without words, he mirrors that back to me so it is the only thing that I see too. In myself, in him, in our home, in all of everything around us.

In that moment, I am now & I am enough.

So dear heart, I want to start off my time here at Roots of She extending that to you…

My hands on your cheeks,
smiling deep from my heart at all that you are,
I see you & you’re beautiful,
just the way you are.

Everything is just as it should be
& you are more
than enough.

Love,

You are beautiful

Jul 7th, 2011
by Jenn Gibson.
4 comments

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This is Allison. I saw her video this morning, when I was feeling messy, frumpy and not-at-all like any of the polished, confident women I’d seen and sat next to on the train ride in.

I’d woken up feeling tired, overwhelmed by details and to-do’s, and pulled on clothes that were comfortable and easy. I skipped makeup because I didn’t feel like bothering with it and the mascara I have always seems to get smudgy under my eyes anyway, so what’s the point?

But, as I walked into my office, I was berating myself — why didn’t I put on mascara this morning, is there some reason why I couldn’t have slapped some eyeliner on, would it have killed me to wear some lipgloss rather than my beloved Burt’s Bees? Why am I wearing a tee shirt & this messed up tank top, why aren’t I wearing my four inch knee-high patent leather black boots? I don’t need to be comfortable, I need to be polished and confident.

And on and on it went, we don’t need to hear the complaints, we’ve all had that voice in our head.

Then I watched Allison’s video and it made everything better, it quieted that nasty little bitchy voice in my head and cranked up the volume of my heart’s song.

Do you know what my heart was singing?
Oh, you know you do, if this is my heart, right?
You are beautiful. Exactly as you are.

Dear Allison, your bravery and fearless voice inspires me, down to the bone.
And you know what else?
I love you just the way you are, bad ass! ♥

Tribe Love! 05.06.11

May 6th, 2011
by Roots of She.
No comments yet

*, originally uploaded by danisoul.

Hindsight often shows me how incapable I sometimes am. Yet I continue. Balls to the walls.

Say what you want without apology or shame. You don’t have to tell the whole world, just one other person will do.

Instead, she said, it could be like this

Certain ideas just take on a life of their own.

Compassion is rooted in seeing others as similar to ourselves, in removing any and all ideas that there is an “us” and a “them.” There is only us.

Be kind. Have compassion. But fuck polite.

What if we gave our mothers a soft place to land, a place where they were showered with the praising words of “you are enough”?

What do you do when you’re holding a story that feels like dynamite?

I’ll keep telling you this: You are beautiful

Mar 3rd, 2011
by Roots of She.
1 comment


virginia, originally uploaded by Dave Stroup.

You are not alone : The Girl Effect

Feb 2nd, 2011
by Roots of She.
1 comment

The world could use a good kick in the pants.

Agree             Disagree

Have you heard about The Girl Effect? Have you watched this video yet? Because it will tug at you, make you want to do something, get involved, change the world.

Lori introduced me to The Girl Effect last year, she had tweeted about it and I pretty much immediately watched the video.

It tore something inside of me, and all these months later, it’s still torn.

From The Girl Effect website:

Given the chance 600 million adolescent girls in developing countries can unleash the world’s greatest untapped solution to poverty. This is the Girl Effect.

Can you imagine that? 600 million adolescent girls. 600 million. These are the next scientists, poets, artists, dreamers, doctors, mothers, writers, politicians, teachers, dancers. This is more than a generation, this is an army of girls grasping for the chance to break out of the cycle that poverty traps them in. Can you imagine the beauty they’d share with the world if only given the chance?

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