by Heather Sattler
Every year we offer two 6-week Exploration programs where girls get to meet women from different backgrounds and explore a theme like careers, cultures, and the arts. I was so excited that this year, when the world celebrates International Women’s Day for the 100th time, our spring Exploration would be Women Who Rock Exploration. Little did I know I would end up in tears.
Our six super special guests are facilitating dynamic activities and conversations that help This Is ME’s girls relate to trailblazing women ranging from suffragists to film editors. Last week Betsy Sobiech, a founding partner of ClearSpace and Tiara International, introduced us to India.Arie.
Betsy started by having the girls and volunteers reflect on their favorite musician and what about his/her/their music we most appreciated. Then she had us listen to a few of India.Arie’s most poignant songs and told us a bit about her background. For those who don’t know, this 35 year-old is a singer, songwriter, producer, musician, advocate, and philanthropist. Betsy shared some of India’s best quotes such as:
“I want people to hear my music for a long time … for this generation to say decades from now: ‘This still says what I think’ and girls who are 11 now, who were 1 when I wrote ‘Video,’ can say, ‘That’s how I feel.’”
“Everybody’s looking for ways to feel better –– the world is so unpredictable, people are looking inside themselves to ask what’s meaningful in life. My music has always addressed this.”
Then Betsy led an exercise to help us look at what’s meaningful to us and to put it into song lyrics. She had the best formula I’ve ever seen for extracting meaningful, creative written word from our girls – and volunteers! Her visioning exercise inspired me to write about my baby, Elliot. I couldn’t believe what I was able to come up with. By the time I was done (in 10 minutes or less), I had tears in my eyes because I had a beautiful, tangible creation to conjure up feelings and memories that had been mostly intangible.
At This Is ME, we challenge girls to put themselves out there so I’m challenging myself to bravely share this song with the fbook/blog world. Who knows, maybe someone will be moved to write the music to the Elliot song. Or maybe write lyrics of their own. To see find out the formula for this kind of songwriting, visit www.thisismeinc.org/forgirls.html
I am joyful
I am in E’s room
I am surrounded by toys
I’m rolling on the floor
I am in E’s room
I am free to be me
I’m rolling on the floor
I’m thrilled to be part mama, part child
I am free to be me
I am relieved (…from it all)
I’m thrilled to be part mama, part child
I’m grateful to know there is no wrong me
I am relieved (…from it all)
I am freed
I’m grateful to know there is no wrong me
Finally
I am freed
I am surrounded by toys
Finally
I am joyful
Now, for real lyrics done right: check out India.Arie’s video “Video”:
