Dear Ones,

I am writing to you this morning from the Red Thread Cafe – and I have some good news. The pie is finally ready and it is juicy and piping hot!

needThis is an invitation to a slice of revolutionary homemade goodness. Something the Cosmic Cowgirls and I have cooked up together….something hot, something yummie and something all together sweet and wild.

This is Cosmic Cowgirls Magazine…where we are having our own revolution, and of course, you are invited. You are invited to share in the legend of our tribe, and to weave your own legend….

This is Shiloh Sophia, known around here as Chief Laughing Cloud and it has been a dream of mine since I was a wee one working on the yearbook and the school newspaper, to make a space for the oddballs, the outcasts and the cheerleaders and jock girls and the enchanted fairygirls the cowgirls and  to come together and kick the proverbial tires of life.

What is:

*REVOLUTION*

A  dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized or in people’s ideas about it.

What is it to be a revolutionary thinker?

• Does it mean you have to be political, wear a Che’ Guevara hat and risk your life for your ideals or sing out with your guitar in public about what you believe?
  
• Does it mean your whole world turns upside down and you no longer put up with what you put up with before?
• Or is it an awakening to a thought or idea, that once fully though will no longer allow you to go back to your “uninspired unrest”?

According to one of the Webster’s definitions, (one of the few descriptions not political), Revolution includes a dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way we organize our thoughts. MMMMmmmmhhhhmmm. My, my, but that does sound good doesn’t it? To have the power within our very own selves to reorganize our thoughts.

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe.
You have to make it fall.
Che Guevara

But do we want to make it fall? Do we want to DO the work to “revolve” (the late Middle English origin of revolution).
One of the reasons we don’t want to do this work of revolving, is because it is indeed, work.
We cannot wait for the ripeness, we have to make it fall.
What happens when we don’t make it fall?

I remember being a teenager and getting in touch with my own personal revolution. I was about 13 when I stopped trying to so hard to fit and started trying just as hard not to. I drew on my clothes with sharpies, wore doc martins, had a white blonde flat top, shopped at second hand stores and smoked cloves. I studied anarchy and Jesus. I was a cheerleader and conscious resister and avid debator of social justice. I was the student body president and the president of the Rage Club where the goal was to free think our own thoughts. I chose then to think for myself. Wonder Woman and Herman Hesse played no small role in that decision, not to mention my mother, poet and mystic: Caron McCloud, who told me to write poety so I could drop lines (lines of poetry) at parties, instead of spend time washing the dishes or learning to bake.
So it is no wonder I ended up running with a pack of wild women, a combination of holy ones and rebels, young ones and old ones, from all over the USA and Canada, called none other than The Cosmic Cowgirls.

Together we navigate this Rodeo of the Soul towards destination unknown. We know we have to plan to meet for 100 years and to never forget the stories of our people. We know we have to meet in person so we can hold hands and dance. We know we have to make art, whatever that is for each woman, and we know, in our bones, that we cannot do this alone.
We stand (and dance) for the fullness of the senses for each human being, and very specifically, our vision is towards women and girls. Because we focus on the feminine, does not mean we don’t serve the masculine – if we serve over 150 women a month, and we do, at least twice as many men in their lives will benefit from their revolutions in their work, values, relationships, and how they feel about themselves.
Cosmic Cowgirls are women who walk between two worlds, women who have their feet on the ground, their head in the stars and a song on their lips. Sure enough we all do think for ourselves, at least we are learning to – and there are some things, many in fact, that we find common amongst ourselves…sure, not every single cowgirl, but here are a few of the common threads that run through our community.

independence – the necessity of thinking for ourselves
creativity – practice of unique self expression
awareness – compassionate action towards ourselves, and all other life forms
justice – the upholding of human, animal and earth rights
community – the sharing of women’s wisdom
courage – the risk of being seen and heard
self love – nurturing ourselves and listening to our hearts
embodiment – the honoring of our body temple
transformation – the profound importance of personal revolution
vision – how the world sees and treats women and children needs to be healed

To name a few. Even as I wrote these, pulled from our own archives of collective conversation, I knew they would need some community editing and that not all the wording is just right and so on. We also have the value of the perfection of imperfection – sometimes we shake the tree first…then we make the apple martinis. In fact at our upcoming Cosmic Cowgirls Hootenanny (4th Annual Conference for members-only) we will be working on our core values, our culture and deciding together what revolution and legend mean for us. If you are interested in learning more about membership, hop on over to www.cosmiccowgirls.com.

Cosmic Cowgirls are indeed committed to the Revolution. To revolving thought. To doing the personal and collective work. And our Cowgirl tool at the heart of the Cosmic Cowgirl Revolution is media- a way to communicate, cross-pollinate and disseminate revolving thought! We are a wild, independent thinking bunch and I am sure it will be no small task to share our voices with the world. For our Revolution to have an effect – to ‘shake the tree’ of uninspired status quo – we  need a platform to share the lights we have in our tribe. And the fledgling Cosmic Cowgirls Magazine is our platform.

Cosmic Cowgirls Magazine is our stand in the universe for the unique voices and images of women and girls to be seen and heard.

It has been a process to refine and define and launch the magazine. (sound effects of working on the magazine: Giggle. Sigh. Giggle. More Coffee. Wine now. Sigh. Giggle. Launch. Cheers! Champagne on the house!) And so I want to honor the eight women who have said yes to holding the flame and journeying together for a year – an act of service and devotion to their tribe, but also to shining their own lights in the world. A Cheers To YOU my joys:

Mary MacDonald, Jenafer Joy, Ti Klingler, Michelle Fairchild, Donniece Smith, Laura Toller Gardner, Elizabeth Gibbons and Isabella Vickers.

These eight women who are with me, whom you will hear from over the next year…are my sisters, my friends, my tribe, and will always and forever be, held and remembered in the legend of the nine women writers who changed the world!
Cosmic Cowgirls Magazine isn’t about a reaction, or a space for venting – though we may have some rants and chants for the injustices and absurdities running alongside recipes for the best homemade pie recipes in the world or how to glitter your cowgirl boots. This isn’t about succeeding, this is about living our own legends. I remember talking one day to the director of Cosmic Cowgirls University, Jenafer Joy, and she said to her being legendary meant being able to end her work day in time to bake a pie for her boys. Yup.
And if you have been following my work at all you know something about the Cosmic Cowgirls, which I founded as an LLC in 2006, as a woman and girl member owned publishing house and university. The magazine is our offering and a platform for our members to share their glorious work with the world…


Here are three questions to ponder to get into a revolutionary mind-and heart-set:

• Have you spent time identifying the beliefs you hold that may not be your own?
• Have you written down your own personal manifesta?
• Have you stood your ground on a topic of importance?

If your answer is “no” or “not in the past three years” then come on over – the table is set a the Red Thread Cafe and I have poured your tea…black? or with cream? I also have a piece of your favorite pie plated up and a side of ice cream if you would like…
I honor this legendary moment. It is early early on a mild February day. The kettle is on, the candles are lit and my kitties surround with me with feline-therapy while I type. I feel as if as each word strikes it lights a match that lights up the sky. With all these apples we should be able to make many pies and feed those hungry for revolutionary pie. I invite you to join the revolution. Given a pen or brush, a cowgirl hat and some good girlfriends, I am fairly certain we can change the world. But if not, at least we can say we tried, and had a good time doing it.
P.S. Want to learn more about what it means to weave your own legend? Join me for an upcoming conversation, a circle of one hundred women on March 2 called Legend Weaver.

Riddle: What do a housewife in Kentucky, a business exec in New York, a taxi driver in San Francisco, a checkout girl in Indiana, a nun in Wisconsin, an environmentalist in Oregon, a seamstress in Kansas, a teenage girl in Utah and artist in Mendocino have in common?
Answer: We are all the sheroes of our own stories. We are Cosmic Cowgirls!
Want a copy of this poster? Subscribe to the Cosmic Cowgirls Blog!