I’m at the midpoint of my life, but there’s nothing halfway about how I want to live right now. How many of you are feeling the same way?  It really doesn’t interest me to look back at where I’ve been or stress about what lies ahead. I’m pumped to live more boldly right now and pull out all the stops to make this moment as big and juicy as it’s meant to be. 
 
And as I look at the world now, it calls for bold talk, bold acts and for women with big, bold hearts to make a difference. We’re hungry for women’s ways of resolving conflict, finding common ground and building peaceful communities. When just one of us steps out to express our energy and passion, the entire world gets a bit bolder, saner and more alive.
 
Recently, I knew, without a doubt, that I had to go bold. My soul strutted every time I thought of going to Africa to support African women in their climb out of poverty, growing my soul in the journey. So I spent time with the amazing women of BeadforLife in Uganda, refugee women working their way out of poverty, one bead at a time. Their gorgeous beaded necklaces and bracelets are being embraced by women across America, who are as hungry as I am to support their African sisters.  
 
Uganda is part of my going bold—for this moment. What does it look like for you?    

Maybe you don’t have the hunger to journey across the globe or start anything new – but long to stay home, get quiet and go within. That is a bold move in our hyper-stimulated world, and I applaud anyone who makes it. We need more women who push away from the centrifugal force of endless work, ferrying kids to soccer and mindless, materialistic-driven motion. And only in going quiet can we really discover what our souls need, moment by moment.  Maybe going bold means starting a new relationship – or releasing one that no longer works.
 
Or perhaps your soul feels drawn to diving into affect the outcome of the next Presidential election so we elect a leader who serves humanity and the common good – not the narrow, heartless interests of a few.
 
And going bold doesn’t mean you and I won’t be afraid. I felt as drawn to going to Africa as anything I’d ever done – but I was scared at the same time. Diving into such an unfamiliar culture, saturated with poverty, AIDS, starvation and malaria, was intimidating. I was also afraid of having my heart cracked open that wide by the suffering I saw as I interviewed dozens of refugee women. But it did, and it felt incredible.  As I met my first African woman, who’d survived the slaughter of rebels, AIDS, malaria and the crush of poverty but still had such a luminious
spirit, I felt a bold knowing: We are only here to love one another. I never felt so alive or so sure of what I was doing.  
 
Let’s support each other and not let our fears hold us back from going bold. 
 
Whenever I get scared about the next bold choice, I try to remember how I felt when I was 24, working in one of my first jobs. I got the opportunity to be the first woman to go down in the world’s deepest silver mine in northern Idaho. For centuries, miners banned any woman from going down in this mine because they thought the earth would shudder and revolt, and the mine would collapse. See what power we women have!
 
Anyway, as I went down the elevator into the moist, pitch-black mine shaft, just one huge thing collapsed: those outdated, suffocating beliefs.  
 

That’s what happens when we play it big. That’s what is needed in the world right now. With great joy and adventure, we take away all the energy  from any tired untruths that hold us and all of humanity back. And there’s nothing more fun or satisfying—or bold--than that.