Live From 2007 The Women's Conference

10:00 A.M.:  California's First Lady Maria Shriver started speaking about 20 minutes ago and I have not been able to post because I am mesmerized by her charisma.  The woman is so smart I have a hard time listening to what she's saying and blogging about it.

She's speaking about herself, what it means to be a woman in her place, how her journey has been trying to find her identity.  Being a Kennedy, married to the Governator, being Oprah's really good friend is what most people know her for.  However, she is her own person and she's explaining how she has come to be where she is today.

10:10 a.m.: The First Lady is speaking about being present in the now, about how she has been inspired by all the speakers today.  She says she has learned to take the time to know how she feels in order to know who she is.  By learning to put down some of the armor she took up as a child she has become a kinder softer person.  She's speaking about her mother, what an inspiration she has been.  She had several strokes this year but she's still going.    At the end the first lady simply asked all women to take 15 minutes to themselves to escape from all the stress of life and take the time to find themselves.  Her talk was very inspirational and she encouraged us all to consider and actively create the legacies that we will leave to the world.  As a mother and as a daughter this speech was very inspirational.

Maria Schriver also announced the WE care partnership, a partnership between the Women's Conference, CARE International and Meredith Corporation to support life saving maternal health programs.

Eat, Pray, Love

11:00 A.M. Elizabeth Gilbert , Author Eat, Pray, Love, One of the NYT 100 most notable books is one of the speakers for this portion of “Morning Conversations.”

Elizabeth

is talking about how in order to support herself during her writing years she worked as a waitress in different diners. People used to ask her: “ aren’t you afraid that you will not be a success”.

She says that throughout her career people have “served her” hors d’oeuvres of “fears:” “Aren’t you afraid of this”. “Aren’t you afraid of that?” The fear platters is offered up to us almost like a buffet. The thing that’s extra hard for women is to commit to an spiritual journey, all of this things require the energy of a quest. Women traditionally have not been allowed to have the energy for those quests.

When women go on quests, they have to battle the demos that women battle but also the thought of “am I a bad woman because I am not home.”

Elizabeth wanted to start her quest two years before she published her book but she was going through a divorce and she just could not start her quest. She felt bitter because she could not start her journey. She started praying for something…she knew there was a life waiting for her somewhere…

The point she tried to get across is that you have to decide when your journey begins. We seem to think that we wait for our journey to find us when in reality we have to go out, create and find our quest and our journey. 

During the Questions and Answer session someone asked her, isn’t one of biggest quests to conquer fear?

Elizabeth’s answer was that it is a long, doubtful, irritating process to start your quest and get rid of the fear. Fear is always with you, it never leaves. You will probably ask yourself “what have I done?” plenty of times. However, if you have a plan, a well laid out plan, you will have an easier time dealing with the fears.

12:30 P.M.  The International Children's Choir has been singing for the past 30 minutes.  They are girls with typical dresses from each of the country they are representing.  Very Cute!

12:40: The afternoon/luncheon session is about to start.  Speakers will include Jamie Lee Curtis. Ed Begley Jr., Queen Rania of Jordan (whom I am most excited to see and hear speak), the 2008 Presidential Spouses including one of my favorites, Michelle Obama, and more!.  Stay Tuned!

12:50 P.M. Jamie Lee Curtis just finished speaking and I have to say she's one of the smartest and funniest speakers I have ever seen.  She started by saying "welcome to the world's largest Estrogen Festival!. Ha!.  She then touched on the current situation with the California fires. She made the point that these are man made disaster not an act of God.  She says "we build too close to the brushes, we are a drought area" and when things like this happen we want to blame God. 

Then she touched on the current situation of girls in this country.  She basically told us women that we need to get our stuff together.  We need to teach our daughters to love their bodies and love themselves.  She gave some scary statistics.  According to her information 46% of High School Girls drink alcohol...A LOT!  23% of College Girls have a drinking problem and 40% of 3rd graders want to be thinner!.  40%!

Sha said "women what are we doing being so obsessed with our looks?.  Vulgarity and pornography is everywhere!  Women she said: "take back your environment, your health, your morals, your mind".  "We can make better choices."

Finally she closed with something very beautiful.  She said she has a Buddhist book that asks of your life: "Did you learn how to live wisely?" and "did you love well?".  She says that ever since she read this book she lives her life by those two phrases.  She says that by showing her friends, her husband and her kids all the love she feels for them and by trying to make the right choices she knows she knows she's loving well and living wisely.  She challenged us to do the same.  By taking back our environment, our morals, our minds, etc...by leaving a legacy of self love to our daughters we will have accomplished that.  Live Wisely and Love Well.  It sounds so simple.  I am willing to take the challenge.

1:25 p.m. Queen Rania Al Abdullah

The first thing that comes to mind when you see Queen Rania is how beautiful and young she is.  Then she starts talking, and you realize it's the whole package: Beauty and brains. 

She started by thanking the Firefighters that are battling the California Fires and all the assistance personnel involved.  Then she started talking about the message she is bringing to the Women of the World. As a Muslim and an Arab, she wants to share a message of cross-cultural understanding.

She referred to California, a state with more than 200 languages, no ethnic majority, the state is a fertile environment for cultivating common ground amongst the people.  She spoke about her father in law, the late King Hussein and about how generous he was and how he taught her that in life it is not what you have, it is what you do with what you have to make a difference in others.

She also spoke about how we perceive Muslim women as barefoot and backwards and Muslims perceive American women as "Desperate Housewives" looking for "Sex in the City." She wants to change those perceptions and said something really profound.  She spoke about 11-9-2005 when there were 3 different terrorist attacks in Amman, Jordan and over 60 people were killed.  She said, there's no American or Arab way to lose a child.  When you are a parent there are no nationalities or ethnicity.

2:35-3:35: Presidential Spouses
First Lady Maria Shriver Moderates a Conversation with Presidential Spouses:

• Elizabeth Edwards: Look great and very healthy.  She is a very smart woman and you can tell she has a lot of influence over her husband. 
• Cindy Hensley McCain: Very poised and she comes across as very supportive of her husband and his ideals.  She talked about the difficulty of keeping your like private when you are in the campaign trail.
• Michelle Obama:    An absolute Superstar.  Bright,, articulate and you can tell this is a woman with a purpose.  She spoke about how important family is to her and how she has told her husband that not only he has to be a good president but a good father as well.  She also spoke about how her mother tells her "Michelle do not be mad at him, he's a good man" when she knows that Obama is in trouble with her. :-)
• Ann Romney Not what I expected at all.  I am not sure what I expected to be honest but she came across as very smart, down to earth and as a great candidate's wife. She also when asked by Maria who's her support, she mentioned her "boys" and you could see how her face lit up.  She says her kids call her or text message her every day and that's her biggest source of support.
• Jeri Thompson: Mrs. Thompson spoke about what is like being a new mom in the campaign trail, how even finding a changing table for her one year old is hard.  I am sure we moms can all relate to that.  She also spoke about not being qualified to give her husband any advice about the campaign, policies, etc.  Maria then told her "but you ARE qualified.  You used to have a career before you became a mother and a wife". She came across during the whole conversation as reluctant to say too much.  She may be worried that anything she says will be misconstrued

Elizabeth Edwards and Linda Ellerby came on after the candidate's wives had left to show a video and honor those women that are living with Breast Cancer. Mrs. Edwards spoke about how she had not confronted mortality until 7 months ago when she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  She said that although she had lost a son and had hear many stories of women dying of cancer she never really confronted this reality.  Her reality now.

Linda Ellerby gave a very inspirational speech and they showed a very moving video of women living with breast cancer. 

5:00 P.M.Diane von Furstenberg, Fashion Designer & President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America Ms. Von Furstenberg is speaking about the Goddess MInerva and how her mother taught her about her when she was growing up.  She's saying how she also knew what she wanted to be.  A strong woman, a good woman able to help others.  She spoke about her mother and how she always inspired her.  Her mother was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 20. When she left 14 months later she weighed only 49 pounds.  Her mother taught her everything to be the person that she is today.  Although she was a victim, she taught Diane that fear was not an option.

5:25 P.M.Professor Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Professor Yunus spoke about poverty and how it is not created by people.  How poor people do not create poverty, it is created by the system. He spoke about all the loans that his organization gives in Bangladesh.  How they give these micro credits to destitute women with no collateral, no insurance, no lawyers involved.  After a few years there women are out of poverty and the payback rate is about 99%.  The bank that lends the money is owned by the borrowers, the poorest people of Bangladesh.

His speech was very inspirational and makes you think about poverty in the world and how Professor Yunus says: "People do not create poverty, systems do".

5:40: Maria Shriver:  The first lady talked about Nancy Pelosi and how she made history by being the first woman Speaker of the House.   Maria said that what best prepared Mrs. Pelosi to be such a strong woman is being a mother.

Mrs Pelosi could not attend in person but came in via Satellite and gave a very inspirational speech. She said to remember that "Women working together women can accomplish anything and to remember what  Eleanor Roosevelt said :"the future belongs to those who dare to dream"

Although The Moms Buzz  did not stay until the very end we have to say that every session we attended, every speaker that we heard was an inspiration.  Being a part of this was an amazing experience and one that we will not soon forget.  We would like to extend our thanks to Tracey Anderson from Glam.com  for the invitation and for making our wish of attending this conference come true.

- The Moms' Buzz

source: Live from The Women's Conference at Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center

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