It really is easier, as Carla often points out, to always enter a room full of strangers with your personal sidekick.  Self portrait before heading out this morning:

I was invited to attend a lovely coffee/breakfast this morning. The attendees were Nashville bloggers who are mommies (I don’t think they all fit the category of mommy blogger). Meredith, who hosted us at her home, had a lovely spread of muffins, cider, coffee and other yummy stuff for us to enjoy. She brought us all together to chat and let our children play. I had a fabulous time talking with a wonderful group of women! I will link some of them once I get their addresses – but it was really a fabulous morning.

In addition to the bloggers, we also had a couple of women visiting from Boulder, CO. They, along with one of our Nashville bloggers, are from an organization I am great intrigued by after hearing a little bit about it. And how awesome is the name: Mothers Acting Up! It is an activism group but it is doing things in a better way. Many groups demanding change act from a point of anger – MAU wants to make activism a joyful thing. Their vision is:

We realize that we live in a world that does not prioritize or protect our children’s wellbeing and that this will not change without each of us finding the courage and commitment to speak out on their behalf. By mobilizing our gigantic political strength, we can ensure the health, education and safety of every child, not just a privileged few. Let us: whisper this to each other, sing it out in the streets, yell it from our rooftops, declare it in our houses of government: we will protect our children with our personal and political strength, wherever they live on earth!

There is a one woman performance here tonight at 7:30 by Beth Osnes (met her – very neat lady!) and a workshop for activism tomorrow morning at 9pm. Both are at the First Unitarian Universalist Church. After the workshop tomorrow they are holding a Girlcott (I love this concept). Instead of boycotting businesses that don’t do what we want, MAU supports businesses who do it right. A local coffee shop which uses coffee bought through fair trades is being girlcotted – basically everyone gathers there, fraternizes the business, and makes a show of what the business is doing right and why it should be supported. Love this idea. I’ve participated in my fair share of protests and they turn off more people than pay attention to the message. This allows the community to celebrate the businesses who support the “right” things. (Right being a relative term – right by our definition.)

I’m interested in learning more about this group because I like their style.