I’m starting with a question today…

How Many Skins Have You Shed??

Huh? I can see the befuddled look on your face. It probably matches mine right this minute.

I seriously need to take a break from working on my newest novel. I love what I do more than I could possibly express, but there are times when writing the history of our nation is very disturbing. Being faced with the cruel reality of human nature demands I dive into lots of solitude so I can balance out people’s actions with the compassion of a higher being. I truly believe that even in the darkest of times there is hope and grace to light the way, but there are times we have to really search to find it!

As Bregdan Women, we need to commit to searching for light in the darkness!

I decided to take a break today and search for the light and grace, knowing that I can’t communicate it unless I totally immerse myself in it! I went digging back through some things I’ve written in the past. When I found this, a broad smile spread across my face as one of the miracles of nature embraced me with its wonder – and then challenged me on my journey to becoming a Bregdan Woman. I hope it does the same for you!

Back to my original question…

How Many Skins Have You Shed??

One morning I woke up dreaming of Monarch Butterflies. It was such a great dream! My love of monarchs developed when I was a 20-year-old college student on a fall weekend camping trip in the North Carolina mountains with a college professor. At one point during the weekend, he ordered us all to climb to the top of a mountain and lay down in the tall grasses of the meadow top. Silently. Mystified, we did as he said, settled down in the grass, and waited quietly.

I laid down next to my boyfriend. We held hands, but we followed directions and didn’t speak. That in itself was something of a miracle! I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was blown away by what happened.

Soon the air was filled with hundreds, and then thousands, of
monarch butterflies on their annual pilgrimage - migrating south to Mexico. I will never forget the beautiful monarchs flying over our faces, settling down in the grass, resting on our bodies, delighting us with their beauty. I was mesmerized by what I had seen but I still didn’t have much knowledge. I just knew I was in love!

Oh, I knew about the “miracle” of the caterpillar becoming a butterfly, but my knowledge was sparse for more than 30 years. After my dream I decided to do some digging. The power of the Internet is truly an amazing thing. What I discovered as I explored from site to site absolutely amazed me. Let’s see if it does the same for you.

The Monarch butterfly hatches from a tiny little egg.

It is born as a caterpillar.

It then proceeds to do what it was designed to do at that stage. Eat. But it’s important to know it doesn’t just eat until it dives into the cocoon.

It actually sheds its skin 5 times. 5 times! It eats and grows. Then it sheds its skin.

Then it eats and grows – and sheds its skin.

It does this 3 more times; but when it sheds its skin for the 5^th time, something miraculous happens.

The 5^th skin is actually the cover for a thick mucus substance – its cocoon!

The caterpillar sheds its skin and then waits quietly for the mucus covering to harden into a cocoon. While I was fascinated by this information, I couldn’t help digging deeper.

I Googled – What happens in the cocoon? That’s when my fascination changed to awe…

I learned that the entire cellular structure of the caterpillar is broken down into black goop – only to be recreated into a beautiful monarch butterfly capable of flying 2500 miles.

From Black Goop!

A butterfly that is somehow encoded with the information of how to get to the same nesting area that its ancestors 5 generations before nested.

Wrap your brain around that…

And then wrap your brain around…

When the butterfly emerges, the only thing that remains from the caterpillar are 3 legs. The rest is all brand new. WOW!

Here’s an interesting question.

Could that wormy caterpillar envision what it would become?

I don’t know – I just know that from the time it was born, it was equipped with everything it needed to become what it was designed to become. I also realized that the only way that caterpillar could become a monarch butterfly was to go through the wrenching process of having its entire structure broken down to become something new.

Remember the Black Goop?!

Here’s another interesting question. I wonder if they are aware of what is happening when their entire being starts to break down?

I wonder if they think their life is over and the cocoon is nothing more than a pretty tomb?

I wonder if they have any clue that this dark, scary time is actually the prelude to the most wonderful time of their life?

As I learned more I realized the miracle of the Monarch butterfly is no different from the miracle of our own lives –

IF we choose to shed the skins of our life .

IF we are willing to undergo a complete transformation - allowing our entire being to be broken down into black goop, transformed, and created into something brand new.

It’s when people refuse to change – when they refuse to shed their skin – that they become trapped in their lives, unable to move forward into what they are meant to be and do.

Here’s what I believe to be 100% true. Just as the caterpillar is born equipped with everything it needs to become what it is designed to be, I believe we are born with that same ability.

Can a caterpillar refuse to shed its skin? I don’t know, but I know humans can and DO – many times.

Can a caterpillar refuse to enter the cocoon? I don’t know. I just know humans have that choice, and way too many people refuse.

Why?

You’re scared of the change. You’re scared of the unknown.

You’re scared because you can’t see what you can become so you choose to stay who you are RIGHT NOW – completely missing out on the miracle of becoming a Monarch Butterfly capable of amazing things.

I know that in my own life I’ve had to make the choice to enter the cocoon more than once. A Monarch butterfly has a short life span. Mine is much longer. So is yours. That means the transformation stage happens time and time again, IF we allow it to.

It’s not necessarily a fun process (I mean how much fun can it be to have your entire cellular structure broken down into black goop?), but I know that each time I emerge from the cocoon I’m able to fly further and longer. I’m stronger and more able to become the person I was designed to become.

Sometimes you know when you’re crawling into the cocoon.

Other times you emerge from a particularly difficult time and realize you have been completely transformed. Only then do you realize you were in a cocoon the entire time.

The secret to the cocoon – to becoming a powerful Bregdan Woman - is being able to embrace change – to actually WANT it – instead of resist it, or run from it. I see it in people all around me.

You’re willing to do everything but CHANGE. Well, here’s the thing.

Life IS change.

Nothing stays the same. Ever. Life just doesn’t work that way. When you grasp on to what is, and refuse to allow it to be any different, you’re quite simply stifling the whole natural flow of life.

Nothing lasts forever.

The hard times will change into good times.

The good times will change into hard times.

But don’t worry – the good times will return.

From the minute you’re born, your body is changing – it is leading you to death.

There is constant change as you embrace all the seasons of your life.

Stopping it would be like trying to stop a tsunami.

I also want to tell you that the ONLY way you can lead the life you dream of is to accept, embrace and welcome the change as it comes.

**********************

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

If this letter has inspired, challenged you, or motivated you, I ask you to share it with your friends and family, or on social media. You can help me reach millions of women - my gift to the world.

Ginny

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Elvira couldn’t do anything to stop what was happening in her country, but she was determined to act when she witnessed horror on the farm she grew up on.

Elvira was born when her homeland of Bolivia, in central-western South America, was in constant turmoil. A military dictatorship resulted in the torture and murder of countless Bolivian citizens.

The little girl grew up working alongside her mother on the farm her father owned. She saw what happened on a daily basis. She was only six years old when she started asking questions.

“Mama, why is Daddy so mean to those people?”

“Don’t look at them, Elvira, just do your work.” Her mother spoke quickly and fearfully, keeping her eyes down so she wouldn’t attract attention. She had learned to ignore what she couldn’t control in order to survive.

Elvira couldn’t do that. She worked hard, but she saw how her father abused the other workers. It didn’t matter that she was six years old. She knew what was happening was wrong. Her indignation grew.

One day, Elvira watched one of the field hands escape by running into the woods bordering the fields. She silently hoped he got away, but that wasn’t what happened. Hiding so that she could overhear conversations, she learned her father had hunted him down with dogs, whipped him and hung him by chains in their basement.

Later that night, Elvira found her father’s keys, slipped in quietly and invisibly into that dark, dank basement, and freed the man. Beaten and bleeding, he escaped from the house and disappeared into the night – never to be found.

I’m astonished at the courage Eliva had. She was six!

Can’t you imagine how frightened she had to have been?

And how astonished and grateful the man must have been to be freed by a child?

Elvira’s courage came at a high price.

The little girl was banished from her family – ripped away from her mother and sent away to live in La Paz (Bolivia’s capitol), so her father would never have to see or speak to her again. In many ways, her banishment was a gift.

Undaunted, Elvira Alvarez grew up to carve a life as a staunch advocate for human rights and social justice. She had witnessed an atrocity that would never leave her. The memories carried her passion and zeal to right the wrongs of her society.

Elvira didn’t just see the injustices - she acted.

When her youngest child died because the local doctors refused to care for her family because they couldn’t pay, she and her husband developed affordable public health care clinics so others wouldn’t experience the same tragedy she had.

She Acted.

When she and her husband were working in an area where local miners sold their gold to an international mining company, she learned there was serious pollution of the drinking water because of the mining techniques.

She Acted.

Elvira went to work publicizing the dangerous pollution. As you can imagine, this angered the mining company. It also made local doctors angry because their patients (who paid them in gold) were choosing to visit the new health care center Elvira’s group was providing.

Elvira and her husband were accused of being subversive to the government and put into prison.

She had no access to a public defender or to family since her husband was also in prison.

She could only hold on to hope that something would change.

Finally, after transferring to a woman’s prison, a lawyer and The Assembly of Human Rights group quickly proved her innocence.

She Acted.

I love this woman!

During the seven months it took for her release, she organized the other women in the prison to demand visits to their spouses in the men’s prison. Their demand was granted.

After her release…

She Acted.

Elvira worked on getting her husband and new friends out of prison. At that time, justice in Bolivia was delayed with serious violations of human rights. In order to obtain bail, a prisoner had to put up a valuable piece of property such as a car or even their house. Most people simply did not have the resources to do that.

The law also required a rehabilitation program be in place before a prisoner would be released. Ironically, no such programs existed and people could spend months, even years in prison – waiting and forgotten.

She Acted.

Elvira developed a process to help these abandoned prisoners. Her system included the prisoner, family members, friends and a sponsor pulling together to work through the necessary requirements so the prisoner could be released.

She put together the steps a prisoner’s advocate must take; how to create and propose a rehabilitation program and carry it out; how to develop a support system for the prisoner upon his or her release; and how the prisoner could get work once out of prison.

Do you see why I am excited to tell you about this incredible Bregdan Woman?

From abandoned child… to health care activist… to prison reform activist…

She Acted.

Elvira Alvarez Ala boldly stepped into the gap on behalf of others. Her entire life has been dedicated to helping those whose freedom or rights have been ripped away.

She chose to use what life handed her and turned it around to make a difference in the lives of others.

Her determination and perseverance are a complete inspiration to me.

I hope you haven’t been wrongfully imprisoned or witnessed the atrocities that Elvira did, but I also know that not a single one of us have not witnessed injustices.

As a Bregdan Woman, you have a choice. Will you turn away and ignore what you see, or will you ACT?

It is a choice each of us has to make daily. I have several questions for you today.

What choice will you make today? Tomorrow?

What injustices can you help make right?

What actions can YOU take to make a difference for others?

**********************

What will you do to be a Bregdan Woman?

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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Sorry for the absence during the last week. I’m in a rather major transition period, but the upheaval is behind me. Yay!

You’ve got 3 letters about amazing Bregdan Woman coming this week - and all the weeks that follow. For today…

Ponder this today…

For myself - I refuse to let anyone stop me from doing what I believe I’m meant to do! People have been trying to put constraints and expectations on me my entire life. I’ve busted through everyone of them.

My great hope is that these letters and my encouragement will empower you to do the same!

Happy Sunday!

Ginny

She didn’t expect to find a miracle on an obscure mountain top. She certainly didn’t expect to find one of the secrets of how to live life.

I love this story! One of my favorite things about spring is the daffodils that bloom so profusely around the country. Depending on where you live, they may have already bloomed, or they might now be in full bloom. Look at them closely. They hold a secret.

I have a love affair with daffodils. Every fall I plant at least 500 – knowing the joy the brilliant yellow flowers will bring.

This story is one of my favorites – a fitting tribute to a remarkable Bregdan Woman.

Imagine this conversation with me…

“Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they’re over. They’ve never been more beautiful,” Carolyn said.

She knew her mom, Amanda, needed to visit. She just had to convince her. “You haven’t ever gone and this year you must. Please come, please. I know you’ll be glad you did.”

“Honey, I want to come. But it’s a two-hour drive. You know I hate to drive. Maybe next week.”

Carolyn ground her teeth but vowed not to give up.

She called again . . . early the next week. “Mom? The daffodils won’t last forever . . . are you coming?” Carolyn’s voice teetered on pleading . . . not something she usually did.

“I can’t this week . . . but next,” Amanda responded.

Arrgghhh!

Carolyn knew she needed another approach, so she put the grandchildren on the phone. “Gammy, you come to see us? Pleease?”

Carolyn could feel her mother’s love for her grandchildren breaking through her resistance. She pumped her fist in the air victoriously.

“Pleease, Gammy??”

“I will come next Tuesday,” Amanda promised reluctantly.

The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Amanda wanted nothing more than to stay home, but she had promised her grandchildren. “Pleease, Gammy?” rang in her ears.

When she finally walked into Carolyn’s house, she hugged her grandchildren, and said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog. There is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!”

Her daughter smiled calmly. “We drive in this all the time, Mother. You’ll never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

She reached for her car keys.

Amanda shook her head stubbornly. “You won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!”

Once again, her grandchildren worked their magic. A few minutes later, with a grandchild gripping each hand, pulling, and chattering excitedly, she found herself climbing into her daughter’s car.

Twenty minutes later they turned onto a gravel road she never would have seen in the fog. At that same moment the fog began to swirl and lift. The sun cast a shimmering glow that appeared more than a little magical as it teased the fog from the ground.

A tiny church appeared around a curve. There was a large hand-lettered sign off to the side that read Daffodil Garden.

Amanda, despite herself, began to feel a strange sense of anticipation. She climbed out of the car, took a child’s hand, and followed Carolyn down the path. When they turned a corner, she looked up and gasped. Spread before her lay the most glorious sight she had ever seen.

It appeared as though someone had taken a shimmering vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. 5 acres of glowing daffodils were planted in majestic, swirling patterns-great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

Amanda fought to breathe as she took it in. As her eyes swept the beauty, she took a deep breath and let the magnificence fill her. It filled her soul and expanded her lungs.

“Pretty!” her youngest granddaughter exclaimed.

Carolyn reached down, lifted her up, and pulled her into a tight embrace. “Very pretty,” she agreed. “Thank you for talking me into coming.”

Her granddaughter grinned and patted her cheeks. “Pretty!”

After long minutes of enjoying the magnificence of the flowers, she turned to Carolyn with a question on her face. Her daughter merely pointed toward a small well-kept home perched modestly to the side.

When Amanda got close enough she saw the poster – Answers to the Questions I know you are Asking.

The first answer was a simple one – 50,000 bulbs. The second answer – One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain. The third answer – Began in 1958.

There it was, The Daffodil Principle.

For Amanda, that moment was life-changing. A Bregdan Woman she had never met, more than forty years before, had begun – one bulb at a time – to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.

One bulb at a time, year after year, she had created something of magnificence, beauty, and inspiration – forever changing the world in which she lived.

Tears filled her eyes. “What might I have accomplished,” Amanda murmured, “if I had thought of something wonderful 40 years ago and worked away at it all these years? What might I have been able to accomplish?”

Carolyn smiled as if she could read her mother’s mind and reached over to flip the poster. On the opposite side were two words – the mystery lady’s answer to Amanda’s last unspoken question.

START TOMORROW!

The Daffodil Principle is one of the greatest secrets of life. It is about learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time – often just one baby step at a time. It’s about learning to love the doing and learning to use the accumulation of time.

It is about knowing that when we choose to multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, that we, too, can accomplish magnificent things.

I’m going to repeat that. Read it slowly.

It is about knowing that when we choose to multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, that we, too, can accomplish magnificent things.

You can make a difference in your world!

Forget the lost hours of yesterday . . . they aren’t coming back.

The way to make your choices a cause for celebration, instead of a reason for regret is to ask: “How can I put this to use today?”

“What can I do today to impact the rest of my life?”

“What can I do today to impact history?”

So today, Bregdan Woman, as you choose how to life, remember the Daffodil’s and the lady who believed in the future . . . she believed enough to start small and let the magic of time magnify that belief into acres of beauty.

I believe that principle works today.

Small acts of kindness, small steps toward change, all grow within us to create works of beauty.

Is there something you need to know? Daily learning, just fifteen minutes, can make you an expert in anything.

Beauty can be created one bulb, one flower, one plant at a time.

I feel like the Daffodil lady right now. My dream is to have 5 million women reading I Am A Bregdan Woman - for starters! I KNOW the impact so many changed and inspired Bregdan Women will have on the world.

I make a daily choice to take action.

One letter at a time…

One reader at a time…

One marketing plan at a time…

One action at a time…

I’m planting a bulb with every action I take! I’m creating a new Bregdan Woman with every action I take.

Be like the Daffodil woman and believe in your future. It may take some time to see the greatness in your life, but it is there.

START TOMORROW – OR BETTER YET, START RIGHT THIS MOMENT!

*****************************

And the final question I will ask each day… What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

Today, you’re going to learn that if you can run here, you can run anywhere!

This Bregdan Woman came from Bekoji, a small village 10,500 feet above sea level in Ethiopia. There are plenty of donkeys, horses, goats, and cows on the road, but only 25 people in the population of 17,000 own a car. The landscape looks arid but is incredibly fertile – growing anything that is planted.

The average temperature is 66 degrees – my kind of place! It may take some time for your lungs to acclimate to the elevation, but you will revel in the crisp, pure air.

One thing is for sure… if you can run here, you can run anywhere.

Except that Derartu Tulu didn’t grow up running. Her love was horseback riding. She was quite convinced her feet weren’t meant to touch the ground. She rounded up the family cattle on horseback. She went to school on horseback. She visited friends on horseback.

When she was 16, some friends convinced her to give running a try. She still preferred horses, but running could provide her with opportunities that horseback riding could not.

She also happened to be quite good at it. In an area that embraced long distance running, she was unusually fast. She began to realize the doors that could open for her – just because she was fast.

And tough.

Her running philosophy was simply expressed: You need to be tough in everything you do.

That’s a philosophy every Bregdan Woman should embrace!

Derartu was only twenty when she made the Olympic squad for the 10,000 meter race in 1992. She was headed to Barcelona, Spain!

While she showed great promise, no one expected her to medal. While there was expectation that the event would see the first gold medal won by an African woman, no one thought Derartu would win, or place.

South Africa had recently ended Apartheid, so they were invited to the Barcelona Olympics. Their star runner, Elena Meyer, a white South African, was heavily favored to win.

Derartu didn’t care what everyone thought. She had come to run!

The Olympic racing world was stunned when 20 year old Derartu kept pace with Elena Meyer, even when the South African broke away from the rest of the field. I’m sure Elena was stunned, too!

Derartu followed Elena, close on her heels, until just 400 meters were left of the race.

Derartu made her move, darted past Elena, and took the lead. She won the race by 30 meters!

I wonder if she was as shocked as the rest of the world when she crossed the finish line first? Probably not – she knew what she could do, even if no one else did. She was tough!

Derartu became the first black African woman to win Olympic gold!

I think something more important happened that day, though.

Derartu waited for Elena at the finish line. The two women, the first black African woman to earn an Olympic medal, and Elena a white South African, set off hand in hand for a victory lap that symbolized hope for a new Africa.

I love this image!

Derartu knew her victory was a big one for women’s athletics. After she won gold in Barcelona, many women runners started thinking it was possible to win big competitions.

Believing something is possible is the most important step in actually making it happen.

I’m going to repeat that. Believing something is possible is the most important step in actually making it happen.

Derartu inspired generations of runners – having an impact through history.

It wasn’t simply her victories that inspired women, however. Remember her philosophy about being tough?

After stunning the world in 1992, a knee injury kept her from running for two years. Nothing was going to stop her, however. She returned to competition in 1995, winning gold in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships

Oh, I should probably mention she arrived at that race only an hour before the start. She was stuck at the Athens airport without sleep for 24 hours.

Yep – she had to be tough.

1996 was another tough year. Derartu lost her shoe in that year’s IAAF race and had to fight back to place fourth in the race she had won the year before. Nursing an injury, she also finished fourth at the Olympics.

In 1998 she gave birth to a daughter, but she wasn’t finished running. She was more motivated than ever to show what women and mothers could achieve.

She worked relentlessly, coming back in 2000 in the best shape of her life. Showing just how tough she was, she won the 10,000m Olympic gold for the second time!

She kept running. Derartu has a total of five world and Olympic medals.

I could go on and on about her accomplishments. She ran competitively into her late thirties, adding marathons to her list of events, winning many races along the way.

When she finished running competitively, she set her sights on helping other athletes in Ethiopia.

She has been the president of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation since 2018 – inspiring and motivating athletes from every discipline in her home country.

She is focused on teaching more athletes how to be tough.

Here are your questions… What do you need to be TOUGH about? How will it change your life?

One additional tidbit (that deserves its own story soon!) is that Derartu is the aunt of the Dibaba siblings. The five Dibaba sisters are considered to be the fastest set of siblings in the world.

The sisters were inspired by their aunt!

Derartu is a true Bregdan Woman. Her actions and accomplishments have impacted and inspired girls and women across the world!

If this letter has inspired you, it would mean the world to me if you will share it with your friends and family - or on your social media. My dream is to reach MILLIONS of women. You can help!

****************************

And, like always,

What will you do today to be a Bregdan Woman?

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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Here’s the thing though… it takes ALL of you - paid and Free subscribers to create the community of Bregdan Women that makes this possible. THANK YOU!

KIVA is a microloan organization that empowers people all over the world to create businesses, get an education, etc. I’ve been helping women for years through KIVA, but I Am A Bregdan Woman is throwing that into overdrive! I love KIVA so much because it loans money and helps women succeed. The women pay back the loan - meaning we can put it back into the cycle by giving it to another woman. It never goes away!

Meet the two newest recipients:

# 1 -

Lucille from The Philippines

Lucille is a hardworking entrepreneur who has a food vending business in the Philippines. Lucille requested a PHP 25,000 loan through NWTF to purchase ingredients for her food production business. Lucille has been sustaining her business activities through her own efforts with the help of the loans from NWTF. She dreams to save enough money so she could afford to send her children to college.

YOU have helped to make her dream come true!

Vilma - The Philippines

Vilma is 61 years old, married with four children. Vilma has a food vending business in the Philippines.

She has requested a PHP 20,000 loan through NWTF to purchase ingredients for her food production business. Vilma has been sustaining her business activities through her past loans from NWTF.

Vilma aspires to save enough to secure the future of her family.

_____________________________

I’ll never stop helping women change their lives. I’ll also never stop letting YOU know you are helping make it possible!

Please don’t think this is a request for you to become a Paid Subscriber. I know there are many that simply can’t. I’m giving you EVERYTHING anyway.

But… if you can…

I cheer every time I see a paid subscription come through. Seriously… I cheer every time I receive notice of a new paid subscriber. At least once a day I do a happy dance in my office!

Subscribe now

Why do I get so excited? Two reasons:

1 - Because I need your help in reaching millions of women around the globe. My goal is at least 5 Million women… women in EVERY country - well every country that has internet.

I constantly think about what a better world we will live in when millions of women understand their POWER to live their lives and make a difference - all from reading stories of amazing women who are doing just that.

It takes a lot of money to reach all these women through emails, social media, and advertising. I give as much as I can from my income as an author, but I need other Bregdan Women to step up and help - just $5 a month will make a huge difference.

I never want a woman to not be able to receive everything I create because of money!

But that’s not all…

2 - 15% of the money will go toward supporting women owned businesses around the world through KIVA or another microloan company. I’ve been supporting women through this organization for years - with your help, we can help even more. I’ll introduce you to the women we’re helping! The ripples through their lives and through their families lives will spread to generations.

With just $5 a month, you can make a huge difference as a Bregdan Woman!

In addition, I’m giving you a PDF version of I Am A Bregdan Woman - a 255 page book written just for YOU.

Every action you take impacts history!

Have a fabulous day!

Ginny

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It’s time to finish telling you about Aloha being left alone in the uncharted jungle of the Amazon Basin.

There are some women who simply can’t be told about in just one letter. Aloha is one of them. If you didn’t read (or listen to) the last letter, and you want to know what I’m talking about, you want to go back and do that first.

Remember me telling you that Aloha eventually married Captain Wanderwell when she was twenty? She didn’t even have to change her name since she had already been given his last name as her stage name when she joined him at age sixteen.

In the midst of their travels, she had two sons. Reunited with her mother and sister who were living in South Africa, her mother was the one to care for her children when they took off on their next adventure of traveling throughout Africa.

Aloha was just 23 years old when they headed off on an even more extraordinary adventure deep in the Mata Grosso region of the Amazon basin.

I’ve done the geographical research for you…

Most of Mato Grosso lies on the western extension of the Brazilian Plateau in South America, across which runs the watershed that separates the Amazon River basin to the north from the basin of the Río de la Plata system to the south. This elevated region is known as the Mato Grosso Plateau, and its elevation is about 3,000 feet.

Let’s go with the reality that it was in the middle of nowhere!

Add to that the knowledge that it was 1929, and you’ll understand how concerning it was when their seaplane (with the Captain piloting) failed and went down on an unchartered portion of the Amazon River. Miraculously, it landed safely, but it was not going to fly again – at least not without replacement parts.

What were they going to do?

They managed to get it to shore and secure it by ropes, but how were they going to get it back into the air? They weren’t just going to walk away from it for good.

Members of the Bororos tribe had witnessed their plane fall from the sky. It was certainly nothing they had ever seen before. They were intrigued by the white couple who was eager to befriend them and get to know them.

A connection and friendship grew quickly, but the Wanderwells still had to figure out a way to return to their world, and to their children.

The only way to get replacement parts was for them to make their way back to civilization. And no, there were no roads or transportation. It would take several months of walking through the jungle – possibly accessing a canoe or raft to travel one of the rivers. Regardless, the trek was going to be brutal, dangerous, and LONG.

They would go together.

Until… Aloha decided to stay behind – with an indigenous tribe that simply knew they had dropped from the sky in a broken airplane! I’m sure they were fascinated by the tall, blond woman, but she was still taking a risk, and there was no guarantee she would ever see her husband again.

I wonder how Captain Wanderwell really felt about traversing hundreds of miles of jungle by himself. I suspect he was well aware his lovely young wife did things her own way!

When the Captain left on his trek across the jungle, Aloha continued to charm the natives, started filming, and carefully documented their lives.

When the Captain eventually returned with the spare parts that would enable the plane to fly again, she had the footage to create two films; FLIGHT TO THE STONE AGE and THE LAST OF THE BOROROS.

It was two years before she returned home to California with the earliest filmed record of the Bororo tribe. It stands today as a historical and important anthropological resource within the Smithsonian Institute’s Human Studies Archive.

I think you’ll agree that Aloha was a fearless Bregdan Woman!

Just like with any Bregdan Woman, she had to deal with curve balls that threatened to derail everything.

Back in the United States, after her jungle adventure, she and the Captain made plans for future expeditions and films.

Their plans were destroyed when the Captain was murdered by an unknown assailant on their 110’ yacht, “The Carma”, in Long Beach, California. His death remains one of the most famous unsolved cases on the West Coast.

Despite Aloha’s grief, and the intense media scrutiny that followed her husband’s death, she returned to the lecture circuit. The Captain had died, but his legacy would live on.

Aloha remarried one of the expedition photographers and became Aloha Baker. She continued her travels with her new husband to India and Australia. The wanderlust never lost its glitter! She went on to have a long and distinguished career as an explorer, documentary filmmaker, and travel lecturer.

From a restless teenager to the notoriety of Aloha Wanderwell, The World’s Most Traveled Girl, this Bregdan Woman proved what was possible during a time when a woman could scarcely dream of a life without borders.

In 1980, when she was 74, Aloha gave her last known lecture and screening, at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles. She asked her audience how they traveled.

“By car and plane.”

I can easily imagine her laughing and saying, “Not the way I did!”

She proceeded to dazzle them with movie clips of her travels by car before superhighways existed, and by plane when commercial airlines were in their infancy.

In her later years, Aloha carefully tended to her priceless collection of films, photos, journals, diaries, and artifacts from her travels. Understanding the legacy she had created, she arranged for much of her work to be preserved in the Library of Congress, Smithsonian D.C., and various museums and educational institutions throughout the United States.

Her beloved husband, Walter Baker, died two years after their 60^th anniversary.

Aloha died the next year, at age 89.

What a remarkable life! Aloha, from childhood, shunned the world’s expectations. Determined to live life on her own terms, she created a legacy that will exist forever.

Aloha created her legacy with films. My hope is to create a remarkable legacy with my books and the letters I write about memorable Bregdan Women – that will be compiled into books each year!

Aloha will continue to be a powerful inspiration for me.

I hope she does the same for you!

Are you ready for your questions??

What do you want your legacy to be?

How are you going to achieve it?

You don’t have to travel the globe. You don’t have to write novels.

Remember the Bregdan Principle.

Every action you take creates a legacy!

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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I can so relate to the woman I’m going to tell you about today.

Like her, I never quite fit into the world around me. I wasn’t interested in being like my friends. I scorned the idea of fitting into any kind of box, and I was certainly not impressed by rules that were meant to control my behavior and choices. I turned away from what was expected of me, and I searched for my own path.

When I discovered Aloha Wanderwell, I knew I had met a kindred soul!

She was born Idris Galcia Hall, in Canada, in 1906. Her father died when she was two. Her mother remarried the next year and moved the family to Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

As an aside, I’ve lived on Vancouver Island. It is spectacularly beautiful. If you ever get a chance to visit, do it! Now, back to Idris…

Free-spirited and independent, she was a natural born entertainer and leader. She was six feet tall and a talented athlete.

Idris chafed against societal norms for women for her whole life. She simply wanted to do things her way.

I laughed when I learned this about her. I’m six feet tall… I’m an athlete… and my favorite song is “I Did It My Way”! Understand now why I feel I’ve met a kindred soul?

Idris’ world changed when her stepfather joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in World War I. Her mother decided to follow him. Obviously, her mother was quite extraordinary, as well. She took 8-year-old Idris and her sister Margaret to Europe, where they traveled around England, Belgium, and France.

Idris was very close to her stepfather. She had devoured his beloved collection of boyhood books – books that filled her with dreams of travel, adventure, and intrigue in the far-flung corners of the globe.

Idris was also movie-crazy. Mary Pickford was her idol. For good reason! I’m sure I’ll write a letter about Mary in the future, but for now, I’ll just tell you that Pickford was one of the most popular actresses of the silent film era. Beginning her film career in 1909, Pickford became Hollywood’s first millionaire by 1916. At the height of her career, Mary had complete creative control of her films and was one of the most recognizable women in the world. Due to her popularity, unprecedented international fame, and success as an actress and businesswoman, she was known as the “Queen of the Movies”.

Idris dreamed of stardom as often as she dreamed of adventure. Mary Pickford was quite the role model and mentor for the young girl.

When her stepfather was killed in battle during the last year of the war, 11-year-old Idris was devastated. Her mother, stricken with grief, enrolled her daughter in a convent school in France. It was meant to be a safe place for her to be happy and receive her education.

As you can imagine, it didn’t go as planned…

Her superiors at the convent school tried in vain to transform the tall self-described tomboy into a proper young lady. Idris had zero interest in their expectations of her.

She craved freedom.

It arrived in the form of a newspaper ad in 1992.

Idris was sixteen.

Travel expedition searching for a good-looking, brainy young woman willing to forswear skirts and rough it in Asia and Africa. Be prepared to learn to work before and behind a movie camera.

Idris was hooked. Her mother, knowing how unhappy and restless her daughter was, granted permission for her to apply for the job.

The rest is history…

Idris met with Walter Wanderwell (known as the Captain) in Paris and secured the job as a mechanic and filmmaker. The Captain, captivated by her charisma and adventurous spirit, christened her with a new stage name: Aloha Wanderwell.

Aloha Wanderwell.

It has a ring to it, doesn’t it? Can’t you hear the star quality in the name?

Done with the convent and basking in her new freedom, Aloha cast any caution to the wind. This was her chance to make a name for herself.

Aloha joined the Million Dollar Wager – a round-the world endurance race between two teams racing Ford Model Ts to see which team could visit the most countries. Her job description expanded to the expedition’s translator and driver.

Like everyone, she dressed in a military jacket, jodhpurs and riding boots. It suited her perfectly.

The public was captivated by her youth, beauty, and spirit. She quickly became the face of the expedition – the camera capturing her adventures in a series of movie travelogues.

Aloha was the first woman to drive around the world. She clocked 380,000 miles in the 1920’s, and traversed six continents, often in places where paved roads were unknown.

Newspapers called her the Amelia Earhart of the open road.

The world loved her. Aloha radiated star quality onscreen and electrified lecture audiences with her tales of the road.

She directed and appeared in eleven films, which are now in the archives of the Library of Congress and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which happens to have been founded by her idol, Mary Pickford. Aloha was a true independent filmmaker. She created and distributed her own films. She presented them on the lecture circuit. Satisfied with nothing short of excellence, she continually re-edited them throughout her career.

Have you ever had the travel bug? I know I have!

On Aloha’s first trek, from 1922 to 1925, she drove from Nice, France, across Europe and then through Asia, from Mumbai to Kolkata on India’s broad shoulders, and then up to China. She entered the U.S.S.R, where the Soviet Army named her an honorary colonel for being the first woman to pilot a motorcar to Siberia.

Her life changed even more when she married Captain Wanderwell in 1926, at age 20. Since she had already claimed Aloha Wanderwell as her name, she didn’t even have to change it!

The adventures continued. During their next expedition from Cape Town to Cairo, she helped him improvise. They used kerosene for gasoline, crushed bananas to grease the gears, and water and elephant fat for engine oil. Who knew??

Creativity to create what was necessary was a key component to expedition success.

The adventures were endless through the years… The expedition journeyed through France and its battlefields… swept through Italy just as Mussolini and the Fascisti were consolidating their power…

Braved food riots and hostile mobs in Germany, a country then reeling from the harsh reparations demanded by the victorious allies of World War I…

They camped at the foot of the Great Sphinx in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings… drove into Palestine, where the Jews were attempting to build a new nation… across the arid lands of India, towing the Model T Ford’s across rivers by water buffalo…

Aloha traversed the highlands of Portuguese East Africa, and nearly died of thirst in the Sudanese desert… disguised herself as a man and prayed in Mecca…

She became a confidante of Chinese bandits and was even granted the title of “Honorary Colonel” in the Red Army of Siberia…

To top it all off, she hung out with her idol, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks during a visit to Hollywood.

Wow!

I’ve done my fair share of traveling and have lots of stories to go with my adventures, but I’ve never come close to what Aloha lived. At least not yet! I’m still breathing, so I have lots of adventures still to live.

Of course, she kinda raised the bar much higher when her and the Captain’s plane went down in the unexplored jungle of the Amazon basin.

But, that story is for Friday. You won’t want to miss it!

And, yes, I love dangling endings. I am a fiction author you know!

Look for Friday’s letter!

And in the meantime, ask yourself what you can do today to impact history!

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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Go ahead… BELIEVE IN YOUR DREAMS! And then… take action to make them come true!!

Ginny

Writing this letter broke my heart. I hope it breaks yours, as well.

And because this story is still being played out in a different format, almost every day, my heartbreak continues.

Thank God for this Bregdan Woman who is fighting to change things!

I’m doing my small part by making sure you know.

Cheryl Horn’s fight began when the unthinkable happened. Her best friend’s 16-year-old daughter, Selena Not Afraid, went missing in Montana in 2020.

Regrettably, it has become a too often realized fear for Indigenous families. If you don’t know, Indigenous refers to American Indians and Alaskan Natives – the people who were here long before white people came to claim what is now called the United States of America.

The unthinkable is happening far too often.

It is usually girls who go missing.

Here’s a sobering statistic for you. Montana has about one million people. 6.7% of them are Indigenous people. If you’re slow at math, like me, that’s 67,000 people. Despite the small population, Indigenous people make up about 26% of the missing persons cases in the state. Most of them are female.

That number is horrifying.

Montana is not alone. Other states with Indigenous populations (most US States) report high instances, as well.

What makes it more sobering is that nobody knows what the true number is because many cases go unreported. Others aren’t well-documented, and no government database specifically tracks them. The actual number of missing and murdered women is simply unknown.

No one has cared enough to know.

Let that sink in…

No one has cared enough to know.

Up until “the call” came, Cheryl would scroll through social media, find a notice of a missing Indigenous girl, feel a few moments of regret and outrage, and then keep scrolling. It was all too much to process.

Cheryl is a citizen of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. She is a member of the Assiniboine Tribe. She is known as Magazu Nahzi, which means Standing in the Rain.

She quit simply scrolling the day “the call” came.

Her beloved Selena, whom she had helped raise, had gone missing at a highway rest stop.

As soon as Cheryl received notice, she threw clothes in a bag, hopped into her car, and drove 350 miles to help search.

The family put out urgent pleas for help in the search via Facebook. Dozens responded. Drones were on site on day one. A helicopter joined the search, as well. Eight days in, there was a sharp turn in the weather, moving from balmy 40- to 50-degree days to temps below 30 with a biting wind.

The search continued.

Hope remained alive. Surely, with so much help, they would find Selena. They kept searching.

Cheryl posted relentlessly on Facebook. She was determined to keep Selena in the spotlight. She was determined to make sure people didn’t just scroll by. She organized search parties… printed flyer after flyer… and educated her community and beyond about the plight of unsolved crimes involving Indigenous women.

She kept Selena’s light shining – to make sure people continued to care.

19 days after Selena’s disappearance, hope died.

Her body was found less than a mile from where she had gone missing – in the exact area extensive searching had been done.

The only possible conclusion was that she had been kidnapped, killed, and then dumped close to where she had gone missing. Law enforcement offered another theory that she had wandered off and died of exposure. Not one of the searchers believes that is true.

Especially Cheryl Horn.

She has been fighting for justice from that moment forward.

I’m going to tell you some things that are hard to know, but impossible for a Bregdan Woman to ignore. Knowledge is paramount.

Indigenous women face murder rates 10 times the national average on some reservations. 10 times! That shocked me.

Equally shocking? 84% experience violence in their lifetime. 84%!

Before you think the reservations are just a dangerous place, you need to know that 67% of these assaults on Indigenous women are perpetrated by non-Indigenous people. It’s appalling!

Not many criminals are caught. Fewer are held accountable.

WHY?

It’s complicated and complex. The reality is driven by historical trauma since the days of American Colonialism and the long-term impact of residential schools where Indigenous children were imprisoned. That will be a letter for another day.

These girls and women are vulnerable. They’re seen as easy prey.

I hope that after you learn this, you’ll dig deeper to discover the truth and then let your voice become part of demanding a solution.

That’s what Cheryl Horn is doing.

She fights for more than Selena. She fights for the thousands of Indigenous girls and women who have been murdered or are missing.

In Cheryl’s words: “When you’re going through searching for your loved one and you’re actually out there knowing that you’re the only one searching, it’s really eye opening and life changing. I just kept promising myself that I wouldn’t stop, that I’ll help other people.”

Horn pledged to speak for all families statewide that believe their loved ones have fallen victim to sex trafficking, drug abuse, kidnapping, or partner or spousal abuse. She’s persuaded volunteers, nonprofit organizations, state officials, and law enforcement agencies to provide resources to bring women home – or at least offer closure when the worst becomes reality.

Experience has taught her that it is the WOMEN who go out and search.

The WOMEN who will persevere until their loved ones are found.

This Bregdan Woman encourages other women to discover their power and to make things happen.

She tells them, “Help isn’t coming… WE ARE THE HELP!”

Yes, of course she gets discouraged.

She is determined to fight to stay positive, however, so that she can help other women find their way home! Determined to help them create a new life after the fear and abuse.

She’s used to late night calls from family members who are terrified when they realize their daughter, wife, or sister has gone missing. She understands their terror and feelings of helplessness.

Eighteen months after Selena went missing, Cheryl became a victim liaison with the Montana Board of Crime Control.

Her responsibilities are going throughout the state and working with tribal communities to figure out the gaps and needs they have with victim services.

She realizes how far she has come since the day Selena went missing.

“I’m not the victim anymore. I’m not the grassroots advocate. I feel like I leveled up a little bit to where I’m actually effective. And I can be effective, and I can help make positive changes. I can bring positive programs and things to all the tribes.”

THAT is what a Bregdan Woman does. They turn darkness into light. They bring hope and power to the hopeless and powerless.

They take painful experiences and work to create change.

Your question for the day?

What can you do to bring light??

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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I’m here today to put something back out in the world. I first wrote it in 2015, but I believe it’s a message that Bregdan Women need to hear often.

Most of you know I’m the author of the Bregdan Chronicles – a series of historical fiction novels. It’s my greatest joy to write these books!

I read every one of my book reviews online, as well as reading every email and Facebook message. I read this on Facebook back in 2015…

Sounds like it’s just me but I had trouble adjusting to the view of Carrie Cromwell being strong willed and independent and yet crying at the drop of a hat. Likewise, the other female characters. Too many tears!

I smiled. It sounded very similar to one I read back in 2014, and others since.

Another review said…

Also, they’re constantly crying – tears brimming, swelling up, trickling down the cheek – just about every second page they seem to cry. After 5 books, I have the distinct impression that Carrie, Rose, and Aunt Abby went through extremely difficult times which would have made them very resilient and tough indeed. I cannot imagine that they have such loose waterworks. I found this quite irritating.

I laughed when I read this. I assure you there aren’t tears on every other page! Still, I thought about these reviews for a long time – not because I was offended or hurt – but because it goes so deeply to the core of people’s perceptions.

Let me start by telling you a story.

My childhood was very difficult. I was 5 when my father left. Though I don’t remember most of my childhood, I do remember that day clearly. I walked around our front yard crying. I believed that if I cried, my father would know how much I was hurting, and he wouldn’t leave. He left anyway. I made a few decisions that day.

1 - Don’t ever show your feelings, because they don’t matter.

2 - Don’t ever cry, because no one cares.

Those decisions carried me through for quite a while. It was 10 years before I shed another tear.

Everyone simply saw me as the class clown – cheerful and happy-go-lucky. No one knew I was dying inside.

The day I understood the power of God (at age 15) is the day I cried again. Before I go any further, please know my definition of God embraces every belief from every religion. No one is being left out here.

I decided God must be pretty powerful if I cried!

Impressive, but not life changing in regard to tears, because 7 years passed before I cried again.

I was convinced tears were a sign of weakness. I thought they did nothing but make you vulnerable. I thought they were simply not a part of my being a strong, powerful girl, and then woman. I felt sorry for those women who cried so easily and showed their emotions. Surely, there had to be something wrong with them!

To say I’ve changed and grown would be putting it mildly. When I had an opportunity to put these thoughts into book # 6 (Glimmers of Change), I took it. So, if you haven’t read it yet, here is your sneak preview of one passage… (Don’t worry – it doesn’t reveal anything about the story.)

***************************************

Carrie frowned when tears filled her eyes. “Don’t you get tired of me crying?”

“Why would I get tired of you crying?” Abby asked in astonishment.

“I’m supposed to be a strong, independent woman,” Carrie responded. “Shouldn’t that bring with it a certain toughness that would preclude crying so much?”

“Do you think it should?” Abby asked carefully.

Carrie laughed suddenly. “I feel like it’s five years ago and I’m eighteen again. You always just asked me questions back then, too.”

Abby smiled, but her gaze was steady. “I really want to know. Do you think being strong and independent means you shouldn’t cry? Do you want to be tough?”

Carrie considered the question. Finally, she shook her head. “I know tough women,” she said. “I don’t really want to be like them.”

“Do you think the tough women you know don’t have feelings?” Abby asked.

Carrie thought carefully, sensing this was an important discussion. “I think everyone has feelings,” she finally said. “I think they’ve just learned how to not show them.”

“Why do you suppose that is?”

Carrie shook her head, suddenly impatient with the questions. “Does it matter?”

Abby narrowed her eyes. “I think it does.”

Now it was Carrie’s turn to ask the questions. “Why?”

Abby chuckled. “Turning the tables on me, are you?” Her expression turned serious. “I do think it matters. I’ve watched so many women become tough and hard. At first, I thought it was a necessary part of being strong and independent, or just an expected result of going through horrible times, but the more time I spent with those women, the more I realized I didn’t want to live that way. I didn’t want to shut down my emotions, and I didn’t want to carry the guilt that tears are a sign of weakness.”

“So, you don’t think they are?” Carrie was suddenly relieved.

“I think they’re a sign of strength,” Abby declared, laughing at Carrie’s astonished expression. “Women have always cried more easily than men. I prefer to think it’s because we are extra tender inside. Being strong and independent doesn’t change that tenderness unless we let it. I want to live my life freely as a woman – not try to become a man in order to make my life easier. I believe that is the whole point of fighting for women’s rights. It’s not just about getting the vote,” she said, and then paused, staring out over the countryside. “It’s about the right to live as a woman the way I want to live.”

Carrie stared at her. “You’ve thought about this a great deal,” she realized.

“I have,” Abby agreed. “I love the fact that your heart feels deeply enough to shed tears. You and Rose have both kept that ability, even after all the horror you went through in the war. So many others have shut down their emotions because they believe it will protect them from pain.”

“But it doesn’t,” Carrie murmured.

“No, it doesn’t,” Abby said softly. “You are getting ready to live your dream, but it is also going to carry pain. You’re going to miss Robert every day. You’re going to miss Rose and Moses. You’re going to miss the plantation. You’re going to miss the freedom to run Granite down the roads. You’re going to miss driving into Richmond to visit your father and me.”

Carrie blinked tears again, but this time she didn’t brush them away. “I will miss it all,” she said softly.

“It’s okay to feel it,” Abby said. “I already know you’ll push through the pain to make the most of this new time in your life. There is no need to harden yourself. You may cry yourself to sleep a lot, but that’s okay – even for a woman doctor.”

*****************************
That is the end of my reading. If you’re curious to know more about The Bregdan Chronicles, there is a link below to discover more.

Here are your questions for today.

What do YOU think about shedding tears? Are they a sign of weakness? Or strength?

Do you need to change something in your life to keep from being hardened against emotions and feelings?

I believe this is a very important question to answer. I can’t fathom who I would be today if I hadn’t learned how to feel deeply. How to cry.

And now, the question I ask you in every letter.

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

To learn more about The Bregdan Chronicles - and read the first book for just 99 cents!

http://www.DiscoverTheBregdanChronicles.com

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I love women who find solutions to the problems they encounter. Especially if it means dealing with mountains of trash!

I’m excited to tell you about this pioneering Bregdan Woman.

To understand her passion, I think you need to understand where Albina Ruiz grew up. Moyobamba, Peru is known as the “City of Orchids”. There are over 1500 varieties of orchids – growing wild in the jungle. Can you imagine? Perched in the high Amazon jungle on a cliff overlooking the Mayo River, her home was lush and beautiful. She spent her days surrounded by hot springs, waterfalls, and vibrant cloud forests.

The one thing her home couldn’t offer her, however, was an education. Life in Lima was nothing like her life in the beautiful jungle, but if she wanted to do something more with her life, she had to go to the University in Lima. Her six older brothers had come to the city before her.

Albina Ruiz faced grave culture shock after she left her home in the lush Peru jungle to go to college when she was 18. Besides the fact that she was the only woman in her Industrial Engineering classes, she was appalled by Lima, Peru’s filth. Her brothers told her to ignore the trash heaped in the city.

Albina couldn’t do that.

During her first days in the city, she hardly left the house where she was living. She couldn’t stand the gross, stinking garbage heaps that piled up everywhere in the slums. I’m sure I would have been holed up in the house with her! Albina couldn’t begin to understand how the people in Lima could possibly live with dignity when they were exposed to such filth and noxious odors every day.

Albina had never known waste. Her mother taught her that banana and cassava peels were for horses. Any leftover food was for the pigs and the puppies. Nothing was thrown away. Everything had a use. There was no garbage.

Lima was certainly nothing like her home.

People tossed their garbage in the streets, vacant lots, and on the walkways. They built mountains of putrid refuse. They threw it in the river, contaminating their only water source.

The result was not simply a smelly, ugly environment – it was causing serious health problems.

With Lima’s population of over eleven million people, accumulated trash posed a serious hazard to life.

Albina longed for her beautiful jungle home, but she was also determined to have a college education. She had to stay, but in order to survive, something had to change.

People were getting physically sick from contaminated groundwater. They were being negatively affected psychologically by the whole situation. No one wanted to live with the trash, but the city only hauled away half of it. There were no solutions for the remaining garbage – except for continually growing mountains.

What could one 18-year-old student do? Well… The beginning of a solution came to Albina in an unusual way.

One of her Industrial Engineering courses had her measure the productivity of companies in Lima. Her colleagues chose to focus on supermarkets and banks.

Albina was determined to use her course assignment to figure out what to do about the trash.

It was easy for people to complain. Albina was different.

She resolved to find enduring answers and create effective solutions. That is what makes her a Bregdan Woman.

She had already begun to send questions to the municipal government about the trash in the streets where she lived. Her school assignment offered her the chance to learn more. Albina convinced four friends to join her on a garbage truck. Of course she did… She wanted to understand how the system worked.

Rather, how it didn’t work.

She and her friends quickly realized how hard they would have to work. The days started early, the truck weaving its way through the trashy streets. She learned they didn’t actually work on a garbage truck. They ran alongside it, collecting heavy bags of trash placed on the streets, and then heaving it into the truck. The hours were long. Every day ended with an aching back, burning eyes, and intense fatigue.

And still, less than half of Lima’s trash was hauled away.

Albina’s days on the back of a garbage truck opened her eyes to the scope and severity of the problem. She wanted to jump right into sharing and implementing ideas, but she understood the big picture. As much as she wanted to change things, she knew she wasn’t ready.

She tucked away her thoughts and kept studying. She knew she would need knowledge and power to make the kind of difference she had in mind. It would take more than youthful enthusiasm.

After receiving her masters in Ecological and Environmental Management, Albina knew she was ready. She had the credential to back up her plan. She created her solution.

It all revolved around a single idea.

Her solution? A simple, but vast idea: Create a community-managed waste collection system!

I love how the best ideas are usually the simple ones. Simple doesn’t mean easy, though.

Her friends cautioned her against such a huge idea. She had waited for years to be able to change things. She ignored them. If she was going to have an impact, she was determined it would be a BIG impact!

The other sign of a Bregdan Woman!

In 2001 she founded the group Ciudad Saludable – which means Healthy City - a social enterprise that aimed to turn waste collection into a profitable business.

What a genius idea!

Albina chose El Cono Norte in Lima as her neighborhood guinea pig. She knew, from her days on the back of the garbage truck, that the community’s waste collection was processing barely half the trash.

She knew what she would discover: Mountains of smelly trash everywhere. Most people didn’t use the waste collection service. Why? They couldn’t afford it. It was more important to eat. Those who did, rarely paid their bills, making it more of a challenge for trash to be removed. It was a vicious cycle.

Albina put her plan into action. She found entrepreneurial women – locals who wanted to own a business – who would take charge of collecting and processing the garbage. I can imagine the conversations she must have had to talk them into this. 😊

Her plan would result in two things: more efficient waste management and jobs. Albina helped people (mostly other Bregdan Women) set up their businesses.

They arrived at the low fee of $1.50 a month for the service. It was an amount a family could afford, but also enough to make the businesses profitable.

Albina created many kinds of creative marketing ideas – including gift baskets – to get families to use the service AND pay each month on time. It worked!

The new business owners went door-to-door collecting garbage and the fees. They also educated people about the importance of respecting and protecting their environment. Some of these entrepreneurs even built profitable secondary businesses by creating products like organic fertilizer out of the trash they collected.

These Bregdan Women – all of them – have changed Peru!

Albina founded Ciudad Saludable in 2001. Now, in 2024, she oversees projects in 20 cities across Peru. She employs more than 150 people, has over 4,000 small business owners, and serves over 4 million residents.

Her model is so successful, she was asked to create a national plan for Peru, and her model has spread to other South America, African & Asian countries. She developed a university curriculum that teaches other people around the world how to duplicate what she’s done.

It’s amazing!

In 2022, Albina took another step – one she had resisted in the past. She became the Minister of the Environment under President Dina Boluarte - Peru’s first female president. She chose to do it because she believed it would give her a greater platform for change. If has! She served in that position for 2 years.

Albina stays in contact with the people within her organization. She still visits other cities overwhelmed by garbage, checks in on the neighborhoods involved in her program, and meets with government officials.

Albina says, “Where most people see a problem – I see a possibility.” Her ultimate goal is to change the way people think.

I’m going to repeat that.

“Where most people see a problem – I see a possibility.” Her ultimate goal is to change the way people think.

That, to me, is one of the key characteristics of a Bregdan Woman.

A Bregdan Woman looks for opportunities to change the way people think.

Albina believes every person can be a change agent. Everyone can change the world. The world will be different only if each one of us dares to be different, to make improvements.

Albina believes people need to understand that we’re not in this world to judge it, but to try to be better people and seek to do something good for others.

She believes that if all of us work together – each contributing their own unique ideas and projects – that massive change can happen.

Do you see now why I chose her as a Bregdan Woman?

Here’s the question you knew was coming… Do you see a problem you can turn into a possibility?

You don’t have to tackle it alone – ask for help!

There are many people who will come alongside you – and there will always be problems out there that need creative people to solve them!

Be like Albina and create solutions every chance you get.

Isn’t that what being a Bregdan Woman is all about?

Do you see a problem you can turn into a possibility?

**********************

What will you do to be a Bregdan Woman?

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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This sits on my desk as a constant reminder…

Happy Sunday!

Ginny

Here’s the thing though… it takes ALL of you - paid and Free subscribers to create the community of Bregdan Women that makes this possible. THANK YOU!

KIVA is a microloan organization that empowers people all over the world to create businesses, get an education, etc. Over the years, we’ve helped almost 300 women, but I Am A Bregdan Woman is throwing that into overdrive! I love KIVA so much because it loans money and helps women succeed. The women pay back the loan - meaning we can put it back into the cycle by giving it to another woman. It never goes away!

Meet the two newest recipients:

# 1 -

Alice from Uganda

Alice is 29 years old and lives in the town of Kawempe in the central region of Uganda. She is married and has three children who are all currently in school. For the past four years, Alice has been working hard to manage her retail shop, which sells charcoal.

To help expand her business, Alice has requested a loan of 2,500,000 UGX from BRAC Uganda. The loan will be used to purchase more charcoal to sell, and will help Alice to generate greater profits as her production increases and attracts more revenue. This will help her manage to buy food for her family.

Alice hopes that in the future she will be able to further expand her business into a big charcoal stall and begin selling wholesale. She is a member of BRAC's microfinance program (MF). The program primarily serves small group members like her who do not have collateral for commercial loans, but who have businesses that have grown and qualify for microloans.

# 2

Pozo Del Niño Group - Guatemala

Eulalia, the group’s new leader, runs a general store. She has recently expanded her business to include women’s sweaters, rubber sandals for children, women, and men, as well as catalog sales. She is very happy because she reinvests the profits from each sale in areas where she sees the need for further growth.

Eulalia is currently seeking a loan to invest in the store, as prices have been rising in recent months, and she needs to restock on sugar, soda, rice, beans, corn, and also purchase more women’s sweaters. The other members of the group sell traditional clothing, fruits and vegetables, and tortillas.

In this group: Eulalia , Elvia Rutilia, Apolinaria, Hilda Marleny

Amazing! You just helped change 4 women’s lives with one loan!

_____________________________

I’ll never stop helping women change their lives. I’ll also never stop letting YOU know you are helping make it possible!

Please don’t think this is a request for you to become a Paid Subscriber. I know there are many that simply can’t. I’m giving you EVERYTHING anyway.

But… if you can…

I cheer every time I see a paid subscription come through. Seriously… I cheer every time I receive notice of a new paid subscriber. At least once a day I do a happy dance in my office!

Why do I get so excited? Two reasons:

1 - Because I need your help in reaching millions of women around the globe. My goal is at least 5 Million women… women in EVERY country - well every country that has internet.

I constantly think about what a better world we will live in when millions of women understand their POWER to live their lives and make a difference - all from reading stories of amazing women who are doing just that.

It takes a lot of money to reach all these women through emails, social media, and advertising. I give as much as I can from my income as an author, but I need other Bregdan Women to step up and help - just $5 a month will make a huge difference.

I never want a woman to not be able to receive everything I create because of money!

But that’s not all…

2 - 15% of the money will go toward supporting women owned businesses around the world through KIVA or another microloan company. I’ve been supporting women through this organization for years - with your help, we can help even more. I’ll introduce you to the women we’re helping! The ripples through their lives and through their families lives will spread to generations.

With just $5 a month, you can make a huge difference as a Bregdan Woman!

Subscribe now

In addition, I’m giving you a PDF version of I Am A Bregdan Woman - a 255 page book written just for YOU.

Every action you take impacts history!

Have a fabulous day!

Ginny

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This story began during the years known as the Stolen Generation in Australia. Just the words conjure up the horror of those years.

These were years of fear, repression, and racism – years when tens of thousands (up to 100,000 by some counts) of mixed-race Aborigine children were taken from their parents – oftentimes violently and cruelly to be forcibly integrated into white-society as the government believed they grew whiter through successive generations. Forced to live in white society, they left their Aboriginal roots and culture behind.

No, it didn’t usually work. It did nothing more than traumatize children and families.

It definitely traumatized Evonne.

This story also involves tennis.

There aren’t many sports that I don’t love, but tennis holds a special place in my heart. I started playing in high school – spending at least 3 hours a day on the court. I loved it! A little into this letter I mention something very important that happened in 1974. It was my junior year in high school. I followed tennis closely – especially Chris Evert. She was my heroine. I was stunned when she lost in Australia to…

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Whenever I learn about remarkable athletes, the thing I’m most interested in is what they had to overcome in order to excel at their sport – what they had to overcome to be physically, mentally, and emotionally tough enough to excel on the national and international stage.

Evonne Goolagong was no exception.

It’s still tough if you’re born Aborigine in Australia, but it was especially tough when Evonne was born in 1951. The years from 1905 to1967 were known as the Stolen Generations (also known as the Stolen Children). Just the words make my skin crawl.

I’m going to throw in a little history and knowledge for you.

Aboriginal Australians possess the oldest continuous culture on Earth, with evidence of habitation dating back 50,000 to 65,000 years. Originally migrating from Asia, they developed complex societies, over 250 language groups, and a deep spiritual connection to "Country". European colonization in 1788 caused devastation through disease and violence, leading to a long history of resistance and survival.

The Stolen Generation was part of their heartbreaking history.

The Australian government literally kidnapped these children from their parents as a matter of policy. White welfare officers, often supported by police, would descend on Aboriginal camps, round up all the children, separate the ones with light-colored skin, bundle them into trucks, and take them away. If their parents protested, they were held at bay by the police.

Most were treated badly, kept for cheap labor, and oftentimes abused. You should read more about it if you are interested. I could write many letters about this, but my goal right now is to help you understand Evonne Goolagong – a remarkable Bregdan Woman.

Evonne was lucky enough to not be taken away as one of the Stolen Generation, but she remembers shaking with fear when she had to hide under her bed while men roamed the streets looking for children to kidnap. I can easily imagine her terror as she waited to see if she would be ripped away from her family.

Evonne grew up the third of eight children in a poor family. Tennis was not a sport played by Aborigine, but she was fascinated by the game – spending hours peering through the fence at the local courts. An area resident, Bill Kurtzman, went against the norms of the time and invited her in to play. Yes, he most certainly is a Bregdan Man!

Evonne’s life changed that day.

She spent every minute she could on the court, pursuing what quickly became a passion and a love.

Her life took another turn in 1965, when Vic Edwards, the proprietor of a tennis school in Sydney, heard rumors about a remarkable 14-year-old Aborigine tennis player. When he visited to see her play he immediately understood her potential and convinced her parents to allow her to move to Sydney.

She lived with the Edwards’ family, completed school, and trained in tennis. Edwards became her legal guardian, coach and manager. He opened the doors of competitive tennis to her, but their relationship was not easy. In later years, she revealed sexual advances from him. 10 years later, she broke off any personal and business relationship with him, married, and kept playing.

Evonne won 86 career singles titles, including the Australian Open (4 years in a row), the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. She also won 46 career doubles titles. In 1971, she was the top-ranked female tennis player in the world.

I could fill many pages with her tennis accomplishments, but one that stood out to me was in the year 1974 (remember what I mentioned earlier) when 23-year-old Evonne delighted spectators at Melbourne’s Kooyong Tennis Club by defeating American Chris Evert (my own high school heroine) to win the women’s singles Australian Open championship.

Evonne was the FIRST Aboriginal person to win an Australian tennis title.

On the surface, it looked like Evonne’s victory transcended race and racial politics. But just like any sport that has their first racial breakthrough, she continued to face years of virulent racism, insults, and shocking behavior. Things were definitely not okay in Australian racial politics. Steps have been made to improve Aboriginal rights, but it’s a struggle that continues today.

I loved how Evonne responded when she was pestered about being Aborigine when she won tennis tournaments.

“I feel I’m the only real Australian here.”

How right she was!

Depending on the source, the Aboriginal people have been in Australia somewhere between 45,000 to 80,000 years ago. That’s a long time.

On the other hand, the Australians who created the Stolen Generations only arrived in 1788.

Let’s see… 237 years vs 45,000 – 80,000 years. Hmmmm…

England decided to colonize Australia for the sole purpose of creating a penal colony where they could ship their convicts and undesirables. It wasn’t long before the Aborigine were seen as a problem they needed to be free of.

Life has been a struggle for the Aborigine ever since.

All Evonne wanted to do was play tennis.

It had to have taken equal (or more!) amounts of energy to fight the prejudice and bigotry aimed at her every day.

Her determination to do what she loved, and what she was so good at, is what makes her a Bregdan Woman.

Her determination to strengthen herself physically, mentally, and emotionally – no matter what challenges she faced – is what makes her a Bregdan Woman.

When her tennis playing career ended, she continued on with the sport she loved through product endorsements, developing her own clothing brand, playing in senior invitational competitions, and she traveled to America to spend some time as a touring professional.

She has worked tirelessly in Australia to promote women in sports – especially Aboriginals. She runs an annual “Goolagong National Development Camp” that encourages Aboriginal children to stay in school through playing competitive tennis.

She is an icon in Australia – a true Bregdan Woman!

She is only 74 today. I hope she has decades more to leave her mark on her people, her country, and her sport!

I know only a handful of women will go on to play competitive tennis. That is NOT what this story is about…

This story is not about what Evonne did - it’s about the person she had to choose to become and be, in order to do what she did.

It’s about a Bregdan Woman who was determined to do whatever it took to fulfill her dreams and accomplish things no other woman had at that time.

Here’s your question for the day…

What person will YOU choose to become and be??

*************
And, of course, what will you do today to impact history?

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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Do you know that sometimes the best help is to not help at all?

Hmmm… Is this really true? That sometimes the best help is to not help at all?

This can be a strange concept for Bregdan Women who are focused on making a difference, and also on making things happen. Which makes it even more important to understand!

Let me tell you about Sophia…

Sophia has a tender heart and loves to help animals of every kind in her Australian town. Which makes what happened in this letter totally understandable.

She learned a lesson she has never forgotten!

“What is this? I can’t tell.” Curious, Sophia stepped closer to peer at the apricot tree bordering her yard, so she could get a better look at it. Her daily adventures into nature often rewarded her with treasures from nature. She enjoyed her discoveries and always regarded her finds with great respect. She already knew she wanted to be an environmentalist, just like her father, when she grew up.

What had she found attached to a branch of the apricot tree? She examined the pear-shaped, silken cocoon carefully. She thought about the nature books her parents filled her bookshelves with.

Recognizing it as an emperor moth’s cocoon, Sophia decided to keep it. She detached the cocoon from the branch, gently scooped it into her chest pocket and meandered home. Placing the cocoon into a clear container, Sophia felt excitement course through her.

She could hardly wait to be a witness to the moth emerging from its cocoon.

A few days passed. Sophia spent hours in her room waiting for the moment.

She was watching when a small opening appeared in the hard cocoon. The wait was over! She wanted to call her parents to watch the miracle with her, but they were out.

Sophia sat and watched for several hours as the moth struggled to force its body through a tiny, tiny hole.

Then…

The moth seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

The majestic moth was stuck.

What was she supposed to do? Her parents weren’t there to ask. Finally, Sophia couldn’t just sit and watch any longer. It was time to take action and help the moth. Surely, that was the reason she had found the cocoon.

Using a small pair of scissors, she snipped off a bit of the cocoon and freed her emperor moth. Now the moth emerged easily.

Sophia’s delighted smile faded quickly into a concerned frown.

It was clear that something was wrong . . . very wrong. The moth had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

Confident she had done the right thing, Sophia continued to watch the moth. She was certain that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand. She expected the moth to be able to support the body which would contract in time.

Neither happened!

She was still watching helplessly when her parents came home.

Heartbreakingly, the little moth spent the rest of its very short life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

What had gone wrong?

Sophia’s dad gently explained that the restricting cocoon and the moth’s struggle for freedom was a requirement for survival. The moth needed to struggle through the tiny opening. It was nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight.

Its freedom and flight would only come after the struggle.

By depriving the moth of a struggle, Sophia deprived the moth of the reason it was created. Meant to fly, it never lifted from the ground.

Can you see how this is often true for humans?

There are times to help – there are times to NOT help.

The struggles in our lives give us strength. If we were to go through our life without any obstacles (not that any of us would ever achieve that!), we would be crippled. Crippled emotionally. Crippled mentally.

I know it is never easy to struggle. It sucks.

I know it’s certainly never easy to watch someone you care about with their struggles.

But, here are some things to think about.

If we never let children struggle with learning to walk, we would all be carrying around some mighty big kids!

What if we never made any mistakes? Would we learn anything?

If everything in life worked out the first time, how many inventions would have been missed?

Sophia believed she was doing the right thing when she stepped in to help the struggling moth.

I believe we’re all like that. We want to help and make it better. I know I do that. Writing this letter taught me valuable lessons. I needed to be reminded.

The need to struggle is true for everyone you know. It’s true for you. It’s true for me.

I know I need to wait and let the struggle run its course. I have to overcome the obstacles and let the fight create the strength necessary to spread my wings and fly.

When I look at others, out of love, I must allow the struggle to do its work.

I know it’s not easy, but I believe the outcome is worth the wait.

I encourage you to believe in yourself enough to allow the obstacles to stand.

I encourage you to struggle through to freedom and flight.

I challenge you to encourage others around you to do the same.

What struggle are you experiencing now? Will you let the struggle do what it’s meant to do?

Who do you love that is struggling?

Who do you love that needs to struggle through in order to find their strength?

Let’s both learn from Sophia and let life teach us how to be strong and free Bregdan Women who can spread our wings and fly!

Let’s give every obstacle an opportunity to become our strength.

Final question – one I will ask every day… What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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I want you to walk back into time with me. The year was 1951. America was in turmoil – recovering from World War II and grappling with civil rights.

It’s also the year that Lillian Orlich became a high school history teacher in Prince William County, Virginia. It’s a beautiful area on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. She quickly became known as “Ms. O”.

I have so much fun writing about teachers. Every teacher is special, but in a world of crowded classrooms, underfunded schools, and underpaid teachers, there are bright shining lights that leave an astounding legacy. This Bregdan Woman was one of them.

From the very beginning, she was determined to give her all to her students. For decades she was the first person to arrive at the school – usually by 3:00 AM – even on those cold Virginia mornings. She wanted to get all the paperwork out of the way so that she could focus on what was important – the students.

I can imagine every other teacher knew they could never meet the bar she set! They probably just watched her with awe – and maybe a little envy.

Eventually, they just gave her the keys to the school so she could open up each day! She worked through the summers… she brought food to the staff every Monday.

In my world, that’s what you call an overachiever – or maybe just an astounding Bregdan Woman!

You see, the school was more than just a place of learning. It had become Mrs. O’s family – her relatives. Teaching wasn’t a job – it was her life. It was her purpose.

She was passionate about history, but she was more passionate about the impact she could have on young lives. She made it her mission to know everybody – yes, everybody.

I can see her weaving her way through the school, her eyes watching for those who needed her the most on that particular day. She would talk to the students and interact with them, making sure they knew she cared about their life – not just what they were learning in her classroom.

She kept this up through the Civil Rights Movement, school integration, Vietnam, protests… everything that happened in the United States of America for 67 years!

She also wanted the best for the students, so she made sure they were on top of what they needed to do to succeed in life. She asked them the questions they needed answers to. Questions like:

“What are your plans?”

“Did you get your applications in on time?

“Did you get your scholarship applications in on time?”

She did this for 67 years.

67 years!

It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around that number. 40 years is considered a long career. When she hit 65, she saw no reason to retire from what she loved to do with all her heart. You retire from work. She never saw teaching as work. It was pure joy to her.

She saw no reason to stop making a difference in young people’s lives. She never married, and she had no biological offspring, but she definitely had countless children.

She probably didn’t want to retire at 89 either. I’m certain it was a sad day for her when she had to turn in her key to the school and not be the first to arrive at 3:00 AM.

I can imagine her looking back over her shoulder with tears in her eyes when she closed the door to her classroom for the last time.

Over the course of her career, she taught teenagers… she taught their parents… she taught their grandparents.

Talk about an astounding legacy!

It was also a legacy that did not end when she retired. 6 years later, when she died in 2024 at the age of 95, she gave her last gift.

$1,000,000.

She had always lived frugally but knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life savings. The gift she gave was given to continue the work she had started when she retired.

Oh, you thought she retired and went home to sit and knit. Not hardly. She started an education foundation for the Prince William County schools called SPARK.

The $1 million donation was given to SPARK. It is being used to expand a scholarship Mrs. O set up with SPARK after retiring. It has already benefitted dozens of students who received cash grants for college – expanding her legacy.

The money is also being distributed across the foundation’s six focus areas, which include STEM education; social and emotional learning; digital innovation; school improvement; and particularly on educator preparedness, because Mrs. O was so passionate about teaching.

I’m positive that her greatest dream was that her gift will inspire others to be the kind of teacher she was. For generations to come.

She asked for this message to be included in her own obituary: “I am survived by the many lives helped and touched by my teaching, loving and caring.”

I cried when I read that. I hope my own obituary will say that.

Mrs. O left a legacy that thousands will remember and honor for years to come.

Are you ready for your question?

What will your legacy be?

Take some time to think about it carefully. We all leave one – even if we’re not aware of it.

What will your legacy be?

If you’re not satisfied with your answer, NOW is the time to start creating the legacy you want to leave.

As long as you’re still breathing, I believe you can continue to make a difference!

Please share this with others – igniting a passion for more women to be Bregdan Women – committed to leaving a legacy!

Before I go, one more question:

What will you do today to impact history??

I’m on this journey with you!

Ginny

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It’s Sunday… which means I’m going to let art do the speaking. Enjoy!

Don’t give ANYONE the power to make you feel inferior. You are a powerful, magnificent Bregdan Woman. Own it. Celebrate it!

Ginny