Interview Questions
You really are on a journey... you are always moving in some direction... with or without your own active participation.
Esther Davis-Thompson is always pleased to talk about her books or the WomanSpace workshops for all types of media interviews in your area, or on the web!
Contact her directly at 856/229-5874
Contact her directly at 856/229-5874
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
Self-coaching your way toward one step at a time
esther@reinventingyourwomanspace.com
FAX: 856/547-1688
PHONE: 856/229-5874
FAX: 856/547-1688
PHONE: 856/229-5874
Questions for an Interview with
Esther Davis-Thompson (followed by basic responses)
1. You've written three books for women, the first MotherLove: Reinventing A Good and Blessed Future For Our Children, 2nd Edition entitled Re-Inventing Your MotherSpace) the second, Raising Up Queens: Loving Our Daughters Loud and Strong, and now, From Trouble to High Places: Meditations For Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy!... what would you say is the common theme that runs through all of your work?
2. In your books you introduce the words “WomanSpace and MotherSpace.” Please tell us what you mean when you talk about women having a “WomanSpace”... a MotherSpace”.
3. The concept of women “mothering themselves” is clearly important in your books. Talk with us about this. What difference does it make for a family when mothers do this? What difference has it made for you and your family?
4. In MotherLove, you use the term “mother-baggage”. What do you mean by that? How does it effect how women mother their children?
5. Some of the section titles in your book, Raising Up Queens, which is about women raising daughters, are It is time... Once there was a girl... From Pain to Healing... From Fear to Courage... From Anger to Forgiveness... From Trouble to Possibility... From Trouble to Possibility. These don't really seem like chapters in a parenting book... could you tell us how you relate these themes to raising daughters, and share your ideas about what you mean when you talk about “raising queens”.
6. Raising Up Queens is about raising daughters. Why have you written a book to specifically address raising girls? Do you plan to write a book about raising sons?
7. You have raised, in fact are still in the process of raising 10 children. How does one wake up every morning and proceed to do that? (smile)
8. In your newest book, From Trouble to High Places, you say “ I know a few women who live from hearts that harbor “crazy Faith”. They walk out lives that are somehow-balanced on the pinnacle of a lived-out state of spirit. I can see their sweet spirits combed thoroughly through-out their lives in ways that are both magnificent and startling. Talk to us about this “crazy faith”.
9. The cover of from Trouble to High Places shows women walking toward and up onto a bridge... . In this book what is “Trouble” and what are our “High Places?”
10. One of the chapters in From Trouble to High Places is titled “Believing High”, and you've said that if there's one insight that you hope readers will gain from reading this book... this is it . How does one “believe high”... as opposed to “believing low”?
NOTE: Interested listeners can visit Ms. Davis-Thompson's website: (Re-Inventing Your WomanSpace . Com) www.reinventingyourwomanspace.com or call 856/229-5874 for more information. Please feel free to announce this number on the air.
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Esther Davis-Thompson is the mother of 10 children, and the author of three inspirational books for women,Re-Inventing Your MotherSpace (2nd Edition of MotherLove), Raising Up Queens: Loving Our Daughters Loud and Strong (both written from the perspective of an African American mother), and From Trouble to High Places: Meditations For Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy! She has also created a series of Workshops called the WomanSpace Workshops based on her books.
Esther's Responses
The central theme in all of my books is women's empowerment by means of being spiritually aware and connected. Yes, the first two books are about mothering... but these aren't your typical mothering books... I talk more about the need for mothers to have themselves together, to be emotionally healthy... and to be spiritually grounded in a power higher than themselves if they are to be able to parent in today's world. You just can't parent well if you're trying to do it all in your own strength.
I'll start with the WomanSpace... It's simply who we are inside. I created the word womanspace to encompass our "inner workings" Our emotions, our beliefs and superstitions, and our notions about God. Everything we learn from childhood until now come together and mix up inside and create an inner climate... if you will. Everything we've experienced comes to- gether and makes us the way we are. Some of us are peace-loving... content... Hopeful. While some of us are often sad, bitter and feeling kind of hopeless. I think we could all benefit from inner reflection and self-awareness about what kind of energy we're carrying and what kind of energy we're spreading around. And that brings us to the motherspace... the motherspace is part of that same well of emotions and beliefs ... and it's whatever we have inside that we offer to our children daily. We need to self-examine and make sure we're offering our children the best of us. My first book is called Motherlove... and motherlove is what comes from this motherspace. For better or worse... we offer our children ourselves. We have to be aware and accountable.
Mothering yourself means just that... being a loving, nurturing, caring mother to yourself... taking care of yourself... eating well... having a spiritual connection with God and taking the time to nurture that. Getting enough rest... doing some of the things that make you happy and content. And this makes a huge difference in how we are able to care for our families. We've all heard the saying... you can't take care of anyone else if you're not taking care of yourself. Well it's true.
Mother-baggage can be anything from the way we tend to say my mother did it this way and that's how it's going to be, without thinking it over even when you know it didn't work when your mother did it either, (some of us grew up with harsh punishments and all kinds of idiosyncratic drama) to our tendency to swing things to the other end of the spectrum and try to do it all new because we feel our mothers didn't do a very good job. Bottom line: we need to examine our notions so that we're making good choices as we raise our children.
Raising Up Queens is as much us raising ourselves as it is about raising daughters. The big difference, I think, between raising daughters and raising sons is that our daughters tend to either emulate us or reject our way of being based on how they see our life playing out... and just that fact is deep. The whole idea of raising our daughters up to be queens is that we have to deal with our own stuff so that we don't pass our pain... our fear... our angers and unforgivenesses on for our daughters to have to deal with. We want our daughters to be comfortable with who they are. Unencumbered with a lot of the emotional garbage that can take a young woman way down the wrong paths. And we want them to know that they are precious spiritual beings not just fashion models and hair models and that whole superficial thing.
I think I felt called to write about raising daughters because raising girls, for women, is such an in your face kind of thing. You're suddenly dancing with your own strengths and weaknesses every day. And that dance partner is often your mirror image in so, so many ways. The woman-to-woman, and sometimes, the woman-versus-woman dynamic shows up at the oddest times. Believe me it's a whole different theater from raising sons to be good men.
Esther Davis-Thompson (followed by basic responses)
1. You've written three books for women, the first MotherLove: Reinventing A Good and Blessed Future For Our Children, 2nd Edition entitled Re-Inventing Your MotherSpace) the second, Raising Up Queens: Loving Our Daughters Loud and Strong, and now, From Trouble to High Places: Meditations For Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy!... what would you say is the common theme that runs through all of your work?
2. In your books you introduce the words “WomanSpace and MotherSpace.” Please tell us what you mean when you talk about women having a “WomanSpace”... a MotherSpace”.
3. The concept of women “mothering themselves” is clearly important in your books. Talk with us about this. What difference does it make for a family when mothers do this? What difference has it made for you and your family?
4. In MotherLove, you use the term “mother-baggage”. What do you mean by that? How does it effect how women mother their children?
5. Some of the section titles in your book, Raising Up Queens, which is about women raising daughters, are It is time... Once there was a girl... From Pain to Healing... From Fear to Courage... From Anger to Forgiveness... From Trouble to Possibility... From Trouble to Possibility. These don't really seem like chapters in a parenting book... could you tell us how you relate these themes to raising daughters, and share your ideas about what you mean when you talk about “raising queens”.
6. Raising Up Queens is about raising daughters. Why have you written a book to specifically address raising girls? Do you plan to write a book about raising sons?
7. You have raised, in fact are still in the process of raising 10 children. How does one wake up every morning and proceed to do that? (smile)
8. In your newest book, From Trouble to High Places, you say “ I know a few women who live from hearts that harbor “crazy Faith”. They walk out lives that are somehow-balanced on the pinnacle of a lived-out state of spirit. I can see their sweet spirits combed thoroughly through-out their lives in ways that are both magnificent and startling. Talk to us about this “crazy faith”.
9. The cover of from Trouble to High Places shows women walking toward and up onto a bridge... . In this book what is “Trouble” and what are our “High Places?”
10. One of the chapters in From Trouble to High Places is titled “Believing High”, and you've said that if there's one insight that you hope readers will gain from reading this book... this is it . How does one “believe high”... as opposed to “believing low”?
NOTE: Interested listeners can visit Ms. Davis-Thompson's website: (Re-Inventing Your WomanSpace . Com) www.reinventingyourwomanspace.com or call 856/229-5874 for more information. Please feel free to announce this number on the air.
###
Esther Davis-Thompson is the mother of 10 children, and the author of three inspirational books for women,Re-Inventing Your MotherSpace (2nd Edition of MotherLove), Raising Up Queens: Loving Our Daughters Loud and Strong (both written from the perspective of an African American mother), and From Trouble to High Places: Meditations For Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy! She has also created a series of Workshops called the WomanSpace Workshops based on her books.
Esther's Responses
The central theme in all of my books is women's empowerment by means of being spiritually aware and connected. Yes, the first two books are about mothering... but these aren't your typical mothering books... I talk more about the need for mothers to have themselves together, to be emotionally healthy... and to be spiritually grounded in a power higher than themselves if they are to be able to parent in today's world. You just can't parent well if you're trying to do it all in your own strength.
I'll start with the WomanSpace... It's simply who we are inside. I created the word womanspace to encompass our "inner workings" Our emotions, our beliefs and superstitions, and our notions about God. Everything we learn from childhood until now come together and mix up inside and create an inner climate... if you will. Everything we've experienced comes to- gether and makes us the way we are. Some of us are peace-loving... content... Hopeful. While some of us are often sad, bitter and feeling kind of hopeless. I think we could all benefit from inner reflection and self-awareness about what kind of energy we're carrying and what kind of energy we're spreading around. And that brings us to the motherspace... the motherspace is part of that same well of emotions and beliefs ... and it's whatever we have inside that we offer to our children daily. We need to self-examine and make sure we're offering our children the best of us. My first book is called Motherlove... and motherlove is what comes from this motherspace. For better or worse... we offer our children ourselves. We have to be aware and accountable.
Mothering yourself means just that... being a loving, nurturing, caring mother to yourself... taking care of yourself... eating well... having a spiritual connection with God and taking the time to nurture that. Getting enough rest... doing some of the things that make you happy and content. And this makes a huge difference in how we are able to care for our families. We've all heard the saying... you can't take care of anyone else if you're not taking care of yourself. Well it's true.
Mother-baggage can be anything from the way we tend to say my mother did it this way and that's how it's going to be, without thinking it over even when you know it didn't work when your mother did it either, (some of us grew up with harsh punishments and all kinds of idiosyncratic drama) to our tendency to swing things to the other end of the spectrum and try to do it all new because we feel our mothers didn't do a very good job. Bottom line: we need to examine our notions so that we're making good choices as we raise our children.
Raising Up Queens is as much us raising ourselves as it is about raising daughters. The big difference, I think, between raising daughters and raising sons is that our daughters tend to either emulate us or reject our way of being based on how they see our life playing out... and just that fact is deep. The whole idea of raising our daughters up to be queens is that we have to deal with our own stuff so that we don't pass our pain... our fear... our angers and unforgivenesses on for our daughters to have to deal with. We want our daughters to be comfortable with who they are. Unencumbered with a lot of the emotional garbage that can take a young woman way down the wrong paths. And we want them to know that they are precious spiritual beings not just fashion models and hair models and that whole superficial thing.
I think I felt called to write about raising daughters because raising girls, for women, is such an in your face kind of thing. You're suddenly dancing with your own strengths and weaknesses every day. And that dance partner is often your mirror image in so, so many ways. The woman-to-woman, and sometimes, the woman-versus-woman dynamic shows up at the oddest times. Believe me it's a whole different theater from raising sons to be good men.
Copyright © 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson
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