Welcome to Litsy!

Very interesting to learn more about Melinda Gates. Her passion and purpose are undeniable in this book. It was heartwarming to see her use her platform for good and to be willing to stand up for what she feels is right.

The name Melinda Gates carries power. Her goals are clear: to move the world forward, we have to lift women up. Gates has traveled the world seeing this in action firsthand, studying how some of the most simple solutions can completely change centuries old mindsets. Family planning, education, investment, and equal partnership with men are all ways Gates has changed the conversation for women.

My list of books I read in 2022. Quite a short one. 26 books in total. I'm still happy with what I read last year. Really enjoyed many of them! 😍

I loved to read how Melinda and her foundation have helped people. I learned a lot about philantrophy from this book! It is a book about so much more than just helping women. It's really a big story about how empathy can change society and culture. This made it interesting as well from the professional point of view. (I'm a designer)

The last line of this book made my heart warm. I'm glad I bought this book. ❤

Learning new aspects about teamwork from this book as well. #20in4

I started this tonight and I'm already loving it! 😍

Book 177

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Powerful and uplifting, I loved hearing the stories from the people that Melinda Gates and met and was influenced by as she worked with the Gates Foundation. The amount of time and effort she has spent in empowering women is truly remarkable. She offers lots of information and evidence that when we empower women, we lift up communities. Mollie thinks you should read it too! #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

#currentlisten

While I having been posting much about it, I‘ve been doing well on my fitness goals. Since March 1, I‘ve lost 30 pounds and I‘m feeling good. Keeping this going! My #BFC21 June Goals:
1. Swim 39 minutes twice a week
2. Walk at least 45 minutes 4 times a week
3. Log all food on #myfitnesspal
4. Read at least 7 books from my #TBR
Thanks for the inspiration @wanderinglynn

Not what I had expected it to be, but I still enjoyed it. It‘s eye-opening to realize many of the pressing issues for women especially those living on the margin are inter-connected. To address one, we need to also consider others.
And how do we find the way to make each story each victory matter to the women who still have no choice or voice? We all have a part in this, to connect, learn, advocate the story telling, and do something to help. 🤜🏽

Watching Melinda Gates on Netflix interviewed by David Letterman. I'm so reading her book! They make it sound so interesting! 😍

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This read wasn‘t what I was expecting it to be.
It was quite a bit over my head, which could also be taken as eye opening depending on how you look at it.
Written by narrative & storytelling but subject matters felt very academic.
I switched to it being an audiobook listen about halfway through.
It had a lot of “quotable truths” that I didn‘t hesitate to share.
It wasn‘t a “run do not walk” read for me,but it wasn‘t terrible either.

Love is what makes us one.
It ends the urge to push the other out.
That is the goal.
The goal is not for everyone to be equal.
The goal is for everyone to be connected.
The goal is for everyone to belong.
The goal is for everyone to be loved.
Love is what lifts us up.

Everyone rises.
This is the moment of lift.

Ending a culture built on exclusion.

We all want to have something to offer. This is how we belong. It‘s how we feel included. So if we want to include everyone, then we have to help everyone develop their talents and use their gifts for the good of the community. That‘s what inclusion means—everyone is a contributor. And if they need help to become a contributor, then we should help them, because they are full members in a community that supports everyone.

Every society says its outsiders are the problem. But the outsiders are not the problem; the urge to create outsiders is the problem. Overcoming that urge is our greatest challenge and our greatest promise. It will take courage and insight, because the people we push to the margins are the ones who trigger in us the feelings we‘re afraid of.

The most radical approach to resistance is acceptance.

If we can face our pain, we can find our voice.
And it is so much easier to face our pain and find our voice together.

If you care about equality, you have to embrace diversity.

Opportunities have to be equal before you can know if abilities are equal.

That is one of the great challenges for anyone who wants to help change the world:
How do you follow your plan and yet keep listening for new ideas?
How can you hold your strategy lightly, so you‘ll be able to hear the new idea that blows it up?

When people can‘t agree, it‘s often because there is no empathy, no sense of shared experience. If you feel what others feel, you‘re more likely to see what they see. Then you can understand one another. Then you can move to the honest and respectful exchange of ideas that is the mark of a successful partnership. That‘s the source of progress.

The starting point for human improvement is empathy. Everything flows from that. Empathy allows for listening, and listening leads to understanding.

Nobody is any better than anybody else, and no one‘s happiness or human dignity matters more than anyone else‘s.

Love is a force for change. 💜

That‘s how leaders are born. They say what others want to say, and the others join them. That‘s how a young woman can change not only her life but her culture.

Great schools don‘t just teach you; they change you.

I‘ve come to learn that stigma is always an effort to suppress someone‘s voice. It forces people to hide in shame. The best way to fight back is to speak up—to say openly the very thing that others stigmatize. It‘s a direct attack on the self-censorship that stigma needs to survive.

That‘s what listening does.
It opens you up.
It draws out your love—and love is more urgent than doctrine.

We have to wake up to the ways we exclude.
We have to open our arms and our hearts to the people we‘ve pushed to the margins. It‘s not enough to help outsiders fight their way in—the real triumph will come when we no longer push anyone out.

Saving lives starts with bringing everyone in. Our societies will be healthiest when they have no outsiders. We should strive for that.

Overcoming the need to create outsiders is our greatest challenge as human beings. It is the key to ending deep inequality.

Wisdom isn‘t about accumulating more facts; it‘s about understanding big truths in a deeper way.

Great discussion with Melinda Gates at The 19th Summit online. https://summit.19thnews.org/schedule Many more speakers this week including Kamala Harris and The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. And it‘s free!

TBR for the #reversereadathon #authoramonth

Audio-book.

Starting my weekend with some inspiration.

This book is truly about women empowerment. Gates acknowledges her own privilege and keeps the focus on the women that are often left in the margins. It is both inspirational and heartbreaking.

One thing I love about this book is that Gates doesn‘t paint herself as the savior. The women she talks about are the real heroes in their own lives and the world. I‘m in awe of their strength and love.

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It‘s great that Melinda Gates uses her wealth and voice to inform people of the issues she talks about in this book, & to try and empower and lift women. I appreciate that and the fact she‘s putting the message out there that women in all parts of the world need to be treated equally. However, I didn‘t find the book compelling as such and a lot of the information I‘ve heard before. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #newyearwhodis

I recommend for fans of A Path Appears.

So the library would only let me go back two years in checkouts 👎🏻👎🏻, so it only gets five spots, to make an even 20. I listened to so many good ones in 2016 and 2017 that I‘m sorry I don‘t have a record of those.

#top10ofthedecade #audiobookedition @Cinfhen

This was a great audiobook listen. So empowering and informational. While not the most amazing writing, and, yes, there are personal stories. But Gates consistently recognizes her privilege and chooses her personal stories judiciously.

This is a thoughtful book. If you‘re a feminist and a Catholic like me, you might especially connect with Melinda‘s perspective. The best part about this book is hearing someone raised more conservatively than myself talk compassionately about birth control.

This book is so interesting. The author shows us the disparity between conservative arguments and the reality she has personally witnessed as a philanthropist. The importance of the message outstrips her skill as a writer, and she doggedly forged ahead anyway. I think she succeeded in making her point. I recommend you judge for yourself.

Excellent read. It's tempting to dismiss Gates as yet another billionaire philanthropist forcing the mess of globalized ideas onto impoverished regions--that's what every other has done so far--but it's not the case here. The foundation takes extra care to listen to what the people need, and provide the type of support requested. Gates also addresses the criticism of her privilege with grace and humility, an exception among the ultra-fortunate.

5☆☆☆☆☆