It's time for Angelenos to go to the polls and cast their votes for a new mayor. But recent surveys are showing that going to the polls is what many of us aren't planning to do. This means the small percentage of us who do vote will decide the fate...

Josephine Miller is changing the way we live our lives each and every day. Miller a driving force behind implementing plastic bag and Styrofoam bans in Santa Monica, California. In her office, Miller has a picture of a beach covered with plastic bottles, cups and bags to remind...

I'm on a personal mission to tell the stories of moms who know their power and use it to transform the world within and around them. I'm convinced that empowered, knowing, self-embodied mothers can move mountains. It doesn't matter what type of work these moms do. What matters...

A shaman once told me that when women no longer have to focus all their energy on creating and nurturing children, they can then turn their attention to living their own dreams. Nicole Walters is doing just that, taking her dreams by the horns and riding them all the way...

There is one universal experience that each one of us on the planet shares -- each one of us was borne of a woman. While it's so obvious that it's almost not worth saying, after having my own son after 17 hours of labor, this fact came to my mind...

There are more than 1.5 million individuals in L.A. who are eligible to receive food stamps, according to a study conducted by the California Food Policy Advocates, but it's believed that fewer than half that many people actually participate in CalFresh or SNAP, also known as...

Several weeks ago I was talking to a man I'd been casually dating. He called to ask for a restaurant suggestion, "Where could he and a friend have a really good steak?" I recommended Boa in Santa Monica, and was shocked when he replied, "The last time I...

It seems nearly everyone is bracing for the sequester cuts to hit. To show his solidarity with families that will be impacted by the cuts, President Obama took a 5 percent pay cut, retroactive to March 1. It seems John Kerry and Chuck Hagel have taken similar cuts....

Moms today are at a new crossroad, and Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In has initiated a fresh conversation about women and work. It's seems to me, however, that what's still missing from the conversation is an appreciation for the unique perspective and life skills that moms bring to the...

It's been just shy of a month since the sequester began. In that time, Congress has failed to reach an agreement that will prevent these devastating budget cuts from taking effect. Rather than using the time before the sequester and since to come together and have a "we shall overcome"...

I'm someone who's gone through many changes, but becoming a mother was the most transformative experience of my life. Six years after having my son, I ask myself, "Who was I before I gave birth to this boy?" It's as if the months of pregnancy were a period of gestating...

I've been closely monitoring the Kickstarter project of the Adventures of Zelza Zero & Friends. I have a personal desire for this project to reach its goal because I care deeply about the foundation attached to this educational brand for children. This has been a real learning experience...

There's a little over a month left in the Kickstarter campaign, and the excitement is growing about The Adventures of Zelza Zero & Friends becoming an animated television show.

The upcoming show is designed to teach children about numbers, along with self-esteem, compassion, acceptance and self-love. Each...

As a mother of a 6-year-old who has a unique learning style, I'm always on the lookout for creative books that teach fundamentals, such as the alphabet and numbers. I found just that in a little book for kids titled Zelza Zero. The book features Zelza, a zero-digit, who tries...

As a young child, I was taught to pray by my Christian grandmother. Growing up in the South as the daughter of a minister, my grandmother faced many unbearable injustices associated with racism. Prayer and religion were the tools that helped her cope with her pain. I'm grateful that she...

Mayor Cory Booker of Newark recently gave himself a food stamp challenge, and he's been speaking out about some of the issues that have arisen for him during this time. As I mentioned in my last blog, "The Food Stamp Diet," I have lived a food stamp challenge...

I am one of the more than 46 million Americans who have received food stamps during the past few years. Being a "half-full glass" type of person, I thought that I might use this experience to really challenge myself to change my relationship with food and my health....

I sat in my chair in the Saban Auditorium among 1,500 other attendees at the Sister Giant conference, listening intently as Marianne Williamson talked about the dark side of poverty and how our culture demonizes the poor. Remarking upon the popular sentiment that the poor "are just takers,"...

Nearly one year ago I received an email from the producers of Lifeclass, asking if I would like to be in the audience of the final episode of the show's first season. I had to do a double take. At the time my life was coming undone, and...

Now that we have elected our next president, most of us will go back to our normal existences. Marianne Williamson's work in politics will begin anew. On the weekend of November 10-11, Ms. Williamson will host "Sister Giant: Women, Nonviolence and Birthing a New American Politics." Sister Giant...