Girl Out of Order Podcast

#80 - Building Bridges Even When We Disagree

• Christine Gale

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"When your passion make your lose perspective, you sacrifice the power of persuasion." Christine Gale

This episode is a heartfelt call to action for women to unite and harness their collective power to drive positive change amidst societal divisions. It is more crucial than ever. The recent election in the United States has inspired deep reflection and a renewed commitment to fostering unity among women, no matter their backgrounds, beliefs, or experiences. In this conversation, we explore how we can cultivate open-hearted respect and empathetic listening when navigating disagreementThe pillars of Girl Out of Order must stand firm even when deep differences threaten to divide is. This episode is a heartfelt call to build connections that transcend division. Together, we can create a community where all women are seen, heard, and valued. And so it is...

Top Highlights:

  • [2:29] - Reaffirming the mission of Girl Out of Order: Creating a community where women live authentically and lift each other beyond societal labels.
  • [4:31] - The story behind the birth of Girl Out of Order, and why it’s a safe space for women to thrive and be their true selves.
  • [6:52] - Pillar 1: Cultivating Bravery - Embracing your authentic identity in a world that often tries to confine you.
  • [9:09] - Pillar 2: Inspiring Boldness - How boldness, grounded in grace, confidence, and respect, can foster real change.
  • [11:37] - Pillar 3: Building Bridges Among All Women. Reflecting on the ripple effects of recent political events and the need for thoughtful dialogue and connection.
  • [13:53] - The power of listening deeply to one another, even in the face of disagreement.
  • [15:33] - Upholding respect and challenging harmful behavior in our community as a means of fostering true sisterhood.
Speaker 1:

Hey there, sister, welcome to Girl Out of Order, a come-along-with-me podcast for women committed to fully embracing their most authentic selves. I'm your girl, christine, and I am passionate about helping women recover or, for the first time ever, discover their true identities and design lives they really freaking love. At Girl Out of Order, we'll help you cultivate bravery, we'll inspire you to live boldly and together we'll build bridges among all women. This tribe of Girls Out of Order will truly change the world. So come on in and let's get started. Hey there, sister, welcome back to the Girl Out of Order podcast. I am so grateful that you've tuned in today because I have a critically important message to share with this community, to share with my sisters around the world. Just last week, I noticed that somebody in France and somebody in Nigeria and somebody in Cambodia downloaded this podcast, and it actually brought me to tears a little bit, because I truly believe that women around this world, no matter if you're in, common things that bind us together, that create bridges, that cross over divides of race and class and age and culture and status. And that brings me to what I want to share with this beautiful community, what I want to share with women around the world this week, and this episode is called Building Bridges when we Disagree. And I understand that this topic might be hard for some women to hear right now, and what is also true is I feel utterly compelled to share this message right now. You'll notice that I'm dropping this podcast a little bit later because, truly, I have gone a little bit silent this last week on social media and I have just spent some time pulling back on entering conversations, and I've just taken this last week to do some thought, thinking, thoughts, some thinking and some reflecting and some questioning and, most importantly, I've done a lot of listening. And so this week, on our beautiful podcast, I want to remind every single listener of one of the most important, in fact I would say the most important pillar of Girl Out of Order. And before I get there, I just want to review what this podcast is about, what this community stands for, what my mission, I believe, in this world is. If we have five listeners or five million listeners, I don't care, because I feel called to be and to live like and to help create, if they want to, girls out of order, girls that break the mold, and I say girls, women, female humans that break the mold of what is expected of them and step into their truth and live it with boldness and grace and kindness to themselves and to other female human beings. In 2021,.

Speaker 1:

I started Girl Out of Order because I needed a place where not fitting in was truly the perfect fit. I had spent myself, spent my whole life, almost 50 years trying to contort myself into molds. I was never designed for meeting expectations of other people that were never meant for me, and I was exhausted and depressed and felt so lonely in my own life, and so I created a place that I needed. You know, tony Robbins often says he created programs for himself. He created Date With Destiny because that's what he needed for his life, and if others were blessed by it and changed by it, what a bonus. And I created Girl Out of Order, and this is my message.

Speaker 1:

My mission, I believe, probably for the rest of my life, is a place where women can come as they are but be changed, be transformed into the best versions of themselves and be part of a community where we build bridges, where we are with women around the world, because we're female human beings and we drop all the labels, we live beyond them and we love, no matter what. I wanted a community where I could gather with like-hearted, like-minded women who were committed, like me, to building purpose-driven lives and a community where every single female human being is welcome and celebrated and challenged. Because if you know me for more than five minutes, you know I am not about mamby-pamby fluff. It's just not who I am and it's not what I believe transforms lives. I believe truth, with love, grace, acceptance, challenge and practical, tangible tools transform. That transforms women. It's transformed me. It's made me a better, more enhanced, unleashed version of myself. This week I'm attending I don't even know maybe my ninth or tenth Unleash the Power Within with Tony Robbins, and I have never felt more unleashed as a woman and I can't wait to see what's next for me. To see what's next for me. And Girl Out of Order is a place where other women can get community and challenge and be changed.

Speaker 1:

So I chose three pillars for Girl Out of Order, for my mission. The first one, as you know, is cultivating bravery. It takes courage to do identity work. It takes courage to fully embrace your unique self and go against the grain of what other people are telling you should do. You must do, you have to do. If you're not this, you're not that. If you don't check these boxes, you don't measure up. I created this pillar cultivating bravery for you to step in to the truth that you are not too much and that you will always be enough. Because we've lived in that tension of feeling both that will never be enough and there will always be too much. And it's kept us trapped, it's kept us dimmed and it's made us shrink back from our true, authentic purpose. But it takes courage.

Speaker 1:

And the second pillar is inspiring boldness, and I love this pillar, but it requires some explanation, because a lot of women have taken this boldness to a level of aggressiveness and brashness and screaming and shouting down others. To try to quote unquote convince them. You're never going to convince anybody by shouting in their face. So when I talk about inspiring boldness, it's that once a woman commits to living out her true identity, she must move through life with grace and confidence and strength. They are all required, I believe, to live a bold life. Our empowers from this week are actually my own and it goes along with boldness and it leads to our third pillar and what I said years ago. I said when your passion makes you lose perspective, then you sacrifice the power of persuasion. I learned that the hard way when I was held in direct criminal contempt many years ago because I over advocated for my client, because my passion for what I believed was just and right caused me to lose perspective and I lost all power of persuasion. Oh, that was an epic flame out. And that goes into our third pillar, which we're going to be discussing today, which is building bridges among all women. This pillar fueled my creation of Girl Out of Order.

Speaker 1:

You see, this Girl Out of Order has lived so many different I don't want to say identity, yeah, call it identities roles, fulfilled so many different roles. I've been part of so many different communities that diverge to the nth degree. I have been what I would call radical feminist, where I was campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment. I was a president of the Women's Law Association. I have a women's studies, practically a double major. I understand what society would call liberal women. I understand the passion. I've lived it, I've viscerally felt it over the years and I honor those women. And I've lived really far the other way and now I find myself more in the middle and all of that is actually a little bit irrelevant in some way I shared it. I just want every woman in this community to know I understand, I see them, I hear them, I honor them. I guess it's not irrelevant, because it's important when you consider the source of whoever you're listening to. And when I talk about building bridges with women, we disagree with my passion.

Speaker 1:

Creating Girl Out of Order was to create a space where every woman could find a home because she's a female, freaking human being. I want to build bridges among women, regardless of age or race, regardless of culture or faith, regardless of politics or positions, or where you live in the world or how much money you make or how you vote, who you love. It is my sincere belief that women have way more in common than that which separates us and divides us, but the patriarchy. My friends would love nothing more than to sit back with popcorn and watch women devour each other, because when women come together, we have a unique power. It is unleashed in our common womanhood. Communities heal and worlds change.

Speaker 1:

Last week in the United States, we had an election unlike any other in modern history. The ripples of the outcome of the election of Donald Trump and the defeat of Kamala Harris Paris have caused me to pause this week to ask questions and to shut my damn mouth and listen. I recognize that this election has impacted women in myriad ways and I'm going to be really honest with this community that some of the reactions of women on all sides has surprised and disappointed me deeply. Besides, he has surprised and disappointed me deeply no-transcript. For some right now it feels impossible, even dangerous, but, sister, I feel called to be a bridge builder, even when it is so, so hard. In fact, I feel called to be a bridge builder particularly when it is hard. So this week I have a message to our community and a message to you, no matter if you're in Cambodia or France or Canada or Florida, california or freaking anywhere, it doesn't matter. My message to my sisters all around this world, no matter what your beliefs, is I love you. I want to let that sit. I love you, I see you, I am listening and I am truly and genuinely curious about what you think, how you feel and why. Because if we don't ask questions and then shut up and listen, we're all just going to retreat to our corners and live in echo chambers that will never, ever heal the divides that are happening.

Speaker 1:

What is also true is. I cannot stand by silently when women vilify, demonize, denigrate and dismiss other women. I've seen it from all sides and it simply cannot be left unchallenged. I have read cruel slurs against women that have questioned their faith, that have questioned their intelligence and that have denigrated their priorities. I have also read tactless, gross mocking of women's genuine fears, and these are happening by other women. I've seen women writing people off and excommunicating people from their lives because of how they voted for the love of God. What are we doing? Have we not lost enough community and connection over the last four years with COVID and wars and all of this garbage? Have we not lost enough time? No one is ever insulted into changing her mind or evolving her positions. She is only wounded by other.

Speaker 1:

Women who hear this are actually perpetuating what they claim to be fighting against, and I'm proclaiming it today. May it never be, not on my watch. All women are welcome in this community and should be. No woman's priorities are superior to another's, and screaming at and shouting down and insulting other women is unacceptable and it's dehumanizing my dear sisters, who recognize there's fear. I hear the sadness in my friends and in this community. I know there is anger and outrage. I also recognize that in this community, there are women that are filled with hope and feel vindication and optimism, and I, as the leader of this podcast in this community, honor the entire range of human emotions that are going on right now, and I'm issuing this call At Girl Out of Order. We build bridges and we cross over those divides among all women, even when we disagree. Especially when we disagree. This community will be a safe place for dialogue and discourse. This community will be a safe place for dialogue and discourse. This community will be a safe place for women to disagree, and insults will never be tolerated. I love each and every one of you.

Speaker 1:

I have spent many, many days writing and rewriting and thinking and praying about this message and I just knew it had to be said, and I've given out an invitation to any woman who doesn't feel that she can fulfill these pillars that she can lean into this discomfort and she can be respectful to her sisters. It's okay if this place isn't for you. I still love you, my arms are still open, I will always hold space for you and if you cannot be in this community and be respectful to your sisters with whom you disagree, it's okay to exit. I hope that you won't. I pray that you'll stay.

Speaker 1:

We need all opinions, we need all emotions and we need to learn how to have respectful conversations that are emotional and difficult and challenging, because that's part of the human experience and we make each other better when we listen and we learn, even if we don't change each other's minds. I love you very much. I know this has been a hard time for many of you, but Girl Out of Order is a safe, beautiful, growing community and you are welcome here. Until next time, please keep being the most authentic version of you, being a girl out of order and loving your fellow sisters. We need so much more love than what I've seen in the last week. We can do this. This hurting world needs us and we'll see you next week.