mamaroots

binding and cutting the cord

Loving that Friday is here and the weekend is on the horizon.  That means Friday night picnic downstairs with the boys tonight- I think I have been challenged to checkers by Jasper!  It also means some crafty time and the honor of hosting a blessingway for a friend at The Womb Room this weekend.  It is such an amazing ceremony to have for a mama before she gives birth.

One of the key elements that I have enjoyed doing and I think have done at almost every blessingway is the mother cord ritual.  Usually done at the end of the blessingway, a ball of yarn is started with the circle of women, each woman winding it around her wrist, sometimes giving a blessing, other times she may give her maternal lineage.  Once the yarn makes it to the honored mother everyone is connected- bound together in strength for this one mama. Everyone then cuts the yarn and creates a bracelet to wear until the baby is born.  Each time you see or feel your bracelet your thoughts go out to that mama.  Every time she sees her bracelet the power and beauty of her ceremony come back to her.  How is that for powerful united intention!

This is just one small part of any number of beautiful pieces of ceremony that is the blessingway, binding us as that name many of us share- "mother"  The above beautiful picture was taken by the ever so talented Papillion Sky Photography- who I am so proud to call my friend and hope to honor her with her blessingway later this year for baby numero 3!

Wouldn't this be a great ceremony to have for other rights of passage, like first bleeding, healing, etc . . you have to love the simplicity and power of yarn!

healing stitches

Big thanks to everyone for your sweet birth-day wishes to my Jasper and me for his "birthing" day- love the mama support that know that when you celebrate your child's birth you are also celebrating the birth.  As many of you know Jasper was my planned homebirth, then early induction and ultimate c-section due to me getting pre-eclempsia.  It was very hard giving up my homebirth but ultimately making the best decision based on my health at the time.  I often said that healing from the stitches of the c-section was alot easier than the soul healing that had to occur for me to then give birth at home 3 and half years later to Silas.

As I was thinking about his birth this year I was reminded of the process of healing.  We all process events in our lives differently.  I know that different things happen for different reasons.  With Jasper's birth I had to do pretty intense healing work in order to move forward.  I wanted to share with you what I did.  I did lots and lots of journaling, and because I am a crafter I knew I wanted to make something.  I decided to make a healing quilt.  I sent out the call for folks to send me a square of fabric in red, pink, or white.  I looked at my gathered fabrics, wrote about them, cut and pieced them together as I was piecing my whole self back together to get back to a place to think about homebirth again.  I made the pattern to mimic a simple open yoni also, to see in my next birth. 

I did this work for about 6 months leading up to Jasper's birthday in 2003 and then I had a "healing-way"- think reverse of blessingway.  I gathered my women support system and had them shares words of healing with me, brought beads that I made into a bracelet, and then they helped me finish the quilt.

Now my quilt hangs in my studio right above my sewing machine.  It is a part of my creative space, which is very much like a womb for me at home.  Good thing my hubby doesn't mind that I love dark red paint!

Many wonderful thanks again and my best wishes out to the powerful women getting ready to birth this September! 

A book on my reading list, a book recommended by my good friend Amy, it is called Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser-  I will have some down time to get all caught up on reading as we head to bluegrass festival land with friends later this week, I can hear the banjos calling!

yarn brains or yarn on the brain?

Knitting has been one of those crafts that I just have not added to my basket, mind you I can crochet up one heck of a single chain!  But that does not stop me from buying up yummy yarns all the time and completely fun accesories!  I found this great yarn bowl when I was birthday shopping for Jasper from a neat Etsy shop called Skeletal Dropkick.  The boys always seem to be in need a snippet of yarn for various art projects and since our redone art area has taken on a monster theme it works great!  They think it looks like the monster has yarn brains!

I also came across an idea in an old Waldorf  book about surprise balls of yarn and so I started to put a few in the shop as a fun treat for kids learning to knit.  When they get to the center there is a cutie pie wooden animal waiting them!  The first is a yummy spice color with Earl the Squirrel in the center.  If you know this story he has a lovely knit scarf in the story!  I used the Lion Brand Organic cotton line.  I love the feel of this yarn!

I think I am resting well from the birthday weekend and having memories of this day eight years ago- I was laboring all day long and would have been last night also working on bringing my baby into the world.  That would have not come until 3:55 tomorrow morning.  Let's see if I wake up again tomorrow morning like I have done in years past!  I look forward to celebrating my fella's birth tomorrow!

just to share

I had this forwarded to me from a midwifery list and it is really just so lovely to watch that I had to share it here.  There is nothing like a birth video or slideshow to continually bring me to my knees of the power of women!

Of course the photos are just stunningly beautiful- I am so happy I had our birth photographed- if you are local and need a great photographer, here are a couple of my very talented friends:

Papillion Sky Photography

Anastasia Pottinger Photography

enjoy this beautiful video tonight!

http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/slideshows/amerlyn/

Headed to the shelves

Brand new on the shelves tomorrow is the book by Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake called Your Best Birth- I will be buying a copy of the book to add the The Womb Room Library and also there are copies for sale tomorrow at the local bookstore where I work.  I look forward to reading this.  I also have a copy of the DVD The Business of Born in the movie library available for check out in case you have not seen it yet.

I just found out also that they launched a new site that I just went and signed up on- love it when the empowering message of birth can spread and grow- be sure to check it out!

mystery and light for mama earth

Last night during Earth Hour we got home from a dinner just in time to turn out all the lights and illuminate the house with candles for bedtime reading.  It reminded me how strong the shadows are when you use candles and how I was actually quite afraid of the dark when I was little.  The boys have gotten this from me as they seemed a bit nervous with the darkness in the house.  But we all huddled close together for our chapter from Edward Tulane and we got to the chapter where Edward become Susanna and it seemed to bring humor to the darkness.  I am really intrigued by the character development of Edward- what an interesting rabbit.

I fell asleep for the remaining of Earth Hour but my hubby said it best, he thought it sent a good message to the worlds leaders about energy consumption, but it really had its most effect as a subtle reminder to us as the worlds people to just turn our lights off more often.

I awoke from a lovely long nights sleep to a call from a friend in labor and was able to light one more candle this morning.  A tradition of blessingways is that candles can be lite by women in attendance to continue support for the mama.  In joy I lite the candle this morning next to a sculpture I made a few years ago along with my healing bracelet from my first birth.  As she rides in the mystery of birth today it reminds me of the those powerful common roots of becoming a mama . . .