PLACENTA
The placenta is an amazing organ of nourishment & cleansing, which also maintains the hormonal state of pregnancy in the mother. The beauty of a healthy placenta goes far beyond its meaty mother's side and shiny baby's side. Yet many people in this culture abhor the thought of seeing and touching it. It is treated as garbage or made into cosmetics after the birth. Honoring the placenta is a way of honoring nourishment and the process of life itself.
In giving birth to ourselves we each have that which nourishes and cleanses us, maintaining the state of creation in us. That is our placenta now. It may be something very meaty, motherly , shiny, or baby-like. It may be Mother Earth Herself . Whatever it is that provides for us in this way brings us the blessings and nourishment of our Great Mother. By honoring it - acknowledging & thanking it for it's support- we honor ourselves and the process of giving birth to ourselves.
Contemplations--
• Do I know what constitutes my placenta now?
• Do I honor it?
• What could I do to better respect this aspect of giving birth to myself?
Activities--
* Create a physical representation of your placenta to help remind you of it. It could be a special pillow, or a collage of pictures that represent that which sustains you.
* Start a placenta book. It could include anything you learn about nourishing yourself and physical placentas.
* Be sure that all birth placentas you are in contact with are treated with respect - if need be, take custody.
-by Terra Rafael,
an excerpt from Giving Birth to Ourselves, contemplations for midwives & other birth companions, available from www.lulu.com.
Showing posts with label Inquiry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inquiry. Show all posts
Monday, June 16, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Willingness
Willingness
Every once in awhile a word or phrase sticks out, as if some cosmic hand highlights it for you. Instead of bright yellow catching your attention its more like your brain can’t let it go. I try to read on but keep hearing that word or phrase. I put the book down and it pops up. Today’s word……..willingness. Used in the general context of “you don’t have to be perfect but only have a willingness to respond with love, to be open.” To not bring the usual suspects of judgments, pre-conceived ideas or patterns, agendas or fears to the table but to be willing. Gentleness and softness get ignited as you think of it, as well as openness, openness to possibilities not yet tapped.
It also illuminates what was once not possible or just a plain old closed door. Something that now a voice is pointing to and asking would you be willing to consider…..whatever it may be in that moment. When before a mind was made up….or shut…now you are being asked to reconsider…to be willing to see anew. Be willing is much easier to listen to then you should, shall, have to or know better. It assumes a respect for where you are with just a gentle nudge toward opening to something else. “Yes I know you have this position but would you be willing to consider something else?” Respect...................
Acknowledgment………Nudge………..New Possibility………….all get awakened within a sense of willingness. New possibility also lets you tap into that there is something bigger…..something else….a perspective you may not have considered. Something to trust, see, experience or open to if only you would be willing.
All this got generated from being willing to sit with willingness. That quality that struck some cord, awakened and wanted to be heard and magnified to see what else lived in there with it.
Mary
Every once in awhile a word or phrase sticks out, as if some cosmic hand highlights it for you. Instead of bright yellow catching your attention its more like your brain can’t let it go. I try to read on but keep hearing that word or phrase. I put the book down and it pops up. Today’s word……..willingness. Used in the general context of “you don’t have to be perfect but only have a willingness to respond with love, to be open.” To not bring the usual suspects of judgments, pre-conceived ideas or patterns, agendas or fears to the table but to be willing. Gentleness and softness get ignited as you think of it, as well as openness, openness to possibilities not yet tapped.
It also illuminates what was once not possible or just a plain old closed door. Something that now a voice is pointing to and asking would you be willing to consider…..whatever it may be in that moment. When before a mind was made up….or shut…now you are being asked to reconsider…to be willing to see anew. Be willing is much easier to listen to then you should, shall, have to or know better. It assumes a respect for where you are with just a gentle nudge toward opening to something else. “Yes I know you have this position but would you be willing to consider something else?” Respect...................
Acknowledgment………Nudge………..New Possibility………….all get awakened within a sense of willingness. New possibility also lets you tap into that there is something bigger…..something else….a perspective you may not have considered. Something to trust, see, experience or open to if only you would be willing.
All this got generated from being willing to sit with willingness. That quality that struck some cord, awakened and wanted to be heard and magnified to see what else lived in there with it.
Mary
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