Archive for the ‘Beauty’ Category
Lately Preparing for Christmas With
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on December 5, 2011
Posted in Beauty, Music, Prayer | 2 Comments »
Overheard at a homebirth
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on October 31, 2011
I take notes during births. I like to record comments. Usually I get some funny ones. Occasionally a few “you did this to me” from mama to papa.
Here are all the notes I recorded from a recent homebirth. I arrived 2.5 hours before baby so these were all spoken in active labor. And mom is not a Hypnobabies student. 
“What a magical time.”
“Gimme some lovin’”
“I can’t believe how natural this feels.”
“I love you.”
“It feels good. How can it feel this good? It is %*#&$ great!”
“Why do I feel it is easy?”
“So easy, easy, easy, so easy.”
And then after the birth, “I don’t know if that birth could have been any more blissful.”
The question is: Do our positive words, feelings of love, and gratitude to partner/support team create an easier birth? Or does an easy birth create the positive words, love, gratitude?
Posted in Beauty, Birth | Tagged: homebirth | Leave a Comment »
Expecting twins?
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on April 29, 2011
Posted in Beauty | Tagged: natural childbirth twins | Leave a Comment »
Sacred Moments
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on April 24, 2011
It was the middle of the day. There were four of us. A woman, her husband, their doula, and a baby ready to be born. The light was muted by curtains. She had carefully created this birthing room in her home.
It was an ordinary weekday. The neighborhood went about its business. The postman delivered the mail. In the distance, someone cut the grass. The school bus picked up and dropped off children.
But inside the birthing room, something transcendent was happening.
Inside the birthing room, there was silence. For an hour, complete silence as the woman worked with her waves. The only sound was water. Each time a wave began, I slowly poured water from a pitcher down her back. And in the background, water flowed from a fountain she had placed in the room.
I didn’t dare speak. The space was heavy with the sacred.
This is what the Lord says—he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and will help you: Do not be afraid…
for I will pour out water on the thirsty land…
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.
They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.
(Isaiah 44:2-4)
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—a place near your altar.
(Psalm 84:3)
This is what the Lord says—he who created you…he who formed you…
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you…
Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you.”
(Isaiah 43:1-4)
I glimpse the sacred at all births I attend. I feel near to the altar. Like a priestess serving the woman; but ultimately the Author of this new life. It is a meeting of worlds–the spiritual and physical. Soon after, the midwife and her apprentice arrived. The baby was born. And the world carried on, though forever changed by a new life.
As birth servants, may we ever tread carefully in these birthing rooms. These altars.
Posted in Beauty, Birth, Prayer | Tagged: homebirth, spiritual birth | 6 Comments »
More wooden lovelies
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on February 19, 2011
I promised to post some pictures of other beautiful wooden gifts Scott made for Christmas.
Wine bottle stoppers:
Coffee scoops:
Duck call:
Coffee Grinders:
Ice Cream Scoops:
Teething Necklaces:
And yes, he is working on the teething necklaces this weekend! I’ll have some for those of you who wanted one very soon.
I think he did a FAR superior job than that time I tried to make all our Christmas gifts.
Posted in Beauty, Family | Tagged: handmade christmas gifts, wooden teething necklace | 4 Comments »
A terrible beauty
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on February 16, 2011
I remember her towels. For some reason, I keep coming back to the image of her soft, perfectly folded white towels. They were so incredibly neat and tidy. And pure.
I wasn’t supposed to be her doula. My partner had called me at the last minute and I entered her space for the first time when she was in labor. She was stunning. Brilliant red hair and a quiet strength. This was their first baby and they wanted to stay home for most of their labor.
I remember some funny things. Some things that will remain unsaid. I remember in active labor, I looked over and saw a shotgun (rifle?) by the bed. I wondered if it was wise to have a gun so close to a woman in active labor. I remember the ways I flubbed up. One incident made my blooper page. I remember laughter.
We arrived at the birth center. She was fully dilated and quickly pushed her baby into her husband’s hands. A son.
During her postpartum, when she needed extra help with breastfeeding, I brought lactation help. Carey and I spent hours in her home. It was the intimate time of women with the new mother. We three cried when her milk came.
Her mothering was fierce and deliberate. She is the kind of mother we need more of.
Last week, she died from an aggressive cancer. She leaves behind her precious husband, her toddler, and her born-too-soon baby girl. And it is awful. It is wrong. And not meant to be like this.
Yet, there is beauty–certainly in her life–but also in her passing. I heard her name from so many places during her illness. People who didn’t even know her. She breathed grace and confidence and HOPE. This is the mystery of redemption. That God, who does not want suffering, can redeem it. Beauty from ashes. If we let him.
When I remember Jessica, it will always be a vision of those white towels. And I’ll hope that my life will be as well-lived.
Posted in Beauty, Friends | 1 Comment »
Some Favorite Things
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on December 28, 2010
Norah’s new nature shelf. We’ve had trouble with Norah’s nature table. Trouble that starts with a capital “C” and comes in the shape of a 16 month old wild thing. For Christmas, Scott made a shelf to go above Norah’s bed. Out of reach (for now) of Cedar. It has a shelf on top and a string with clothespins for attaching feathers, leaves, butterflies, etc. Norah had so much fun arranging her fall/winter nature treasures. And the dead Hercules beetle that we are apparently keeping forever.
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. Oh my. I had heard mama friends speak with such passion about this book. I knew it would be good. But this good? I’ve been so frustrated with the Bible storybooks for children. The stories are disjointed. God is sending floods, kicking people out of a garden, sending plagues. A cohesive story and an amazing grace are missing. I cried when I read the introduction! “You see, no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children–with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. And though they would forget him, and run from him, deep in their hearts, God’s children would miss him always, and long for him–lost children yearning for their home.”
The plasma car. There is such joy I never could have imagined in hearing your children play together. Sorry Mom, if I’d known, maybe I wouldn’t have fought with Noelle so much. The plasma car has given me hours of happy sibling play. Thank you, Great-Nanny! Too bad she doesn’t have a computer to read this.
Our completed fireplace. My husband was determined not only to make most of our Christmas gifts this year but also to complete our fireplace. He built this thing of beauty from nothing. It was an empty corner. He built the mantle, installed the logs, carved the designs and centerpiece, cut the rock, stacked the rock, cursed at the rock, swore he’d never mess with rock again. And he finished it Christmas Eve. He is a machine. Or a superhero. Or maybe a robot superhero.
I’ll post more on some of the other gifts he made. After we give them all out. There are so many other favorite things I’m enjoying from sweet family and friends. Mostly, I’m savoring time together while my whole family is living geographically in the same place–until March. More on that later, too.
Posted in Beauty, Products and Gear | 8 Comments »
How to treat a woman during childbirth
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on November 4, 2010
If a woman doesn’t look like a Goddess during birth then someone isn’t treating her right.
–Ina May Gaskin
Posted in Beauty, Birth | Leave a Comment »
Oh *blush*
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on October 16, 2010
Thank you to A Little Bit of All of It for selecting this blog as a “One Lovely Blog Award” winner.
I will strive to live up to the loveliness!
Now I am honored to pass along the prize to 15 blogs I read. I picked only mamas I have met in real life. That isn’t part of the rules but it helped me narrow down my selection!
For those who choose to pass along the award to others, the rules are: accept the award on your blog and then select 15 lovely blogs to award.
Without further ado, my lovely award recipients are (in no particular order):
- Babyfingers
- a la mode
- beneath this starry spinning
- Bringing Up Ballard
- Kidnapped by Suburbia
- Red Dirt Girl
- the rest of the story…
- Fresh Milk Delivered Daily
- Broken, Yet Beautiful
- Life Prints by Tracie
- Confessions of a Misplaced Alaskan
- Simply
- Adventures in Living & Learning
- My Thoughts
- My Loves
Hopefully a few of you ladies wll pass along the award to others.
Posted in Beauty | Tagged: one lovely blog award | 4 Comments »
My sister’s doula
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on August 14, 2010
My family is tight. I have one sibling. My parents still love each other. We have weekly Sunday dinner during which we sit at the table talking long after the coffee has cooled. And for this rare moment, we all live in geographic proximity.
When my sister became pregnant, I coached myself on:
- respecting her privacy
- not using scare tactics
- not saying too much
- not saying too little
- keeping horror stories to myself
- keeping homebirth talk to a minimum
- stepping back and allowing them to make informed decisions
All the while, I wondered how I could possibly be her doula in the hospital setting. I imagined scenes of security guards forcibly removing me from the hospital. But they chose a homebirth and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wouldn’t need to guard her or time her arrival at the hospital just right. I could relax into supporting.
Ha.
As her time approached, I had so much anxiety. If she had to transport, I would blame myself. I knew this. Deeply knew this. A big sister thing, you know? I did a Hypnobabies “fear clearing” before her birth.
Then her birthing time began. And it felt so normal. The anxiety melted away as I moved into the familiar and comfortable space of birth. I hunkered down to support her in the work of bringing a baby.
What I was not prepared for was the emotion. The powerful emotion that hit me full force out of nowhere as she was close to birthing. At this moment:
Yes, this moment. Do you know what I was thinking? I was remembering the time I left her in my uncle’s hayloft. She was little and refused to come down the ladder. So my cousins and I left her crying. My horrible brain fired off many of those memories in rapid succession leaving me a pile of mush. I wept in her shoulder so she wouldn’t see. I was entirely unprepared for the onslaught memories. I never cried at my own births.
She was a warrior, as I knew she would be. And Zach was a strong birth partner whispering prayers and endearments throughout.
Her midwife was intuitive and gentle.
Her sweet babe weighing in at 8lbs 4oz was a precious dumpling.
And her doula was busy remembering every mean thing she ever did to her.
Posted in Beauty, Doula, Family | Tagged: Doula, homebirth | 10 Comments »
