Save the Midwife! Help us correct the growing trend of birth as "big business"- save the only homebirth midwife in our community.

This is a very dear subject for me.  I have donated, and I strongly urge you also to send even a few dollars their way.  Every little bit helps, and shows how we support the small town midwife. http://www.indiegogo.com/Save-the-Midwife

My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it's very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and dowhatever she needs to do.

"I have something to prove, as long as I know there's something that needs improvement, and you know that every time I move, I make a woman's movement." Ani DiFranco I have had these thoughts rattling around in my head for a bit now.  Even as I write this, I am not sure what it is exactly, that I want to say, or how to say it. I do know, that not a day goes by with out me reading or hearing some sort of anti women babble or rant, often from women!  You know, the sort of self righteous crap that we often spit out about each other.  How so-and-so is a bad parent.  How CAN they feed their child that?  Did you hear that she split from you-know-who?  How could she do that?  Don't they know that it is better to just stay together? Did you hear what kind of birth she had?  Does she even know if that was safe? If you sleep with your child you are going to kill them. If you don't sleep with your child you are damaging them for life. She had a miscarriage, it is probably better that way, her life is too crazy anyway. Did you hear that her child STILL does NOT sleep through the night?  This is just a small, mild, sample of what I hear or read, in a few days time. I understand more than ever, how so many women say, that they just never "got along" with other women.  Well of course not!  When you know very well that as soon as you turn your back, it is rammed full of knives from various "friends". "I've been a long time coming, and I'll be a long time gone. You've got your whole life to do something, and that's not very long." Ani DiFranco Women are strong.  We give birth.  We nourish and raise our children.  We make sure meals happen and houses stay moderately clean.  We ensure that there are clean clothes to wear, that our children receive a education.  We cuddle and soothe.  We work full time jobs away from our families and then continue working at home, on the weekends, on holidays and when we are sick.  We rise up when we see wrong and fight for what we see as right.  So much of what we can do is diminished by how much we fight one another.  How we let others put us in a box.  Tell us what we can and can not do.  We are less when we no longer believe in our bodies, or our ability to know, instinctively, what is best for our families. "If you like it, let it be, and if you don't please do the same." Ani DiFranco We give our power away!  We let it slide away, stolen, our gifts, our strengths, belittled until we feel and act as though we know nothing. Our bodies are amazing.  Beautiful.  Sensual.  Strong.  We have the power to grow an entire LIFE inside of us.  We have the power to bring that life into our own hands, to feed and grow it outside of our bodies as we nourished it inside. We have the power, the RIGHT, to choose how WE see fit to raise and protect our young.  To not be pressured or bullied into choosing the "right" way to do things.  There is no right way.  There are MANY ways. I am tired, tired of listening to my sisters talk of how their husband told them to do things that they felt and still feel strongly against.  And they did it.  I am tired of listening to smart women tell me that their doctor told them to give something to their child, something that they felt was not right.  And they did it.  I am tired of hearing from caring warm mothers bullied into believing that how they are raising their families is WRONG.  Often from family members and close friends.  And they believe it. When we choose to go against what we feel at a gut level, what we hear whispered in our hearts, those are the things we will regret until we die.  Those are the memories that will trouble our minds long after our families are grown. Be strong.  Be wise. Listen, to yourself. "It seems that different people have an idea of what I am, and what I should be. And then there's me." Ani DiFranco

Fed up

It is fascinating, how many liars there are.  People who try to make you feel bad, and then come to find out, they should be the ones feeling bad. Reminder to myself...if someone seems to be TRYING to cause "crazy" to be a permanent state of my mind....DROP THEM.  Quickly.  In fact, you really can not get away fast enough. There is not enough time, to spend, to waste, on someone who will never hear what you are saying, no matter how you say it.  When you have had the same conversation, about the exact same thing, more then 10 times, with the outcome turning out the same every time, it is time to walk away. If the unrealistic idea of ME, becomes too heavy of a burden, move on.  I am not perfect, but neither are you. Selfish is never a good place to live, and when you have reached a higher, um, age group, and only have lived in the land of Selfish...well, best realize that that person is most likely never ever going to be able to leave that sweet self centered place.  And yes, it is OK, to not be OK, with that.  Run.  Away. I maintained calmness.  I centered myself.  I embraced change.  I excepted the things that I would not have chosen for myself. And now, I realize, the anger has started to move in.  Maybe I will embrace that, for a time, as well.