Travail en Cours

I'm in the midst of writing an essay on The Seeds of Change and a reader review on the Red Tent.  I'm not going to finish them tonight as I had thought ( Sorry, Robin).  HOWEVER.  I'm excited about the progress with both.  In my reader review, I decided to expalin three of the major themes of the book and introducing them by including some of my favorite quotes:

The Moon & Camaraderie

“The great mother whom we call Innana gave a gift to woman that is not known among men, and this is the secret of blood. The flow at the dark of the moon, the healing blood of the moon’s birth - to men, this is flux and distemper, bother and pain. They imagine we suffer and consider themselves lucky. We do not disabuse them.
In the red tent, the truth is known. In the red tent, where days pass like a gentle stream, as the gift of Innana courses through us, cleansing the body of last month’s death, preparing the body to receive the new month’s life, women give thanks — for repose and restoration, for the knowledge that life comes from between our legs, and that life costs blood.”

Childbirth:

“Why had no one told me that my body would become a battlefield, a sacrifice, a test? Why did I not know that birth is the pinnacle where women discover the courage to become mothers?”

Storytelling:

“It is terrible how much has been forgotten, which is why, I suppose, remembering seems a holy thing.”

I also had this thought I wanted to throw out to the universe, but not include in my essay: 

Is it passé to love Anita Diamont’s, The Red Tent?   Probably.  Do I care?  No.  Well, yes- a little maybe.   Don’t you hate those moments when you realize that Shit, I do care what people think about me?  As trendsetting and cliquey as our country is, we somehow idolize the idea of individuality.  That is why as soon as something becomes mainstream, then we begin to lose interest. It’s all very confusing and ironic (Irony is still cool, as far as I can tell, but people are beginning to catch on.  Soon everyone is going to start being very sincere and then things will get very uncomfortable for some of us… ehem.)

My essay is full of current statics of birth in the U.S and lots of  insights about how I can use my  passion, drive for change, and knowledge to be not only an attending midwife, but as an activist.

Anyway... it's going swimmingly, but I'm tired.  I have to work an unexpected full day tomorrow and am already having a hard time keeping my eyes open.  However, please stay tuned, as both review and essay will be posted here when I am finished.

Bon Nuit.