Breastfeeding 365

Category: Divine Mother

  • Calling Forth Our Tribe

      nothing separates us from love, I will sit down and nurse my little one for the next 365 days

    A text on a white background Description automatically generated

    Work life balance! Where is pleasure and freedom?

    OR

    Why we cannot wait….To…

    I am giddy with excitement; I celebrated an incredible milestone of having a 70th birthday.    While I am not nursing a little one at the moment, I have recently given birth to what some might call a new idea where I want to pivot….

    I want to commit to anchoring myself.. developing within me an attachment of love … seeing this new entity grow and to keep showing up 365 days in a row. Connection, attachment, balance, love, letting go… spreading seed in the dark unknown the black sun if you can envision such a thing where I bring all aspects of myself as an elder to bring more light and love and community in the world.  

    My children were my best teachers. I learned so very much about love, and myself and that they trusted me and relied on me. I was both the beneficiary and the supplier. I thought I was doing it alone, by sheer will, the giant teat; sustenance for us both at a time when it was so hard to look around and see what I was doing and see if it made any sense at all. How do we encourage ourselves to do or be something? What brings us Joy! How can we be proud of ourselves and have faith in our own mind, body and spirit… just because…

    We do it by just showing up, being gentle and kind with ourselves and others and making space to listen and form our tribe. Can we float and form a space where we gather around  we show how we might listen to the women who have nursed their little ones for 365 days or longer to meet up with someone who feels deeply that this is a milestone for them that they would like to just see what may happen if they could … do something that they want simply for the Joy of it  just because…

    Could we, not I form a foundation a sanctuary, a gathering place, a listening post where folks  might speak and ask not only questions but, the space where they first and foremost would be listened to… no fear, no judgment, just love….

    Would it be OK and important that we take time out to set a priority that was centered around a critical moment of setting the foundation, making the transition and we have that hope and light for our little ones and for each other… but mostly for our selves as women.

    So tonight we take the steps, and have our first meet up where the doors are open and we look around for our tribe, who is there with us and for us…

    I saw so many roadblocks to how I could organize and sponsor a call out a gathering. 

    I saw all the speed bumps and was having trouble with keeping the vision and hearing the voice of wisdom and love.… 

    I got an email birthday card… about reminding me about legacy and birth and what might be what’s calling me to celebrate 

    Feeling like my senses were failing me… when in fact my grace and vision was becoming crystal clear…

    Keep it simple, open your heart, loving kindness and compassion and have the humility to ask for help.

    Do you know one woman who has nursed her little one for 365 days or more?  

    How can you find her?

    Have you ever thought, wondered tried to nurse a baby and felt like you missed the mark or would have benefited from the “tribe” the community that would support you with love no questions asked.  

    Would you like to make a pledge to stay with your little one and nurse for 365 days in a row? Just because you want to…

    What we have in common is who we are and what we want to do. So many mothers came before us… They have such stories to tell.. Your passion , your hearts desire… We honor all mothers and their journey… We celebrate the birth of new ideas with women.

    All are welcome here if you need us and want us. We have been looking for each other… so come by, my brother made pie for the celebration and it is sweet and good…

    See you soon…

         So let us begin!

    “You have touched the lives of so many. May your birthday shine like your life.”

    Midwifery Legacy Project  Honoring Wise Midwives

    http://www.midwife.org/acnm/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000005631/MLP-ecard-2015-2016.pdf

    https://www.meetup.com/365-breastfeeding-tribe-meetup-group/events/298358291/

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    our sons our daughters all of them
    LOOKING FOR OUR TRIBE ….MAKING THE PLEDGE

  • It’s my Birthday!

    Celebrating ME

    ….. O mothers everywhere everyday at any age but especially today at 69

    It is the practice of mothers to measure success in the accomplishments, lack there of or behavior of their children. as if when we nurture them, we nurture ourselves vicariously.

    It is rare that we want to allow for our success in that we might honor giving space and time to what it is we want to do. Who do we wish and long to be? To give ourselves fully to a moment…. be it creative, play, pleasure, if we are in a place where we truly have choice and so we exercise life, symmetry, and oh yes beauty.

    What a dear guide calls the “generative story of our time” . What are the wise and gentle voices we allow in our heads and hearts? Are they kind?

    While I am happy and grateful for the lives of my progeny and ancestors, today I celebrate me, Weird Elder holding space and light and JOY for the gratitude I feel at this moment. Forgiveness and and compassion for all the choices and places I found and continue to find my self with both regrets and misunderstandings and angst and the habit of self-flagellations forgot having done it not anything right.

    Today I feel accountable and responsible for me. The part that is mine, especially the part that is shared. My good intentions.

    If my child, that aspect and part of the relation and connection that is me; the coupling that is hurt and harmed and whole. I hold us both well and healed in this moment. I grieve and groan the pain of loss, despair and disappointment. I embrace the painful part that is birth and starting all new ventures and showing up without good intentions without knowing or having full control of the outcome.

    Today, as I close out the sixth decade.. I leave and look forward to LOVE.

    If for any moment you want and desire for this moment: when you are grateful, more than enough and you surrender to the peace of what it is ..

    We surround you with love and peace and the place to sit a moment and just wander and wonder and rest.

    As if a special veil was lifted, with new moons, mercy, and grace and lots of snow. I can see many things that were not always visible to me today. Pretty snow, pretty light coming from dark spaces, winter and dawn of possibilities. Is that birth day, reflection and grace, circling back and remembering my own mom, and hers and hers and hers.. as I do my own Daughter and hers and hers.

    In lieu of a purse, or earrings or a meal out and about. I got a gift of the happy birthday song sang at the bedside from my son as he woke me.. and yet and still another song of poetry brilliant from my daughter. great and unexpected gifts and treasures.

    Happy within me…joyous and free… stories of what we leave behind and remembered for and more than that it is a mighty mighty mighty good day, the day you were born and the womb space you rode in on… the breath and blood of life circulating.. we thank her for the ride..

    Do you post your birthday cards on the fridge? Do you look in the mirror and wonder if you see yourself as others see you? I remind you to tell your story. put it somewhere, you or someone is watching and listening right now.

    BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS for the MOTHER from the DAUGHTER

    …

    Sunday’s around three,

    When the breeze hits the trees,

    And the leaves pass by…

    Your energy is felt

    Your hands, the miracles they’ve dealt

    Your aura…Free and unapologetically.

    A humble servant.

    A midwife of many.

    A lover of life.

    A giver of plenty.

    A dynamic beauty who stands her place. 

    A light to such darkness. 

    Such power. 

    Such grace. 

    The bearer of joy and rivers.

    A method for so many.

    I wear her on the outside, but I also have her in me. 

    Happy Birthday Mom!

    https://jacqueline-laughlin.medium.com/happy-birthday-771b417939bd

    https://onbeing.org/on-being-foundations-transcript-2/

  • Thank you Cardi B.

    Happy Mothers Day: Influencers

    Reproductive Rights in the 21st Century

    Thank you Cardi B for the Images of the Goddess the Divine Feminine

    I suppose when I think of our covenant to nurse our babies for the first 365 days, staying connected to nurture ourselves. I get the medieval initial virgin birth Mary Madonna and Child image of sanctity. 

    My daughter reminded me that image might be due for an update in the land of tik tok and you tube and influencers and shared with me the powerful not so subliminal image of Cardi B nursing her baby on stage at work. Embracing every aspect of her whole self. Sexual, powerful, fierce, and so divinely raucous and feminine. 

    Happy Mother’s Day

     If she could make it so… then so could I. She deserved my Mother’s Day card of gratitude for the century. I should be so inclined of sending her a thank you card of power bringing her baby so close and so clearly visible if only the world could see. Grandmas living and dead would be so proud!

     She truly was my New York City home girl just like me and it was my daughter who sent me to higher ground. She showed me the video that Cardi B held court with her baby attached to her tittie inseparable from what she wanted to do.

    Separations from our little ones are largely dependent on the kindness or idle comments of strangers opining on what should a good mother do. We rarely if ever ask what do women want and need. What does love and attachment look like.

    What a good mother should look like and what does a good mother want and what choices can a woman make just fine on her own.  Many women had no choice on when they should or could leave their baby. Money and food and shelter and safety and what “Kulture” customs insist and define separation from mother and baby, letting go and who’s best interest it is. The things we say we do for the money.

    We are not there at that moment! How could we possibly know their story?  I know I am so grateful to Cardi B.   I want to honor every choice a mother makes to share her body and her love with all Divine creation for whatever length of time and under whatever circumstances.

    While this week, at the beginning of the month, the money from the check arriving predominates our thoughts. She calls it forth! She occupies her body and moves in ways that make me smile.  Thank you, my daughters, for your choices. Your visibility, your courage. I would not have seen you unless you lived large and sought to influence me.

     I honor this day my ancestors, mothers and daughters the matrilineal line. I look for them, I find their names. I say their names aloud. I see the babies they buried, the bodies they claimed and saved as their own when they could and when they couldn’t. I will never know what sacrifice was provided for me. I know I am standing here the only begotten daughter of our Savior the Divine Mother. Look closely she is in our midst. She looks just like you.

    ROLL CALL

    My granddaughter: Ava Violet      August,  2019   

    My granddaughter: Taylor Marie  August,  2002  

    My daughter: Amber Joy Meadows               September , 1980 

    My mother: Violette Duckett                         April 1927-January 2009           b. 4/27/27- 1/ 2009

    Her mother: Lois Laws.                                October, 1908 -February, 1985    10/24/1908-Feb 20, 

    Her mother: Mary Ellen Thomas                  1884–Jan 1912

    Her mother: Mary Ellen Thomas                   ???

    My grandfather’s mother: Harriet Duckett    July, 1879- 1945

    My grandfather’s mother: Ellen Eliza Miriam Samms    c..1862-

    My father’s mother: Julia McDougall           July, 1892-September 1986

    Her mother: Elmma McDougall.                   c. 1878- 

    Thank you Cardi B, Influencer keeping it real… for nursing your baby …so much love and respect for you. Nursing your baby. Making Money. Showing up and showing out!

  • Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, December 8th

    As a day of Holy Obligation, I attended on-line Mass today. Not because I had to; but because I wanted to truly celebrate A Feast Day for Mothers. It was really quite lovely. It has been many years since I went to Mass. However, I have found myself moved to prayer most days, these days; and as you would imagine I pray mostly to Mary in all her mysterious glory to intercede on behalf of all Mothers.

    It is a simple prayer, probably one that I first learned in my childhood.it goes like this…

    Hail Mary

    Full of Grace

    The Lord is with Thee

    Blessed are you Among Women

    Blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb

    Jesus.

    It is the foundation of the Rosary , a calming and repetitive devotion that is an integral part of a long held ritual often enjoyed during Advent, the season leading up to the birth of the Christ and all of the celebratory events we associate with Christmas.

    You don’t have to be Catholic or even religious to imagine what it might be like for you the 17 days before the birth of your little one. In addition to feeling fat, and wholly unready for the task at hand and how you might ever care for a little One; you hope for a moment of calm and the knowledge that all indeed will be well. it can be very reassuring to know that God is within you.

    The tale is really quite magical, that a Virgin gives birth. There is NO sin, Original or otherwise and this was known well before your (Mary’s ) conception. Her mother (the baby’s grandmother) Anne knew and it was foretold that her conception was like no other and that She alone would give birth and nurture someone incredibly special who would save the world because of her Divine Love and Grace.

    Today no matter what, I hope and pray that you feel special and wonderful and capable of even the impossible. Spirit’s got your back and you need not worry about the details.

    My granddaughter introduced me to a word that she had tattooed on her forearm in plain view, she was “Too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words”. Pope and a bunch of folks used the same Word to describe Mary and why we might worship her.

    ineffable

    In case you have forgotten, you are truly Divine!