Say yes: birthing a new world

Thursday, March 19th, 2020

We women know how to birth.

We know how to let pain flow through us, and give it voice. How to cry, to wail, to let our power come through us as song and movement. We have birthed babies, opening and softening to let them come into the world safely.

So we know that when we tense, the pain becomes worse. When we soften and relax and move with what’s here, we find flow again. No matter how challenging, how overwhelming, how hard a moment is, it subsides.

And then we get a moment of respite, between contractions, or waves, or whatever you want to call those tsunamis of feeling.

We mothers know how to birth. How to give ourselves to what is here. We know we have no choice.

 

Now we are birthing a new world.

In the last weeks, with the rapid arrival of Covid-19, our lives have changed, beyond recognition.

In the same way our babies disrupted everything.

Life will never be the same again. We will never be the same again.

 

Let the feelings flow

Just as we turned ourselves over to the power of labour, we can give ourselves to this moment. Feel our grief. Let our tears flow, carrying the loss of all that we had, and the beauty in it. Let our fear roar. Allow our hearts to break – open.

So much is lost, at least for now. Simple times with friends and family. Connection. Touch. Companionship. Human contact. We are creatures of community. And our loss is real.

 

Moment by moment

What are we birthing, together, now? How long will this ‘labour’ last? What kind of new world will come through us? We cannot know. We can only give ourselves to each moment, and trust it to carry us to the next.

Yesterday morning, I felt grace and ease and trust. Today arrived with fear, sobs, a heart breaking for all that our kids are losing. The friendships, the stability, the safe haven of nursery or school or caregivers. For the wider loss that hangs in the air. It is a hard time.

Tomorrow will be different again.

 

Day by day, we will birth this new world.

All we can do is give ourselves to the moment. Turn in to it. Say yes to each feeling. And yes. And yes again.

We have birthed babies. We know this place. We can do this, together.

 

Photo by Tim Bish on Unsplash

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