Ruminations on Parenthood
Originally posted on Pagan Families, 7/5/11. Midway through the second trimester, my ribs started hurting around the bra line, like something was cutting into them. It wasn’t my bra’s fault, though, because taking it off didn’t help, and changing bras didn’t help. It messed with my ability to exercise and cook dinner, and after a …
Continue reading “What Color is Your Pain? Magic for Pregnant Aches”
Originally posted 8/29/07. Three years ago, I couldn’t talk about my religious life. I mean, literally, I couldn’t. I’d try to open my mouth, and a lot of times I wouldn’t even be able to get words out. We didn’t really talk about religion in the first person when I was a kid. What I …
Continue reading “Self-Excavation Tour 2007: The Elephant in the Room”
It’s funny to think, but what I knew about Sibyl a year ago was that she had lots of dark hair and a vigorous sucking reflex. We didn’t even know her name. Now it seems like she was born for people, language, and music–maybe three faces of one Mystery?–maybe the fruitful void she’ll spin her …
Normally my ancestors’ stories sit just below the surface of everyday life, and the rhetorical whitecaps show you where. For example, when I was pregnant, Rebecca objected to the idea that the baby would use her old high chair. She used to stand on its flat wooden seat to reach the counter and cook, but …
Several of you asked me how I was doing after Sibyl was born, and here, almost six months later, is an answer. It’s a bunch of things I wrote in the first two months postpartum, all stitched together and edited. It probably has a harsher slant than it would’ve if we’d talked in person, since …
This is a game for when your creative energy’s running dry. Rebecca invented it at the beginning of the summer when it became obvious that I didn’t want to hear “Tell me a story” any more, especially first thing in the morning. Instead, she asks, “Pinky, what are you doing?” Then she asks each of …
In Healing Stories For Challenging Behaviour (Stroud, UK: Hawthorne Press, 2008), Susan Perrow writes about the success she’s had using stories to inspire a shift in children’s behavior, in the contexts of parenting and Waldorf education.  Healing Stories gives advice for creating your own stories, as well as fifty plus stories that Perrow’s used. The …
Continue reading “Book Review (Lengthy): Healing Stories For Challenging Behaviour”
Rebecca spent much of the week before Sibyl was born having diarrhea and occasionally throwing up. I spent much of the week cleaning up after Rebecca, having a nasty cold, and thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t have a newborn yet. Then a day and a half before my due date, my cold turned …
Rebecca and I make up stories in secret. I hear we’re not the only parents and children who do that, but how would I know? Joining a practice without much personal precedent is an eerie feeling. When you first start, you’re waiting for someone to catch you and tell you you’re doing it wrong, and …
The museum’s animatronic Tyrannosaurus has spider webs between its teeth. I just noticed them yesterday. They’re hard to see unless you’re at the right angle. Beckybean met Tyrannosaurus Rex last Friday. Her Gaga reports that Rebecca was so scared they had to detour around the dinosaur, but that afterward she wanted to go back and …