Inspired by the Wednesday Wisdom series of posts at Pagan Families and because I’m teaching on Tuesdays this session and thus not able to type substantive posts, I’m planning to start doing a new short weekly post with a few quotes and birthy news items that have caught my eye. I’ve thought several times that I should do themed posts or posts on specific days about specific areas, but somehow I don’t really work like that and instead spend hours on long missives that are perhaps never read through to the end. I don’t really have a posting schedule or weekly plan for posting, it just…happens. I notice from my archives that I seem to regularly post about 16 posts a month. Maybe I do have a largely unconscious schedule that I follow…

So, here’s my tidbits for this week:

“A ‘no’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I should perhaps pin this to my head. I feel as if I’m constantly being offered wonderful opportunities (what a problem, eh?!) and must ever be mindful of, “choosing the best and leaving the rest.”

See also: Balanced Living and Saying ‘No’ and The Ongoing Crisis of Abundance.

Switching gears into birth and pain:

“Women experience pain differently; some feel strong overwhelming pain, some may feel a deep discomfort during birth, and still others may feel no pain at all. The experience of pain during childbirth facilitates an unfolding of inner power and resources we never imagined we possessed, similar to enduring the pain of completing a marathon at the finish line.”

–Barbara Nicholson and Lysa Parker, API founders

(Prior musings on pain and birth.)

And into the power of place:

“If we believe that birth is a powerful, sacred event that has personal significance and meaning for the mother, baby and family, then we need to recognize that where it takes place is a sacred and holy site.” –Jenny Hall, “The Sacred Place of Birth” (via Pagan Families)

In other news, the first digital-only issue of the Friends of Missouri Midwives newsletter is finally available online! Yay! I’m so excited. The theme is Birth Art.

On Scoop.it, I shared links to a couple of interesting articles:

Childbirth classes if you AREN’T interested in natural birth

Sex After (a Traumatic) Childbirth – Onislam.net

And, finally, I fell in love with this awesome quote:

“Birth sticks with a woman, remaining in her bones and her flesh as an embodied memory long after the baby has left her womb.”

– Pamela E. Klassen, in Blessed Events (via Pagan Families)

And, I used some of my new art (more about this soon) to make a little graphic with it too…