Arts, Environment and the Child: Walking the Wheel of the Seasons

retracing my steps a little, I've been doing alot of research on my own project which happens to be my pregnancy, there's so much for me to learn, and I'm really excited to be putting my energy here.

This book "Diaper Free" is so cool. It's a woman writing about how women all over the world are in communication with their babies about when they "need to go", and that this is not as hard as it sounds. She says that babies are aware of when they need to go and that by learning how to read their body language, you can sense this, almost as naturally as knowing when they are hungry, and they in turn learn to communicate their needs to you. Awesome! Of course it doesn't happen overnight, but she writes about what a connecting experience it is, and when your baby is totally diaper free by the age of 4 months, you can see how the hard work of being present really pays off, environmentally, and financially too.

I had the idea to create my project around what I'm interested in right now as it pertains to this class, pregnancy and preparing to give birth first, and being a first-time parent of a little baby.

If you are reading this , it might explain why I've been logging my hours of reading about this subjext.

So much of my mind right now is on learning about this stuff, and I want to really go in depth, so I'm going to create a group based on this need.

I approached Heather with my idea right away, and she was excited. She is not pregnant herself, but she is also going through a transformative process, and we thought we could meld our ideas. We thought about the meaning of this season Fall, about the Essence of the Tree going inward, while letting what it no longer needs to hold onto to fall away. In this way it is creating space for what will come next in it's process, in a sense dying to the old self, to let new life be reborn. Fall certainly seems like a time for us to do that as well, as Marya was describing.

This is a process I am going through as my life transitions, and others as well, and I'd like to create a place where we can share these transitions with each other, and support one another.

As a dancer I am learning how to move differently while being pregnant. At the Waves Studio we dance with a structure called the five rhythms. There are as many variations on how those rhythms can be danced, and one of the most important teachings that one recieves on the dance floor is how to take care of oneself, while in relationship with others. How do I move when that person in front of me is dancing in that way, with that level of intensity?

Now I am learning to take extra special care to listen to my body as I move, and move gently, for when you are going slow you can hear what your body is saying to you alot better.

This Yoga class is going awesome! Satya is such a good teacher, and even though she is a friend of June and mine, (june is the other woman in the class) she is totally professional. She treats it like a real class. If anyone is interested, she is teaching a class for the public too.

We go slow and easy, and afterwards we talked about how much more you can feel your body when you go slow. That helps avoid injury and strain, and also just helps one to tune into their body and "feel" what is going on in there. It gives you the ability to listen to the body's intelligence, and to feel the subtle energies flowing through you, that are hard to feel when you are moving fast.

Also June and I both felt queasy from going too fast and going upside down and maintaining such focus, and it was fun to take a break when we felt a little sick and laugh about it.

We did something that I loved! We did some sounding. All these dfifferent tones, sung out really loud, not to be pretty, but powerful! The three of us with our bold voices resonating together, Awesome! We talked about how important it is to feel free in your voice while in labor, realizing that alot of women have a fear of making too much noise, or wierd noises, or maybe animal noises! This was also wonderful to share.

This night was the first time our class womens group has really met. It was fun, and great to have a way to get close and share of ourselves more personally. We had the idea of doing art, but what happened more was some people brought some of the art that represented that which they were ready to let go of. The theme for this group is

"It is fall and we are like trees. What dead leaves or old thoughts or patterns do we have to let go of? And what is our essence, deep and true or small and new, growing within us? "

So we looked at the art, and did a little meditation, drank oatstraw and skullcap tea, and had a good share. We will meet again.

This was a day of sewing the bodies of the puppets, and really the first day of my personal class lesson.

I went off to a different room with 5 students and I showed them how to do it. It was very fun; we did it by hand, there was one other adult there, which was nice, and we struggled with figuring out the right size of pattern to use. In the end we used the pattern that Rich had made for them taken off of his hand. They had thought it would be way too big, but the ones that they made from their own hands turned out to be way too small. The adult size one worked just fine for all!

These books are so cool, and I'm thankful that I live in a time where alternative recources like these are available to me. In my mother's time there was nothing like this. Alot of the stories in Birthing From Within are about women that had their first births in a hospital, and felt very out of control, because the doctors had all the control. Many of them had Cesarean Sections, and carry fear and anger about that into their next pregnancy.

Hail to those women who have suffered at the hands of the modern medical system!

this is actually only my second time doing birth art, and I began with the theme 'what is my vision of labor?' Very interesting and revealing.

I had planned to show these pictures during my presentation, next class, but WOW! How personal. That's O.K.

The idea behind birth art is that you get to explore your true, (somethimes hidden) feelings, about pregnancy, birth, motherhood, parenthood, whatever. Becacuse many times there are fears that are unaddressed and these fears, if not brought to light can be a hindrance to you.

It is always so amazing what comes out in the picture, usually something that is totally unexpected.

This chapter today was about all the different positions that you can hold a baby in while they pee or poo over a bowl, grass, in the toilet, or in the sink.

Also we covered how to do diaper free style at night so as not to ruin the bed. Hmmm, sounds a bit challenging.