1st Annual Community Mother Blessing

Jun 11, 2015

1st Annual Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of co-hosting the 1st Annual Community Mother Blessing with my lovely friend and fellow doula Kate Varsava.

I had dreamed up the idea of hosting a mother blessing that would be open to the community a little less than a year ago now, when I was newly pregnant with my son.  Having a mother blessing to celebrate my own pregnancy was something I had enjoyed with my daughter, and wanted to share with other women.  I got in touch with Kate, knowing she would be the perfect person to team up with to put on the event, and we began the planning process.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

In our birth culture, as it is currently, pregnancy is usually celebrated by showering a woman with gifts.  So many of us, though, really need and crave a deeper emotional and spiritual connection with those around us as we prepare to journey into birth and motherhood.  Women need a reminder, especially as they navigate the vulnerable territory of pregnancy, that they are a part of a wider, supportive community of women and mothers who understand them and who love them.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

The concept of the Community Mother Blessing was that Kate and I would gather a handful of local doulas and birth professionals who would like to offer a service, completely free of charge, to the women who came to the event.  The response was overwhelming, and our plans quickly began to gel.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

Katharina Reed, of Passionate About Birth, offered a beautiful session on journeying with the labyrinth, where she spoke to the women about the labyrinth as a tool that helps us to explore and understand our journey into motherhood.  

Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.comThe delightful Rena Thomas did belly casting, creating some beautiful memories of the pregnant bodies of three of our attendees.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

Alison Capstick, the talented massage therapist, doula, and newly anointed yoga teacher, offered foot massages.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

Kate offered a prenatal yoga session, enjoyed by many, including a few gorgeous new babies!  She also brought her famous nourishment tea, and helped us decorate the Women’s Council House to the nines!

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.comKatherine Candline, massage therapist and doula extraordinaire, offered more massage in the second hour of the afternoon.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.comAdrienne Kehler of New Birth Doula Services offered a foot bath/scrub station that was a huge hit with all the mamas.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

It’s hard to say whether it was because of Adrienne’s magic hands and loving personality, or because the recipients of the treatment got to wear a flower crown.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

Ashley Ward, birth and postpartum doula, yoga instructor and artist, offered an opportunity for mamas to have their bellies painted.  

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

Amy McAulay of Embrace Doula services offered an infant massage demonstration, which was quite popular with both the mamas-to-be and the brand new babies in the room!

I offered an opportunity for the attendees to participate in a group birth art activity where we painted on a piece of giant silk that hung in one of the doorways.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

 Of course there was a lot of great food…

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

And even more fabulous conversation…

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

We finished the afternoon together by gathering in circle and passing around the silk that each woman had contributed to painting, tearing strips off of it while setting a positive intention for our motherhood journeys.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

Each woman took home a few pieces of the silk that had been decorated and infused with the strength and community that we had nurtured that afternoon.

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

1st Annual Community Mother Blessing | www.nalumana.com

I’ve used the term “1st Annual” to describe the event because there is no doubt, given the success of the afternoon, that we will make the Community Mother Blessing an annual tradition.

Our thanks to everyone who gave their loving care to the attendees, and to all the women who participated.  Slowly but surely, we are changing the conversation around birth.  We are coming together as women, recognizing and claiming our power in birth and in our wider community.  We are supporting one another, asking for what we want, and have a strength that is undeniable.

The Becoming Podcast has been on a short hiatus while I focus on writing my book, but oh what a comeback episode I have for you!

This month, I spoke to Toko-pa Turner, who many of you may know as the unofficial patron saint of many of my circles and gatherings because of the sheer number of times I’ve quoted from the wisdom of her book, Belonging.

Toko-pa is a Canadian author, teacher, and dreamworker. Blending the mystical teachings of Sufism in which she was raised with a Jungian approach to dreams, she founded The Dream School in 2001, from which thousands of students have graduated. She is the author of the award-winning book, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home, which explores the themes of exile and belonging through the lens of dreams, mythology, and nature. This book has resonated for readers worldwide, and has been translated into 10 different languages so far. Her work focuses on the relationship between psyche and nature, and how to follow our inner wisdom to meet with the social, psychological, and ecological challenges of our time.

Here’s some of what Toko-pa and I talk about in this episode:

> The dream that changed Toko-pa’s life, causing her to question her career and, ultimately, her identity

> How we can court our dreams to support us during times of radical transformation – and the reasons so many of us have a hard time remembering and working with what shows up in our dreamscape

> Toko-pa’s perspective on the message of Belonging after the divisiveness our society has experienced in the years since it was published

> What happened for both Toko-pa and I when we fell out of belonging from the ideologies of the “wellness world”

> How to build community when you’re under-resourced

> “The Big Lie” when it comes to belonging, and how we can reclaim a sense of belonging to the greater family of things, as Mary Oliver so famously wrote

Listen to the episode on iTunes

 

Show Notes

Toko-pa’s Website

Belonging:  Remembering Ourselves Home, Toko-pa’s book

The David Abram video about animism mentioned in the interview

Toko-pa’s self-guided program, Dream Drops

Companion, the program that accompanies Belonging

 

Also, while you’re at it, if you enjoy The Becoming Podcast, I would be so grateful if you would rate and review, and even subscribe to it on iTunes.  That goes a long way to helping more and more people find and benefit from hearing these interviews!  Thank you so much!