Womanhood, Breast Feeding & Loving Cyber Circles

I am quite taken aback this evening by just how wonderful we women are. 

I've heard many tell stories of how villagers in days gone by, would rally around and help out new mums or if someone in the street was in hospital, they'd help look after the children but we think of this close knit woman circle as a thing of the past. It is not.

Tonight, a young woman inboxed me on facebook. She had just come out of hospital having undergone life saving surgery but now she was home, she was too exhausted to breast feed her baby. She asked me if I knew anyone that might be able to help with breast milk or with helping out around the house until she felt a bit better.

I left a call out message on my facebook wall. 

Literally within seconds, women started to respond with offers of breast milk that they had frozen, offers to help out around the house, offers of information, support, a listening ear.

Women from all over West and South West Wales, even South Wales, all sharing the post to friends that they knew who lived near the woman. 

Within half an hour, we had created a nest, a loving cyber circle. And to my mind, that is a very beautiful thing indeed. She now has help and knows that we care.

People criticise facebook, but my feeling is this, like with anything, it is how you use it that makes the difference between it being a beautiful way of loving each other, or something entirely different.

Discourse as a Powerful Healer

The discourse of health is such a powerfully healing tool. The words we use to describe ourselves, tell our cells a story. Realising this, was a turning point for me. I began to unpick the ways in which I described my health. Just by changing the sentence, 'I am unwell' to 'I am healing' felt like such a shift in energy, almost stepping into the light.

And now, that I truly am healing, I have stepped into another shift in language.

'I can't work doing what I do anymore' has been changed to 'I will find a way to apply all my creativity & skills to design a new exciting, innovative & inspiring business that is loving to my new hearing disabilities.'

To that end, behind the scenes I am busy building a new business, tailored exactly around my needs

This has given me confidence to try new ways of recording my songs. I didn't think I would ever be back in the studio, but we're just doing an hour at a time at the moment. This is our 5th night and it seems to be going quite well ... ebb and flow. There were a lot of tears the first night and not so many last night ... so that's a good sign.

I have decided to do with my songs exactly as I have done with my poems and stories. I am letting them flow. No rules, no structure, just as I would sing them to heal myself, so I am singing them for the recording. It's causing a few technical problems (won't bore you with them) but none that can't be overcome with some new kit. 

So, between building a new website, finishing 2 new books, planning the video shoots and recording the CD, I have a real sense of drive and vision which feels great, is part of who I am and has given me the opportunity to really step into being the compassionate creative that I am.

Meanwhile, I will leave with a track from my back catalogue called Heaven Scent ... recorded as a fund raiser for a Breast Cancer Awareness. It features Heather Jones on Angel backing vocals, Kate Strudwick on flute, Linda Simmonds on Drum and mandolin, Ruth Exell on Harp and me on guitar, vocals & backing vocals, with the lovely Jeff Beer engineering ...

the humble offering

As the first week of my writer's lock in comes to a close, I am so much closer to finishing my humble offering. I can honestly say that it has been a roller coaster. 

I have been working on 'my new book' ever since I woke up deaf 18 months ago. At first, it was written as part of my own healing practice but a series of epiphanies have led me to understand that in sharing my story, I can help others.

To that end, 'my book' has grown into two books, a CD and a Video Course, all now drafted or half written. So, I made a commitment and set an intention to 'finishing' and have locked myself up for two weeks to focus fully on writing, filming and recording.

This week I have finished the draft of the new website, and finished both books, all the graphic design, the covers, everything. 

Tomorrow, I begin rehearsing for the CD. I have been experimenting with instruments that are friendly towards my hearing conditions in keys that I can tolerate and I will trust that the rest will follow. I am recording all the songs and mantra that have flowed through me during my healing practice, so that others might heal with them too.

It sounds like a lot of work, and truly , it is, but it is my calling from my soul to craft this humble offering ...

Meanwhile, I will leave you with a track from my 'apples in the rain' CD ...  

A Lifetime of Nursing

I had a lovely email today from Kathy, a retired nurse who attended one of my Parc Howard Museum Creative Writing Workshops at the weekend. 

She sent me a poem that she had written some time back, whilst she was still nursing. I have made it into a Poetry Poster for her and asked her if I could share it with you.

In her email she talks in a very moving way about the last rites that she performed for people and how she felt so privileged in being able to do this for them. It really moved me. She spent her whole life nursing others as they became old and now she is an older person herself.

I have said that I think she should write a book of all her stories.