Words of encouragement for those navigating through high seas..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes looking inward is scary when you suspect, where you now stand, is a place you may be standing all alone.  This happens as soon as we announce we are pregnant.. what kind of birth we want.. how we want to care for our children… what we wish to feed them… how we want to educate them… how we prioritize our time and responsibilities, amidst those imposed on us by others.

But I urge us all not to falter.  Our uniqueness is something we must embrace, isn’t it?  And our personal change and growth, something we must stay in tune with, accept with all our heart and soul and then translate to the world, if we really wish to use our gifts to change the world for the better in our little way by living truthfully with ourselves.

Regardless of who may seem for us or against us, we must stay true to who we are and becoming.  Our gifts are by design but only successful in their purpose if we can make sense of them first and share them with others in the best, most honest, honorable and humble way we can.  What are your greatest blessings?  How are you meant to make the world a better place?  Are you hiding from these truths or are they hidden from you because you haven’t taken a moment to really love yourself and honor your maker enough to look?

And even then, not everyone is going to understand or stand by you.  But to get up to begin with, to say, “I am going to stand up and try to walk this walk and remain standing,” even when you feel your knees shake, your chest explode with fear and that you may waiver… that is the true test of the quality of your gifts as a mother, a business woman, a friend, a daughter… and, in the end, your true grit.

This post is for all my fellow women out there who are being tested in more ways than they ever bargained for as moms to be and mothers in the thick of it…  In the seemingly endless situations where there are too many intersections, right and wrong turns looming.. at the crossroads where we find ourselves having to make hard choices… I beg you, please, look inward towards the strengths you have been given.  Pray hard for guidance and discernment.  Recognize and hold on tightly to the support you have been given to surround you – you know who your sisters and brothers are –  stand up and remain standing.  And, when you are afraid, let them hold you, these extra hands your maker has sent you.

Why?  Because you are your child’s greatest hope and example and you don’t want him or her to see you give up when you are unsure and afraid.   You are your partners’ biggest cheerleader and confidante and your child needs to know true and true, that you are both significant and meaningful to one another.  You are your sisters’ or, even unbenownst to you, that stranger’s precious shoulder  to lean on.  And their hope just may be that you live your life truly as you were meant to.  Even of their truths differ from yours.

In this way, you see, the hope of the world is in all of our hands.  Mine.  Yours.  It is in our ability to discern our personal truths so that we know who we are.  It is in our ability to proclaim these truths with humility, with gentleness but to proclaim them all the same.  It is in our decision to stand up or bow down with courage.  It is in our strength to surrender our pride for trust.  Don’t live afraid that you don’t measure up as a Mom, or anything else you are called to be… because our young ones are watching.  And, regardless of your efforts to be this or that at this or that… you are already their superwoman.  You, just as you are.

LITTLEseed™ Program Project Update

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for all your support with our LITTLEseed™ Program Project.

Here is a sneak peek as of 1/31/12!

 

 

My Editorial on “Staying Social During Pregnancy & Beyond” in Expectant Mothers Magazine’s Jan 2012 Issue

Staying Social During Pregnancy and Beyond

In the days of yore, mother, grandmother and aunties watched over you during your pregnancy, labor and childrearing years. This was available to you right in your own home or neighborhood. Your confidence grew from the regular sprinkling of wise-woman advice about what to expect and exactly what you and your baby would need. A community of women cared for you and your baby all the way through.

Though long gone are the days of yore, you can still find that tight knit community of support. You can even hand pick your group and not get stuck with relentless, unwelcome advice giving by family members. More good news is that you can find your support, regardless of whether you work at home or outside the home. Not only are there many opportunities to hand pick your community, you can start as early or late into your pregnancy as you are ready!

Find a prenatal fitness class of your liking. The best classes to take are the ones specifically designed for pregnant women. This is a great way to stay healthy and strong through pregnancy and meet other expectant mothers. There is camaraderie that takes place when pregnant women gather in the same room. Perhaps, women just rock that way.

Exchange phone numbers with someone in your childbirth, Infant CPR, breastfeeding class, while on your hospital tour or strike up a conversation with the pregnant lady in your ob/midwife’s office.  Find out what ways they use to stay comfortable through pregnancy and what kind of support or options they are looking into. Then plan a way to stay in touch for more conversation over dinner and non-alcoholic drinks, or later for baby play dates.

In additional to these prenatal friends, test out the waters for moms groups after you have had your baby.  While the rest of the world may seem to go on a different plane without you, you can still find that much needed community!  You and your baby don’t have to go it alone.

Finding a moms group is a little like the dating game at first. Moms tend to congregate with other similar minded moms. What if you don’t know what kind of mom you are?  This is a great way to find out. Questions naturally arise about breastfeeding, bottle feeding, attachment parenting, schedules, pre/postpartum support, fitness and healthy weight gain/loss for mom and baby, baby safety, allopathic/naturopathic baby care, etc.  It’s a whole new exciting world of discovery!  The answers to these questions and, your gut, will lead you to a group of mommy friends where you truly feel safe to ask questions, exchange ideas and belong.

Once you find your “niche” everything falls a little bit better into place.  So get out there and community shop!  Your very best friends from pregnancy through the early years of child rearing are just waiting to meet you too!

Editorial provided by Michelle Wenis, Organizer of the Greater Danbury Moms Support – Before & After, in CT.

Check out our Moms’ Group http://www.meetup.com/Greater-Danbury-Moms/!

My Ode to Water

I love water.  It is so fantastic.  To drink warm by itself, in a quiet moment with tea and honey or refreshingly cold with a slice of lemon or cucumber.  To get under a hot shower.  To gaze at.  To wade in.  To imagine.  To listen to, as the thirsty dog laps it up or to find shelter from, in a heavy rain.  To wet your feet when you walk through the dew at the right season.  To peek under the ice at you on a nice winter walk.  To overwhelm you when you gaze at its rushing down a trickly or great big waterfall.  To energize, to calm and soothe a laboring woman.  To induce volcanic eruptions of laughter from otherwise bored children on a hot summer’s day.  To re-awaken the sleepy, tired, dedicated woman who cares for her partner, her babies, her children… if only for a moment.  Hmmmmmmmmmm…. water.  And that is my ode to water for the day.  (Did I miss anything?)

I Spent the Night with William Blake and the likes of Jean Paul Sartre… and it was GOOD!

I spent the night starry eyed with William Blake.  I hung onto his every word.  I  flirted and exchanged words with Jean Paul Sartre, as he invited me into his world of La Nausee.  To spend time with these men after all these years, to allow myself just a little taste of some long forgotten poetry… a walk that reminds me of long ones along the Seine years ago by leafing through pages of an old French novel… has it been 20 years already?

I feel gratitude and gratified!  It has been a long journey.  My experience with motherhood has been so mind blowingly powerful and has lead me down so many twists and turns, unexpected and delightful mostly, which have grown me exponentially.  Yet, this other part of who I am, one that often needs to be forgotten in light of having just so much waking hours with her husband, her children…  has been waiting patiently for me to return.

I will admit I have allowed this “wandering away from.”  To forget certain aspects of myself has not been just what my family has needed, wanted or even asked for, but something I have needed to do for a while.  At different times I feel called to be task master of this or that dream, each one in need of my full commitment to come alive.

There is a specific, very particular and immeasurable passion which a woman moves through, upon the birth or her child.  This passion is a purpose and one born of her own death.  It was not just the birth of my babies that transpired, the days they came into the world.  My world ended as I knew it.  I died and then, each time, was reborn.  In certain death, it is understood there are some self denials which must take place.

I still have high hopes that this is the year I will feel my snowboard under my boots again.  I begin to dream again that I will once more taste in person the equal parts of sweaty fear meeting blind courage and the sound of my board interrupting the quiet that is nature taunting me, while setting traps everywhere for my board to catch an edge and slam my head into winded silence.  I am thirsty to fall and get up over and over again and, hence, seal my resilience.

This road of meeting myself again feels familiar and yet distant enough that I am excited to let myself, as my maker would allow it, to continue to lead.  It is not so much that I have pined for these indulgences I have missed… I have been occupied with other aspects of my life and that of those around me.  But I am ready for this.  Now.

What about you?  What part of yourself are you ready to rediscover, familiar or otherwise?  What stops you?  Are you listening?  And if so, would you get on with it already!  Time waits for no one.  Just me.  Just you.  That is, whenever we are ready to start and stop the clock on who we are and who we are meant to be.

Which Line Item Are You? Please Commit & Sign With Love On the Dotted Line…

Prioritizing.  Again.  Always a tough one for me.  Always to serve but to serve whom and in what order?

Hard enough as a woman.  A working inside/outside the home woman.  A working inside/outside the home married woman.  A working inside/outside the home married woman exhausted in her first trimester.  Sometimes through second and definitely through third.  A working inside the home married woman and new mother dreading her first day back to outside-the-home work.  A working inside/outside the home married six week to four month mother with baby trying to survive the separation those first few days, weeks, months as she surrenders her child to someone else’s care or realizes she is really going to give up her career and start this new one all day alone, separated from what she knows as work-outside-the home.  A working inside/outside the home married mother with a toddler getting crazy cardio keeping up with her firecracker of an energy ball, while exhausted from working all day inside/outside the home.  A working inside/outside the home married mother with child off to kindergarten or beginning the homeschool journey with her heart being torn her baby is on the bus or her hair being torn, can she really homeschool this child?  A working inside/outside the home married mother with one to one plus children trying to get her sexy back because she realizes she’s due for some self love and is ready to date the man she is married to again.  She’s ready to feel like a human being that has been exhausted far too long being everything to everyone and mostly, surprisingly, is ready to explore being now everything to herself.

We all know we are our own best friends and worst critics.  But what do we do about that on a moment by moment basis?  Sometimes, taking stock of your breathing is all you can muster but it is just what will do the trick to keep you going.  I wish it were easy enough to take a take a lifelong moment and love everything we are, the perfectly imperfect perfection.  It takes me more than a few reminders.  So, while we’re on the topic, let’s do it now.  And just keep trying through this very day.

Caring for yourself would make your maker happy and proud.  It is encouraging and lifts up those around you.  It helps us walk a little taller to spend the day smiling and living in that peaceful hope that we are going to show ourselves that we too matter.  Cherish, share and give back to yourself the gift that is you.

Is it a cup of coffee?  A nice walk and talk with the hubby?  A day trip all to yourself?  A great read?  It’s glamorous hair and nails?  A quiet time of prayer and reflection?  A journal entry?  A good run?  An uninterrupted phone call?  A super long bath?  A knitting project? Volunteering some of your time?  Romping around like a child without apologies with your children?  A visit to an art gallery?  Baking a delectable new dish?  Going on a shopping spree?  Going to the gym?  Learning how to play an instrument?  Learning a new language?

How do you prioritize?   In your daily planner, have you set some time aside to care for yourself.  If so, is it a distraction or a gift that will help refine you?  (Thank you Brian Mowrey, for the reminder this past Sunday that there is a difference).  For me, it is finding time for prayer and reflection.  I guess I like to know I have someone I can seek out at any time of day without having to call, write or text and juggle into my schedule so we can have quality time, whose focus is solely on me, is interested in what I have to say, do and loves me despite how hard I can be on myself sometimes.  I couldn’t possibly leave that job for my poor husband alone!

And what about you?  What is it that will help nourish and grow you in every way today?  Or, how about just give you that boost, you are doing okay?  Are you willing to throw yourself a line?  How can you take an active part in allowing that self nourishment to happen and to continue?  Sit on it.   Ask for a sign and whatever comes to your heart that is positive and joyful is probably the way to go.  Whatever brings you discouragement, write it down and revisit it by and by.  The right time for that will come to you too.  Yes, it will come to you but you have to make that space to listen for it!  So, pencil yourself in.  Make time to care for the perfectly imperfect perfection that you are.  And spend this day sharing with others the important message of not only loving one another but yourself!

Thoughts on Gratitude & Surrender…

What are you grateful for today? Because this day is almost over and are you sure… you gave yourself every chance you had not to miss it? Gratitude is a beautiful beautiful thing and I wish it upon you and all those whom you love. Let it spread like a wildfire… any other option, is an insult to the life we could choose to live.

Inspiration for the above thoughts…  I went from thinking… this is going to be an IMPOSSIBLE day to…  I GIVE UP!  JUST LET IT HAPPEN!  I ended the day with these peaceful thoughts as a snow came out of the blue to turn the end of this particular day around.

“Today I could do nothing but ask you to help me place the pieces of my day together, into a manageable place. Repeatedly, I couldn’t see how this was possible, as one unplanned event came after another. I ached for a chance for one on one time with the kid who really needed us not to miss that today and I just couldn’t figure out how. Only you could have ended our day so beautifully, with an incredible drive home from BSF through the snow we’ve been waiting for… to Christmas music we still keep singing to.. through overwhelming joy at the sight of the snow covered and leftover Christmas lights.. through as many sled rides down the hill as we could fit into the night before it got too late… even the patient dog got to play stick outside. I am glad you are the architect and that you remind me over and over again, all I have to do is trust. What a gift that is to me and my family, when I accept that gift. Thank you.”

(Not a bad way to look let your labor come as it will, incidentally.  Let go, let go, let go…. the unexpected can turn things around in any direction at any point.  Are you prepared to release your need to control any of it and to remain peaceful, grateful that all will be well?

Want vs. Need List – Prioritizing My Children in a 12 Hour Day

I love mornings.  I look forward to each blank page each day.  I love the temporary amnesia that begins my slow wakefulness.  I find myself completely fortunate, if I have managed to forget what I “coulda, woulda, shoulda” done the day and night before.

The first thing I try do is stop myself dead in my tracks when my lists start to announce themselves and even compete with one another in my head.  Some people meditate.  Some people run downstairs and prepare their first cup of Joe. Some jump into a hot shower.

I try very earnestly to read my bible.  I know.  It’s so old fashioned and who does this these days but this is where I am.  I have a daily guide but, sometimes, if it’s too heavy and I’m not quite getting it (Leviticus is not warm and fuzzy)… I play the game of, “Show me!” and read whatever my fingers land on.  I like to think the big guy upstairs is guiding me.  I like to know that there is a plan for me, despite myself.  I love to believe He has plans for me ultimately, I truly am important to Him and, sometimes, even have a starring role on His day planner.

Well low and behold, after a not so great way one of my guys began his morning, it was revealed to me that what I ask of the guy upstairs each morning is exactly what my little guys need from me.  They get that Mama has household duties, wifely duties, motherly duties, homeschooling teacher duties, works outside the home and so works at the studio and the computer duties, etc… etc.. etc… They get it academically.  They’ve never experienced walking in my shoes, but to the best of their 8 and 5 year old abilities, they get Mama is sometimes a whirlwind through the day.  A tour de force that welcomes them in the fray but, boy this is what is happening and then this and then this.  Do you have your shoes on?  Great, because we are in the car and your lunch box is next to your car seat.  Did you choose a good dvd to watch while I teach?

I appreciate that.  I appreciate their cooperation and understanding of our lifestyle and our responsibilities as a family to make that work, overall, so much.  There are mornings they remind me of the Von Trapp family children, that is before the lovely Maria came.  I never do use a whistle… I may sometimes use a bell…  They know Mama can’t always put them first in everything she has to do through the day.  Academically to the best of their 8 and 5 year old abilities, they get it.

What I have been failing to get is why I seem to have this sinking feeling of… when’s theirs today?  It’s like a tiny guilt creeping in here and there when I’m washing the dishes or putting their homeschool stuff away.  We got through all the work book pages we needed to get through; I was with them through it all.  I’m now going as fast as I can between chores and so that I can get back to spending time with them – REALLY spending time with them – and I have every intention of sitting down with them, just as soon as I get that load in the laundry… oh, nuts, is it snack time yet?   Soon it will be time to leave to teach a class and I’ll have to pack a lunch, some snacks just in case, and maybe a light dinner, just in case.  Maybe we can all do some of it together so we’re at least in the same room.  And then… all of a sudden it’s tomorrow.

That’s not guilt this Mama has been feeling born of women just always having guilt.  No, all this questioning and uneasiness that can make it’s way into my otherwise accepting mind frame of “this is what it is” is actually my wise intuition nudging at me saying… “Listen, Sweetheart, you are a doll to try and get this all done in the best way you can but… there’s something you’re missing.  Can you feel it?  It’s something… Keep your mouth closed, your ears open and your eyes peeled.  It’s coming to you now…”

Well guess what!  Today was the day to get this lesson indeed!  Happiest of days!

After a delightful pajama breakfast play date (the best kind among your closest friends – I invite you to try it if you never have), we had a little one of those Mama revelation talks in the car on the way home.  ”Troops!  Mom, gets it, this new thing!  Now, I’m going to run this by you and you’re going to give me your input (while I cross my fingers you buy into this too) and we’re going to do it and get it done and life will be even better!”

The conversation went very well!  Much better than I planned and they were thrilled!  We barely walked through the door, removed our shoes, jackets, etc… when we headed up the stairs with papers, pencils and proceeded to work on our lists:

“Mom’s Want List”

“Mom’s Need List”

“Nico’s Want List”

“Nico’s Need List”

“Cole’s Want List”

“Cole’s Need List”

The first on each of our “Need List”, after having discussed and agreed upon this so very enthusiastically in the car was “30 minutes alone time with Mom” or, in my case, “30 minutes alone time with Cole”… “with Nico”.  I got this idea from Michelle Gollino – a brilliant, successful, multi-tasking mother, friend, entrepreneur, etc…  I heard her do something similar a few weeks back but the pieces didn’t line up for me and our life until today.  I guess today I was ready.

On another note, there were other not so exciting things on my list like, “purchase Bradley Method books, prep lasagna, put lasagna in oven.”  That is of no consequence.  What I loved about this lesson was that I was trusted and allowed by my children, without protest or hesitation, to balance out my afternoon – before teaching again – in the way I needed to and wanted to because I carved out 30 minutes of my day each for each child, while the other child kept busy doing something of his own choosing.  They appreciated it equally.

Listen, I am one of the luckiest women I know because I can and enjoy having my children with me as much as I do.  Let’s face it, however, how much of that time is really sit down and be together time when I feel, like most parents, the everyday pressures of managing whatever is on our plates?  I think most of you know the disappointment, whether with your children or your spouse, your friends, etc… of being together, without being together because you just don’t always know how the pieces can fit together.

This is not to feel ingratitude for the times we are still in the same room but aren’t one on one face to face.  However, why must I wait a whole week or month to date each child when I can do it each day?  I know.  Before this, I couldn’t even imagine squeezing out another minute in my day.

Well, now I see it like “tithing”.  You reserve the 10% and do what you can with the rest as you need and see fit.  I learned quickly after finally committing to tithe that you don’t even miss that 10% and, you just can’t wait to gift it because it is the most precious amount that you make.

Thirty minutes seems like a minute amount of time when you look at a 12 hour day.  But it’s focused, I love you, I have eyes for you alone time we didn’t have before except on the occasional moments Erich and I have pulled together to take each have a date with each of our children.  As we have to with each other, it’s the same concept, prioritizing the person in your life and carving out special one on one time together daily.

Did the rest of the day end with a perfectly happily ever after?  Not exactly.  My  overdue 15 minutes of “throw the ball outside for the dog” maxed out at “3 minutes”.  I didn’t get the extra “1 hour of Mama & kids time” I wanted.  I didn’t get to place the add in that magazine that I had on my “Need” list… I am certain there were some items on Nico’s list he wishes he could have done as well.

But we gave each other the 30 minutes each child and this mother needed with each child and this mother.  Some days it will feel like finding 30 minutes in a day is much too difficult but this challenge is just an opportunity to juggle things around to prioritize that time somehow.  We placed each other first in the most determined of ways.  We don’t have to wait until tomorrow because we made time today.

And I can’t wait for sleep to come, to erase today’s “Want” & “Need” list from my brain from this day.  I just can’t wait.  I’ll meet with the guy upstairs again before I shut my eyes and thank the good fellow for allowing me and my children to be part of the planning in some way, where we were able to place our time each other front and center.  Never mind that the end of the day came all too quickly again for us.  What’s new?  This isn’t meant to be Paradise, just life.

I love how He blinds me from a list that is sometimes made out of concern, discomfort, and yes, sometimes, even fear.  I made a list with the people most important to me that involved them in the most important part of the planning and put our individual time together front and center.

It is a beautiful thing to learn this.  And tomorrow… we are just going to have the best time coming up with those brand new lists.  And I won’t mind it at all if Cole’s lists are itemized again as follows:

Want:  read with Mom and cuddle

Need: nothing.

Co-sleeping Bliss…

It is eight years later since our first child was born.  I still revel in the absolute bliss and peacefulness the fortunate mornings we wake up in a tangled mess between our 8 and 5 year old boys.  Their beautiful faces are as serene as when they were just babies in our arms and in our bed.  If you are a parent, you know what it is like to be able to spend hours just watching them breathe.

Erich and I did not deliberately go into parenting deciding we would co-sleep.  Like many parenting choices, this one too had to unfold.  Our first born nursed for ten minutes and napped for 20.  Bringing him into the bed so I could lift him over to nurse from side to side just made sense for the sake of our survival.  While Erich was perfectly willing to get up, warm up my pumped milk and feed Nico, my breasts just begged everyone to feed the little guy and much more quickly.  The hormones mother nature supplied to calm and ease me while breastfeeding were always welcome as well.

The sleep between feedings was protective and hazy, never the deep sleep I might have dreamed of, those early years of parenting.  I was instinctively conscious of my body positioning, my arms protecting my babies to me, my pointy elbows and knees facing the threat of Erich’s bigger body.  That sleep, while hazy, was replenishing enough and kept me focused on my child throughout those nights.

Waking up to them breathing in my arms, relying completely on me in that way, was so encouraging and assuring that I was all they needed, trusting in me fully, and that I was doing right by them.  I was always aware of some other well meaning folks’ concerns that I might be “starting bad habits.”  You are always aware of the endless possibilities of what you can do wrong when you are a new parent.  When you have been at it a little longer, you are lucky to accept you just aren’t going to do the right thing all the time.  ”I am doing my best”, is so far the most constructive place I have found, when assessing my growth.

Nico was given his own bed and room at three but we always had a “door’s open” policy in our home.  He took to that rule quite naturally.  He had options and his option, most often than not, was to be with the rest of the “pack”.  It’s just the norm in this house and still is.  Even the dog likes to sleep in our room.  Why not?  The crib never did get assembled for either boy…

You are never too old to come into Mom and Dad’s bed, if ever there is a need.  No questions.  It does not make you a baby.  You feel what you feel and we’re here to accept that and offer you whatever refuge you need.  Maybe it’s a hug.  Maybe it’s a conversation.  Maybe you need to just jump into the bed.

Nico has begun to question Cole’s unapologetic need to occasionally co-sleep in the middle of the night and we are good to remind them both that Nico was five once and was always welcome himself.  I’m sure part of this new place Nico looks at things from is just natural growth and maturity on his part.  He doesn’t always remember he’s in that place and joins us all too happily himself, fighting over this side of Mom’s body or Dad’s body.  It’s good for them both to know there’s a place for them everywhere.

I will certainly miss when they one day completely grow out of all of this.  There has never been a long term experience I have known such as co-sleeping which  has brought so much happiness and trust within our family.  I am not a big wrestler and boys, even big ones, need touch.  When they are too big for hugs and kisses during the day, squirming away more than not, they can still get their needs met in this way when they need  it.  As for me?  I feel I could do this forever!  Of course, that will change too.  Nature works to grow all of us.  Even breastfeeding, while extended, had to end.

Thank you Nico, for being such a nurser and needy baby from the start to remind me that meeting those needs of yours, though not always easy and sometimes seemingly endless, made me more of a mother than I ever could have imagined I could be.  Thank you for being “colicky” and always needing to not only be held but rocked and held.  This is easier said now than back then.  But that’s how these things roll.  Each place in time ends in turn and we can look back from a different place.

Each time I was able to sooth my babies’ needs, however long it took, however impossible it seemed, it happened and they both grew me and my confidence in myself as their ultimate, knowledgeable caregiver.  Though they are now sometimes embarrassed when I put my arm around them in public, or at least hesitant, there is a bond deeper than words and actions they have graced my life with forever which remains.  I am so glad c0-sleeping with Mom and Dad, and since then, with each other, is all they have ever known, no questions.  I love that Nico and Cole both find so much joy and comfort in “coming home” to Mama and Dad’s abode still, and yet know they have a nest of their own in their own space.

We are separate in this family but we are a whole.  When we are apart we can be our individual selves and know we can recharge by coming back together through the day and sometimes at night.  Thank you blissful blissful co-sleeping for the many years of magical memories that have helped me start my mornings with the warmest of fuzzies that radiate out of my chest like sweet sunshine.  I awake to arms around me, little hands cupping my face, and heads tucked into my wings.  Co-sleeping has been a “bad habit” we’ve treasured all these years, and I am so happy these boys have come to know, wherever they need to lay their heads at night, they are welcome and home.

2011 Reflections

Hello everyone,

2011 is nearly another chapter in our past.  I sit here in awe of all the growth this year has brought to me personally and to so many of you who did not imagine you would be where you are today.

Motherhood surprises us.  It fuels all kinds of changes we never would have dreamed we could manage and, yet, we find ourselves launched in completely new directions or even more focused on our original goals.

I know many of you are in the middle of deep contemplation over where you are today.  You are about to make incredible changes that you would not have even imagined months ago.  I am so proud of you!  Hold fast to those dreams!  If it’s in the plan, you are going to get there with hope and prayers, no matter how the road ahead looks from where you stand today.

Remember one of my favorite quotes:

“..I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  Matthew 17:20b

Thank you so much for being part of the GWYC transformation and family.  You, your babies, the snippets of your precious lives you share with me are an incredible source of continued inspiration.

There are a couple of FIRSTS worth mentioning for GWYC this year:

~ Thank you so much to Steve McLeod who helped pen my vision of GWYC’s Logo!  You can find Steve on FB http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1209057581&ref=ts.

~ The launch of the www.greenwomanyc.wordpress.com blog and our newsletter!

~  The end of “Green Woman Yoga & Childbirth, LLC” and the birth of “Green Woman & Your Childbirth, LLC”.  Our classes have more to do with you, your childbirth and life beyond that great journey than with the ancient Hindu philosophy of yoga.  I am grateful for my certification to teach yoga, and the stretches and exercises I offer you are certainly influenced by some of the wonderful physical postures of this practice.  They are also, moreover,  influenced by comfort measures, tools, birthing postures, and, my other love, the art of preparing you for as close of a natural childbirth as you can manage.  This is about finding a peaceful connection with where you are physically, mentally and emotionally in your pregnancy.  This is also about the love story between you and your baby and your paving a clear path for that closeness and bonding to continue throughout and well after your pregnancy.

~  The creation of the LITTLEseed™ Program which has evolved from GWYC’s  prenatal, childbirth & baby and me yoga classes to an entirely unique program that encompasses mothers, prenatal couples programs and singing & dancing with pre-crawlers, crawlers and toddlers!

Some projects which were sparked this year truly by no other hand than God’s (You’d believe me if I told you the story – hint:  If you’re a happy baby!… Sailing to the North!…) continue to shake and move me as I meet them face to face, one step at a time.

I look forward to sharing so much more with you in due time in 2012!  I also can’t wait for new inspiration and ideas that are just around the bend, waiting for me and for you and your families!

Please, take this time to truly realize my gratitude to you.

Much love, peace and hope for the coming year!

Michelle Wenis