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http://rachyllgyne.tripod.com/thebirthofgreyforestwalt/index.html
http://rachyllgyne.tripod.com/thebirthriteofsamuelrune/index.html |
| Rachel Kellum gave birth outdoors. And she has documented this amazing self-chosen rite, an event during which she was surrounded by strong, beautiful and skillful women, on a website I wanted to include here. This is by way of introducing her and her brave and moving devotion to natural childbirth.
I met Rachel at the Readers and Writers in the Rockies conference last month and was struck by her earthy and loving demeanor. As I've explored her website and browsed her master's thesis providing context for her conscious decisions about how to deliver her two sons, I've been further engaged and absorbed.
It is quite moving to be reminded that women still are encircling each other at the moment of birth and bringing children into the world in an embrace of welcome and love. The images are graphic, but Rachel has set up the site so that if you prefer to read her stories without the photos, you can do so. Personally I find the ritual they document incredibly powerful and significant. |
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| http://nightblindblog.blogspot.com |
| I make my creative writing students write 300 words a day. It's only fair, I should do the same, right? So here's my blog, named "Night Blind," for some mysterious reason. You'll note its author is Macy Swain. This is one of my pseudonyms. When I started the blog a year ago (and then abandoned it until recently), I wanted to be private. Something's shifted in this year: what's to hide? And after the exposure of the novel, I already feel semi-unclothed in public, at most. "Macy" and "Swain" are old, old surnames from my family tree. if you go to a certain graveyard next to a Quaker church out in the middle of nowhere in southeast Indiana, you'll see these names on many tombstones. So in honor of my ancestors (I hope honor is the right word for it), I remain Macy Swain some of the time. |
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