Baby Mumma

Before I give birth

~ Mumsgoneclimbing ~ Leave a comment

It is safe to say a lot of mum’s to be will experience the most wonderful phenomenon that pregnancy creates. Turning you into a giant worm hole at the centre of the universe. Sucking up peoples interest, love and well wishes. It truly gives you a massive boost in self importance, leading to slightly unrealistic idea’s about exactly how awesome you and your morphing body are.

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This phenomenon coupled with my good pregnancy has equalled one blessed time. But alas the end is near, and I will attest not too soon as my body is getting just a little crammed for space. With our due date approaching faster then a speeding train I must be honest and admit I have moments of pure anxiety at the thought of giving birth. We have prepared mentally, physically and emotionally with research, yoga, hypnobirthing, acupuncture and building a dream team of support. It still remains that this life changing event brings so much uncertainty and is shrouded in scary sentiment like “the worst pain you will ever feel”. You hear so many horror stories about 20 hour labours and emergency cesareans, I have to wonder despite the preparation will this day become my worst nightmare.

So it is with trepidation that I walk half boldly toward this day. The comforting factor being that it will be at most two days, which lets face it is minuscule in the scheme of life, and that so many wonderful women have gone before me into this journey emerging filled with love and triumph. I wonder if everyone feels this mix of emotions? I also wonder how I will feel when I too, are on the other side.

blessed with all of YOU

~ Mumsgoneclimbing ~ Leave a comment

There has been a little longer gap then I would have liked between my musings, but one must be inspired after all. When I was losing hope a beautiful thing happened…my baby shower.

To be honest the morning was a bit of an overwhelming blur for me. Like a beautiful, delicious, love filled, smiled filled, emotion filled, fantastic blur. Lace and gloves coupled with dainty tea cups sipped by smiling faces of people I adore.
So what exactly inspired me? Well all of YOU.
IMG_0650We now have a beautiful memento to carry with us and I have to thank you all. Joey’s suggestion to express the meaning of each bead and the blessings you had for our soon to arrive baby out loud for all to hear even made me nervous. Not often do we share a part of ourselves and express our love so openly. But I can honestly say that this will stay with me, not only through pregnancy and birth, but through my life, as a truly special moment in time.
It reminded me how extraordinarily blessed I am to have met such wonderful people and formed such beautiful connections. I feel so much support around our growing little family. From those we have known our whole lives to newer friendships still blossoming. I have always loved the idea of creating a network of support through inspiring, enthusiastic people, a real community for life.
We have that now, and I can not be happier to be bringing a baby into this fantastically fun, zany, supportive, open and super love filled mega extended family. So thank you, for letting your guard down and sharing yourself, it meant the whole wide world to me….and no doubt to baby Gowie who got mega loving vibes travelling through the belly.
p.s to any one else who would like to contribute a bead or a message please feel free, there is no cap on good vibes

Go to the wilderness and find some P’u

~ Mumsgoneclimbing ~ Leave a comment

It is a term I have borrowed from Susan Cain (more about her soon) but it has been at the centre of my own thoughts for a few weeks now. Go to the wilderness.

This semester my educational enlightenment is via the course Introduction to Environmental Management. Although this encompasses many fantastic tidbits of information (eg. if you stand on the equator the rotation of the earth means your moving at 16,000km per hour!!) we have been focusing quite a lot on environmental values. Maybe it is obvious that we are no longer living interwoven with nature and are therefore greatly unaware of our total dependency on natural resources. But what beliefs and values are driving us to destroy so much? Where do you sit in the scheme of things? Are you Anthropocentic seeing humans as the most important and valuable species? Are you Biocentric, believing nature and other organisms have just as much intrinsic value as humans? Do you believe technology will be able to rescue us from our environmental problems, are you a techno-optimist? Or maybe your more of a greenie and believe without major changes in lifestyle its a downward spiral to an apocalypse?

I consider myself as a Biocentric Techno-optimist Greenie. But hey its just a label and its all pretty complicated underneath. The element I believe our society is missing when it comes to connecting with nature is an understanding of value.

Two weeks ago I sat on a headland in Yuraygir National Park NSW and took a breath of natural wonder. Many of my good friends will attest to how insanely beautiful and rugged this place is. Deep red soil, cliffs of intricate rock formations, crashing salty waves, open shrub lands with limbs reaching away from the coastal winds. Its a place that grounds me, like many other natural places I have had the privilege to experience. Soon I will be a mum and as I sat there my soul warmed at the thought of sharing this place with my child. A place thats value can not be solely measured by science and economics, instead it has a “spiritual” value that is so hard to explain with the language we use.

My beautiful yoga teacher Georgie recently shared a great TED talk with the facebook community called The Power of Introverts. Susan Cain tells an amusing story of life as an introvert, and points out  in our society of big personalities half the population is being suppressed. She also challenges everyone to GO TO THE WILDERNESS. Be a sage, a seeker, a contemplator. Like we have done for many thousands of years go into the wild and take some solitude with nature. It is here that many great thinkers have been enlightened.

So in the way that I like to do I have taken all these bits of my life and linked them back to a greater meaning. In Taoism there is a manner of being called the Uncarved Block know also as P’u (pronounced Pooh with emphasis on the oo). The chinese character P’u is defined as natural, simple, plain, honest. To understand this more and be tickled pink with a fantastic read please please please pick up a copy of Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh. In the mean time I will steal Benjamin’s words ” The essence of the principle of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity hold their own natural power.”

My revelation is that in our extremely complicated world of human creation and human problems maybe the simplicity of nature holds a power to clear our minds and enlighten our thinking. I love the added punch of meaning this adds to days walking in the bush, or surfing in the ocean, or sitting in a tree.  It is this value of nature that I so want to pass on to my children, so they know, when everything seems too much and the world seems to be caving in around them, they can go to the wilderness and find some P’u.