Wow! I am just gobsmacked by all the super positive feedback I've been receiving about my posts. I really appreciate all of you who have taken the time to comment, share your stories, and ask me questions.
My intention to blog was to put feelers out there to see what kinds of subjects would spark some discussions or move people's hearts. As I've mentioned, I am actively writing my book Choosing Wisely: A Doula's Guide to a Happy Birth Day. People have been encouraging me to do this for years, and now that blogging has become habit (and a very happy one, indeed), so has chapter writing. Blogging has helped me identify what tone to use, and what makes women respond. I have spent many years gathering information, knowledge, and experience around birth. My doula work is my form of activism. Writing is my tool to express what I've learned. I have chosen to submerge myself fully into the field of the nitty gritty work of the doula (I just had a lady say while I was leaving her home after our postpartum visit, "oh, Lesley, by the way...thanks for spending all that time cleaning my poo off the bed"...cleaning poo being an act of love too). I've observed and helped with the pain and ecstasy of the experience, witnessing the very best and the very worst of what birth attendants and hospitals have to offer for women and babies. I have become full to bursting with stories and ideas.
It has taken me a long time to sit with stuff, developing discernment and good judgement about what to keep and what to let go of, and am finally discovering the right words to bring to the people for teaching, growing, and healing. Word Medicine is a powerful tool, and finding the right voice to communicate with is essential. I'm a Virgo, my planet being Mercury, which means, if you put any credence into it, I gravitate towards service and communication. I've always wanted to write about my doula work, but didn't want to do so yet only after a couple years of practice, or without a clear vision of what I'm doing and where I'm going with my work. My path and my vision become clearer as I go along, and I hope that clarity creates a strength to my voice. I'm the type who didn't even think about teaching doula work until I had been practising for nearly 10 years. I didn't want to write a book that was a rehash of the many great and wise voices already out there. I wanted to have something to contribute, based on things I had SEEN and DONE, not just on what I had studied. I think now I've seen and done a fair bit, and feel okay about putting it out there.
All of your feedback makes me feel a little more secure about putting myself out there. Part of me is always worried someone is going to say, "You windbag! Who are you to talk about this stuff? What do you know?" But as time goes by, I see that I am a windbag, it is true. I AM nobody to talk about this stuff, and the more I learn the more I know I don't know nothin'. So why the hell not take the plunge and write anyway? May as well. There is room for my voice, as there is for everyone's.
Have a wonderful weekend, and thank you, thank you, thank you.
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