The Pot Plant Analogy

I wrote my birth story up for another website last week, and when I posted a link to it on Facebook, it prompted a very interesting discussion in the comments.

It seems I’m not the only person who has been told not to ‘complain’ about a difficult birth experience, because I ‘ended up with a healthy baby and that’s all that matters’.

An old university friend, Marina, wrote an absolutely brilliant analogy about how it feels, and why we need to take birth trauma seriously, and she has given me permission to post it here. Continue reading →

Not another post about books…

Gift from the Sea Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Buying books is an optimistic thing to do, isn’t it?

It means you believe there is someone out there who can say what you’re feeling better than you can say it yourself… because the best moment in a book is a moment of recognition.

Or is it? Maybe the best moment in a book is discovering something right at the edge of your vision, a little beyond what you know. Something that makes you stop and say, “Oh wow. Yes. That.”
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Gratitude

I’ve wanted to write a post about my Mum – DorkyGranny – for months. I tried to write one for Mother’s Day, but it didn’t quite come together. I have heard it said before that stories become easier to tell the more often you tell them, and I’m realising that to be true. I’ve had to tell the ‘story’ of DorkyDad and me so often that I’m now completely comfortable with it, and it flows very easily. I have a fairly set vocabulary and phrases that I will always use when telling people about my marriage, but I haven’t yet found the language that feels right for talking about Mum. She is staying with us this week though, so it seemed like as good a time as any to try again.

The word that first comes to mind when I think about my Mum is gratitude.
Continue reading →