BLF Reviews: Landscape with Headless Mama
12/9/2018Jennifer Givhan’s debut collection of poems, Landscape with Headless Mama kicks off with lines in the vein of “I was a grave/digger then. A rat fleeing ship. Mama,/who hadn’t sung to me since I was a baby &/never would again, was the lynchpin—/I’m still turning & turning the screw” and continues to mine the vein of family and the longing for it, the relational dynamics of motherhood and daughterhood, markers and destroyers of identity, all layered around its central theme of fertility/infertility. Givhan addresses these themes with an unflinching eye and a brave language. This material is ripe for cliché Read More
Shooo Eeee Breath
11/12/2018 Here's a simple idea for when you feel anxiousness and stress building in yourself or see it building in your little one. Sometimes we don't even realize we're a ball of stress, so this practice is great to use on a regular basis, to soothe, calm and ground ourselves, even when we may not think we need it. I've used this breath for myself A LOT - and I've taught it to my boys - who have found it helpful when they are upset, have hurt themselves or feel sick with a stomach ache or headache. If your babe Read More
A Midwife Assistant’s Journey as a Dog Midwife
11/2/2018We’re not your average dog owners.Our six-year-old white German Shepherd mix is cared for by a rotating group of people: me, my fiancé Nicholas and his first girlfriend Savanah, with whom he got Akira five years ago.Akira loves her many parents and we’ve been there for all the parts of her journey into motherhood. Savanah and Nicholas have always wanted Akira to have puppies, as they imagined (rightly so) that she would make a noble alpha dog matriarch. Over the years, however, finding the right mate, and the right mate at the right timing, had not proven easy. This past Read More
Birth Story Telling with Katie Schmidlen
10/23/2018“Birth is about crossing over the bridge of what we can imagine about ourselves and our lives, it is about letting go of the constructs we believe to be true and opening ourselves up to what is given to us. It is about becoming a child again, about seeing with fresh eyes and being accepting and open to everything, meeting it with curiosity rather then judgment and fear. For me this meant some of my walls being broken down, which was truly painful but like any real growth experience, the best thing that ever happened for me. Vivian means “life” Read More
