Science-class at the école vivante:
Observing the metamorphosis from a swimming animal to one who breathes with his lungs – a huge, ongoing and comprehensive learning experience for all of us, subhanallah.
Life is so full of wonders, everywhere.
The Power of Thoughts – on Birth
“You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you’re gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life …work on the mind.
That’s the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that.
Because if you can’t learn to master your thinking, you’re in deep trouble forever.”(from the book “Eat, pray, love” by Elizabeth Gilbert)
Mastering to control my mind and thoughts is a big issue for me these days.
Just as the baby in my womb grows and develops, also my inner thoughts are growing and developing, especially by night:
Sleeping isn’t as easy and comfortable as before and I often wake up. Then I lie in bed and observe my thoughts on wander. They switch from work at school to daily family concerns, from preparing exams to choosing baby-names.
But I much prefer the baby-names-thoughts during night and I really try now to control my mind, to calm down and to relax. I don’t want to allow project-, business- and work-related thoughts to enter our sleeping room any more, disturbing the peace of the night. I want them to stay outside.
I try then to concentrate on preparing myself for a homebirth, thinking about it just as I did four years ago.
I try to work on my inner consciousness, to empower my body again for a natural birth and I also go into communication with baby.
After three blessed homebirth experiences, and especially after the last beautiful unassisted one, alhamdulillah, I am very aware of the fact how much our whole attitude and our thought and beliefs, especially the unconscious ones, can affect the birthing process. So I am consciously working again on a positive thinking:
I know that birth is nothing to fear at all.
It is NOT a potentially dangerous happening and does NOT have to be scary and full of pain at all – because different than any other pain, the natural pain in labour might actually become even ecstatic and normally leads to an end with a very positive result.
Birth is the most natural happening and can become one of the most blessed and empowering experiences in the life of a woman, subhanallah, filling her with grace and brave and with an overwhelming love for the baby, that will blissfully accompany her during the ups and downs of the whole mothering years.
God provided us women with everything we need for birth and such as He made the human race reproduce itself instinctively since millions of years, He also made it possible for us to deliver in natural and instinctive ways: we just need to stay in contact with nature, with our own body and to listen to its actual needs.
Making sure that the birth happens in an environment we feel comfortable and safe in, accompanied by close and familiar people we like, being free to move and to act as we feel, in an atmosphere of privacy, is also a very important fact for a beautiful and successful natural birthing experience.
The existence of modern medicine and technology is surely sometimes a blessing and needed in some cases, but it should never lead us to give up contact with our body, to loose trust in nature or to give up our self-determination.
Because, in the end it is us, the women, and nobody else, who have to push out the baby and to free it towards the world. If we give up that difficult but blessed duty too easily, out of fear or other unnatural reasons, by using modern intervention, unneeded c-section or other pain-preventing medication, we also give up the chance to grow with the birthing experience, we give up the gift to feel the euphoria and we rob ourselves and the baby of the producing of important hormones for the mothering and bonding process.
Remembering all of this can already enable a woman to overcome her deepest fears, to trust in the ability of her own body and can lead to a very positive approach on childbirth, that will help her to experience it as a blessed gift, inchaallah.
That’s what I deeply wish and pray for, for you and for me, for the babies and for all of us.
To deepen your knowledge on natural birth, no matter if at home or in hospital, I highly recommend the books from Ina May Gaskin and Ingeborg Stadelmann.
Happy May and a Quote
One who wants to stay happy has to change often.
Salam aleikoum dear readers and friends.
Thank you so much for the lovely comments on our happy news. I was especially touched by those of you whom I “know” through blogging since years but had no contact since a long time. May Allah bless you all with a beautiful sunny may and lots of positive change.
Love to you and yours! Xxx
to brood over…
We have spring holidays, alhamdulillah, and I had the chance to travel with the children to Marrakech, enjoying some beautiful and warm days in that red pulsing city.
It is always such a treat to be there, staying with our loveliest friends, eating the most delicious food and visiting the most awesome places this city has to offer.
Mostly, when I travel to Marrakech, my visit is not only for fun, but also for work or other reasons. This time I wanted to see the doctor. Not for any health issues, but to check something I brood over since several months, something that was quiet a shock in the beginning, mashaallah, something that needs time to develop, something that needed time to sit down in my mind, something that brings a lot of new changes into our family who was challenged by some difficult troubles over the last years and months, something that asks for new adjustments in my life which is already a busy one:
there is another baby growing inside of me! Subhanallah!
I am very thankful that Allah made pregnancy something to carry out during 40 weeks, alhamdulillah. I really needed these months to get used to the idea of a new life growing in my womb. And still I have several weeks more until due-date, inchallah, which I need to prepare myself and everything to be ready to welcome the new family member.
Allah’s ways are sometimes very surprising, not foreseeable at all, often leading to things we wouldn’t have expected or planned ourselves, but they are always full of wisdom, alhamdulillah, teaching us to trust in Him alone.
Paper making
Last week we made some recycled paper in school.
I saw a nice tutorial in Amanda Blake Soule’s “Rhythm of family”-book and as it was just fitting right with our actual theme of “nature and plants”, we tried it out.
It was kind of a big mess and I am happy we were able to work outside.
But the children loved to mash the pulp, to play with the wet paper pieces and to work the whole process.
Alhamdulillah, some results turned out really nicely and the children were eager to learn about ecology, pollution and greener ways to live; and they were amazed on the fact how easy recycling can work.
Spring Clean
Fresh air floats into the open window, the smell of green grass fills my nose, I am sorting and clearing out long forgotten spaces, the kids bring in flowers; we clean dusty corners and wipe away cob-webs. The birds sing in the garden and the winter clothes are ranged: the house gets beautified just like nature beautifies itself outside, alhamdulillah:
that’s spring, I guess. Subhanallah.
Happy April!
Spring is here!
it is official: spring is here! a happy , blessed season to you!
Change!
Common trash collecting
Be the change you want to see in the world! (Ghandi)
A note on Women’s Day
Yesterday I received from different people greetings of congratulation because of the international women’s day – I have to confess that I didn’t even know that this day is now.
And our neighbour’s son just came to tell me, that they don’t have school today, because of “women’s day” – it brought a silent smile to my lips. Alhamdulillah.
You know, I am not a feminist at all and I do not see myself as a “fighter for women’s rights”. These things just do not appeal to my point of view and I really see no need to call out a single day per year “women’s day”.
It rather makes me sad to realize that still the world sees the need to do so.
I chose to become a Muslimah, alhamdulillah, because in Islam every day should be a women’s day.
In Islam women are considered as gifts from Allah and are always cherished.
If Islam would be properly lived by a society, all women would get the rights and status they deserve.
The pure teachings of Islam and the example of prophet Mohammed (sas) call to treat women with dignity, honour and fairness, yes even with equality in all spheres of life: in basic humanity; concerning religious obligations, rewards and punishments, ownership and financial transactions, regarding honour and nobility, education and social responsibilities.
And in Islam women are especially given high ranks and the best rights in terms of being a mother.
But unfortunately these aims are rarely reached and in most societies (Muslim and non-Muslim societies as well) the man-made culture, old traditions, also modern permissiveness and personal interests refuse women their natural and God given honour and rights, mashallah.
Instead of party a single day per year I would love to call out to all of us to strive together for a more friendly and respectful world towards everybody.
Not by organising sex-strikes, violent revolutions and the call of hate against men, but by living every day at our best, both sexes following God’s orders, being the most caring and loving towards each other and ourselves.
Hugs and peace and bless you, inchallah!
Blossom
If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom
like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society,
will benefit from our peace.Thich Nhat Hanh
Banner inspired by: Elise
