Written for mothers seeking to fulfill their soul’s work while simultaneously raising future generations, Sacred Motherhood offers women on the path of motherhood a guide back to themselves. It will help you embrace the reality that this is your spiritual life—every moment of every day, whether you are at the grocery store, changing diapers, arguing with your partner, snuggling with your baby, or dyeing your teenager’s hair pink. Greet the moments when you fall down as awakening opportunities, every bit as holy and powerful as the moments you can drop in and bliss out. Spanning the sacred and the mundane, Sacred Motherhood is both a guide and a journal, enticing you to pause momentarily to reflect and write, and then return to your mothering tasks armed with a fresh perspective, renewed vision, practical tips, and creative ideas for enriching family life. For fifty-two weeks—a year of sacred motherhood—the chapters illuminate subjects that are likely to arise as the mothering journey unfolds, and present thoughtful prompts and helpful reminders relating to you, your soul, and your child.
Written for mothers seeking to fulfill their soul’s work while simultaneously raising future generations, Sacred Motherhood offers women on the path of motherhood a guide back to themselves. It will help you embrace the reality that this is your spiritual life—every moment of every day, whether you are at the grocery store, changing diapers, arguing with your partner, snuggling with your baby, or dyeing your teenager’s hair pink. Greet the moments when you fall down as awakening opportunities, every bit as holy and powerful as the moments you can drop in and bliss out. Spanning the sacred and the mundane, Sacred Motherhood is both a guide and a journal, enticing you to pause momentarily to reflect and write, and then return to your mothering tasks armed with a fresh perspective, renewed vision, practical tips, and creative ideas for enriching family life. For fifty-two weeks—a year of sacred motherhood—the chapters illuminate subjects that are likely to arise as the mothering journey unfolds, and present thoughtful prompts and helpful reminders relating to you, your soul, and your child.
In today's western cultures, the typical pregnancy focuses on the baby to the exclusion of the woman herself, so that the entire experience has become more about preparing for the baby's arrival than looking closely at oneself to prepare emotionally for all of the changes that creating a new life brings. Sacred Pregnancy was written to help the pregnant woman journey within herself to prepare for the birth of her baby. Sacred Pregnancy is a gorgeous four-color book especially created for mothers-to-be to reflect on the many personal milestones of the full gestation period of a pregnancy. With beautiful professional photos that correspond to each topic, Sacred Pregnancy also features a journal space for the pregnant woman to record her thoughts and feelings. Each week the mother-to-be is given information on her baby, her body, and her spirit and is asked to reflect on these via the topic of the week, which touches on a variety of issues such as sexuality, fears about labor, becoming a mother, courage, rite of passage, adornment, body image, meditation, and sisterhood to name a few. Mothers-to-be are invited to look deeply at the issues unique to their journey and find a centered, peaceful place to live their pregnancy fully. Lastly, Sacred Pregnancy includes place for the new mother to record her birth story and a large resource section on various birthing options and supports for pregnant women. “From the spiritual (how to visualize your perfect birth) to the practical (a large section on birthing options), this pregnancy journal is a spiritual adviser and supportive doula all in one.” —Fit Pregnancy magazine For more information, visit the Sacred Pregnancy website.
If you're like me, the exhaustion that is often part of being a mom cannot be over emphasized because fatigue is your everyday reality to one degree or another. You know that financially, mentally, and physically, motherhood is hard, and yet you wonder how you can still get up and discharge your motherly duties when you are physically and mentally spent. The motherhood struggle is real. However, every mother knows very well that there's much more to this thing called motherhood than the hard parts. I call it Motherhood Joy. However, we are often so exhausted that we sometimes stop feeling it. This struggle is what started the searching that led to this book. In these pages, I address this dilemma, and ask these all-important questions: How can I make this joy my consistent reality? How can I bask and revel in my motherhood joy as I continue to embark on my motherhoodjourney? Motherhood, a Sacred Ministry (Basking in the Joy of Motherhood) is an account of God's unending, unwavering, and undying love for us. You will find your own journey in mine, as well as your own strength, joy, and faith. This will lead you to a greater awareness and appreciation of the soundness of your motherhood journey while, most importantly, bringing you closer to Christ. The truth of the living words in the pages of this book will breathe life into your fatigued "mom bod" as you continue to run the race of your motherhood ministry.
Weaving archival records, ancient maps and narratives, and the wisdom of the elders, Roberto Cintli Rodriguez offers compelling evidence that maíz is the historical connector between Indigenous peoples of this continent. Rodriguez brings together the wisdom of scholars and elders to show how maíz/corn connects the peoples of the Americas.
Julie Jensen used to believe that mothering meant being on task--making homemade cupcakes for school birthday parties, chauffeuring her kids to all of their various activities, and so on. But as her Multiple Sclerosis progressed, she was no longer physically able to keep up, and she watched one role after another slip away. It forced her to look inside: Was her value just her physical body and her ability to do and be productive? Julie soon realized that these activities were far less important than she ever imagined and that the true source of her power came from within. Her children simply needed to be close to her to feel connected. Far too much emphasis is placed on doing and not enough on being. A mother's real purpose is to endow her children with a deep understanding of connection, love, self-esteem, and compassion while reinforcing the importance of human values. In her heartfelt, encouraging book, Julie shares the lessons she has learned about fostering self-reliance, taking it slow, cultivating radiance, adopting an attitude of gratitude, and being mindful.
Where are you in the motherhood journey? Are you a new mom struggling to redefine the boundaries of your life among a sea of diapers, feedings, and sleepless nights? Have you been a mom so long that you’ve lost yourself along the way? Are you trying to decide if you want to have children? Erin Davis was a young Christian wife who had made the decision to not have children. She had multiple degrees, a great husband, a promising career—she had it all, according to cultural standards. But most days she felt anything but fulfilled. In Beyond Bath Time Erin shares her journey to in responding to the call of motherhood. Women will be challenged, convicted, and wonderfully encouraged by Erin's honest and provocative look at motherhood. She unfolds the purpose and privileges of motherhood, revealing how it can be a powerful force for God’s kingdom, helping you: Discover God’s heart on the issue of motherhood See past the endless list of mothering responsibilities to a bigger, more eternal picture Fight through the chaos to connect with your kids and pass on the faith Reclaim motherhood as a high and holy calling Beyond Bath Time is A True Woman book. The goal of the True Woman publishing line is to encourage women to: Discover, embrace, and delight in God's divine design and mission for their lives Reflect the beauty and heart of Jesus Christ to their world Intentionally pass the baton of Truth on to the next generation Pray earnestly for an outpouring of God's Spirit in their families, churches, nation and world
This seemingly simple but truly complex question" True or false: "My mother was a good woman." This item has appeared in one form or another on countless psychological inventories over the years. The culturally-prescribed answer is, of course, "True." Even the people most abused by their mothers tend to rise to defend "Mom." The rationale varies: "She was basically good"; "She was never cut out to have children"; "She simply had no idea how to be there for me"; "Perhaps if she hadn't had me..."; "Maybe it was I who turned her into a bad mother?" As early as 1954 in his work with abused children, psychoanalyst Ronald Fairbairn observed that a child acknowledging to herself or anyone else that she had a bad mother or that her mother was a bad woman was tantamount to admitting that the child was, by association, a bad person --and so it becomes an act of self-preservation to hold that one's mopther is good, never mind all evidence to the contrary. In Horrible Mothers, pshychotherapist Alice Thie Vieira takes us into the world of individuals who have endured devastating damage at the hands of society's most sacrosanst icon: the Mother. Vieira does so with four chief aims: 1. to label abuse so as to be able to acknowledge it; 2. to recognize that the sanctification of motherhood is a burden that society has foisted upon them; 3. to help mothers understand how their mothering may have hurt their children; 4. to help victims of horrible mothering grasp the unfairness of what was done to them, to comprehend how it affected their lives, and acknowledge what they have endured so as to break free from unhealthy attachments to their inadequate mothers, and thus move forward and better realize their potentiality.
More than eighty designs--iconic, archaic, quotidian, and taboo--that have defined the arc of human reproduction. While birth often brings great joy, making babies is a knotty enterprise. The designed objects that surround us when it comes to menstruation, birth control, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood vary as oddly, messily, and dramatically as the stereotypes suggest. This smart, image-rich, fashion-forward, and design-driven book explores more than eighty designs--iconic, conceptual, archaic, titillating, emotionally charged, or just plain strange--that have defined the relationships between people and babies during the past century. Each object tells a story. In striking images and engaging text, Designing Motherhood unfolds the compelling design histories and real-world uses of the objects that shape our reproductive experiences. The authors investigate the baby carrier, from the Snugli to BabyBjörn, and the (re)discovery of the varied traditions of baby wearing; the tie-waist skirt, famously worn by a pregnant Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy, and essential for camouflaging and slowly normalizing a public pregnancy; the home pregnancy kit, and its threat to the authority of male gynecologists; and more. Memorable images--including historical ads, found photos, and drawings--illustrate the crucial role design and material culture plays throughout the arc of human reproduction. The book features a prologue by Erica Chidi and a foreword by Alexandra Lange. Contributors Luz Argueta-Vogel, Zara Arshad, Nefertiti Austin, Juliana Rowen Barton, Lindsey Beal, Thomas Beatie, Caitlin Beach, Maricela Becerra, Joan E. Biren, Megan Brandow-Faller, Khiara M. Bridges, Heather DeWolf Bowser, Sophie Cavoulacos, Meegan Daigler, Anna Dhody, Christine Dodson, Henrike Dreier, Adam Dubrowski, Michelle Millar Fisher, Claire Dion Fletcher, Tekara Gainey, Lucy Gallun, Angela Garbes, Judy S. Gelles, Shoshana Batya Greenwald, Robert D. Hicks, Porsche Holland, Andrea Homer-Macdonald, Alexis Hope, Malika Kashyap, Karen Kleiman, Natalie Lira, Devorah L Marrus, Jessica Martucci, Sascha Mayer, Betsy Joslyn Mitchell, Ginger Mitchell, Mark Mitchell, Aidan O’Connor, Lauren Downing Peters, Nicole Pihema, Alice Rawsthorn, Helen Barchilon Redman, Airyka Rockefeller, Julie Rodelli, Raphaela Rosella, Loretta J. Ross, Ofelia Pérez Ruiz, Hannah Ryan, Karin Satrom, Tae Smith, Orkan Telhan, Stephanie Tillman, Sandra Oyarzo Torres, Malika Verma, Erin Weisbart, Deb Willis, Carmen Winant, Brendan Winick, Flaura Koplin Winston
