"Lines on the face, tattoos of aging.
Life is proved upon the body
Like needle-jabs from a blind machine."
As I continue in my skin care quest, I'm sure people assume that it's because I want to look a certain way, or that, having rounded the point of no return 35 seems to bring to the lives of so many women, I insist on trying to stay young. As I've tried to show in other parts of this blog, it's neither. It's only because I know that, particularly as a disabled person, life is proved upon my body in countless ways, yet assumed in still innumerable others. When I miscarried, indeed, it was as if life itself were trying to hurt me.
At a gardening meet-up today, a friend expressed that in the space where we were, "the body is the boss." I take that now to mean that the body needs to be validated in its response to what life tosses its way. The body is our medium for everything; therefore the changes it incurs and absorbs should come as no shock or ugliness to anyone, but rather as the natural consequence of living, which should not be fought, but celebrated.
After my miscarriage, I went to see a midwife who talked about the extreme taboo, that there is no process, procedure, or rite to mark a woman's experience of this. I remain proud of the fact that once I had considered this I went home and, after my own private fashion, I made one. I am grateful for the seed of hope God took a moment to plant in my womb. It gives me courage to face, and embody, the future.
Life is proved upon the body
Like needle-jabs from a blind machine."
As I continue in my skin care quest, I'm sure people assume that it's because I want to look a certain way, or that, having rounded the point of no return 35 seems to bring to the lives of so many women, I insist on trying to stay young. As I've tried to show in other parts of this blog, it's neither. It's only because I know that, particularly as a disabled person, life is proved upon my body in countless ways, yet assumed in still innumerable others. When I miscarried, indeed, it was as if life itself were trying to hurt me.
At a gardening meet-up today, a friend expressed that in the space where we were, "the body is the boss." I take that now to mean that the body needs to be validated in its response to what life tosses its way. The body is our medium for everything; therefore the changes it incurs and absorbs should come as no shock or ugliness to anyone, but rather as the natural consequence of living, which should not be fought, but celebrated.
After my miscarriage, I went to see a midwife who talked about the extreme taboo, that there is no process, procedure, or rite to mark a woman's experience of this. I remain proud of the fact that once I had considered this I went home and, after my own private fashion, I made one. I am grateful for the seed of hope God took a moment to plant in my womb. It gives me courage to face, and embody, the future.
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