Day 4: {Writer Girl}: On changing perspectives

"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new

landscapes, but in having new eyes."-Marcel Proust

On August 1st 2013 my home was teeming with guests. My parents, my sister, two of my mum's sisters and three of their children all of them came visiting. I was at the end of my pregnancy and the idea was that my mom and her sister's would help me for a couple of weeks post-partum. At one point there were about 12 people at home. I am huge on space. I need my space, I need my calm or I get berserk. So you can tell what having so many people at home would have done to me. 

It took me a week of getting used to, to the noise, laughter and disorganization around my home. Then, my heart began to open. When I began to start adjusting to the fact that the laughter is so much fun, that my folks are really there for me and that mess is just what is, for now, I began to see the beauty and support of having these wonderful women around me to help me through those last days of pregnancy and the first few weeks post delivery. 

My sister, my mother and my aunt's- all of them saw me in my deepest most vulnerable place...the place where you find new mothers. That tender, soft and grieving-rejoicing part of you who is sleep deprived, love struck and not really thinking straight. 

These women, they gave me a chance to breathe, to sleep and to laugh and smile, they give me the precious few hours of play with my first born while taking care of my new born. They freed me from the need to think about what was healthy and nutritious to eat while they cooked and even fed me while I was breast feeding my newborn (isnt it uncanny how, right when you are hungry or about to eat your new born is hungry as well?!), they stayed up through nights of sleeplessness, tending to one of my children while I held the other one close, praying they would both sleep. Their knowing glances and complete understanding about the pain my body was undergoing post-partum helped me really sail through that time. 

Today, my aunt who was staying for longest left, all of them have gone back to their lives. I sit here typing these words, and I know they have opened my heart, opened my mind to the grace and beauty of a woman's being. They have shown me through their lives and their ways how I can be strong and open to my needs and the needs of my children. 

Here's what I've learned most of all: if you want to change someone's perspective create a space where they can be safe with their vulnerability. Where they can open their hearts out to you. Give. 

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"Writer Girl: 42 Days of Exercises to Deepen Your Faith in Your Ability and Your Purpose for Writing" by Robin Norgren  is a wonderful book to begin to trust in my ability to write and to uncover my purpose for writing. I am going to do this. Yes, For 42 days. 

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