Masorti Australasia
Last night, underneath a full moon, within the sacred space of our kibbutz mikveh, ten women gathered to acknowledge our friend who will be bringing a new life into our community in a few short weeks.
Debbie’s due at the end of August and it’s become somewhat of a tradition on Hannaton to create a “birth circle” for pregnant women. We sculpt the pregnant mother-to-be’s belly into a keepsake “mask;” we drink tea, and last night, we shared our birth stories.
It’s taken me some time to feel comfortable in a circle like the one I participated in last night. I blame it on the fact that I grew up without sisters.
Others, like me, who grew up with only brothers, or those with no siblings at all can back me up: What might be seamless and normal for women who grew up alongside sisters often takes a lot longer for us. When you grow up with sisters, you have years to learn the ins and outs of interacting with other women, of being comfortable in the girl group dynamic. Even if you aren’t close with your sister, you’ve likely figured out the subtleties and intricacies of female conversation. You know how to fight fair and eventually make up. You’ve shared beds and clothes; you’ve taken your bras off in front of each other.
The rest of us arrive at summer camp or at college completely clueless – and it takes us most of our adult lives to figure it out.
Fortunately, as I’ve discovered, giving birth speeds up the sense of sisterhood. There’s nothing like the aches of pregnancy and pains of childbirth to bond you with other women. And, in all seriousness, there’s nothing that creates kinship like sharing birth stories…even when, like me, you consider your birth experiences to have been less than ideal.
Last night, I smiled when we were invited to share our birth stories with each other. Having already experienced the intimacy that comes with sharing birth stories in a circle of women, I was really excited to be part of this exercise with this group of women…my friends in the making. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to learn more about each other, to open up, to move past the everyday niceties, to connect.
Until it hit me…again.
Masorti Australasia
Masorti means traditional
Mercaz-Masorti Australasia Inc is the new organisation representing Masorti Jews in Australia and New Zealand
Check out basic information and links in the panel below and view the ongoing weblog posts on the right hand of this page.
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For further information please contact:
Mercaz-Masorti Australasia Inc
www.masorti.org.au
email: info@masorti.org.au
skype: masortiaustralasia
ph: 61 2 8005 1854
fax: 61 2 9327 8715
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