The Altar of Giving Birth
What grows in you? What longs to be born? What might come forth when you visit The Altar of Giving Birth?
Dearly Beloveds,
Last week I wrote about the little altars everywhere that remind us of the Holy, and I named The Altar of Giving Birth as one of them. So, today, given we’ve recently celebrated the births of our two kids (Wade turned 9 and Liv turned 5, only 13 days apart), I offer a word on The Altar of Giving Birth–what it is, why it’s holy, and how we are wise to bow in its presence and in the presence of the people who dare tread its sacred ground.
The Altar of Giving Birth is the altar where life is given its force. It's where the birthing one bears down and breathes fully and moans faithfully to move a life from one world to another. It’s where parent and child work together with body and blood, bone and water to open fully to what’s next. It’s where we say yes. It’s where we surrender. It’s where we fight. It’s where we love, and love some more.
The Altar of Giving Birth is one of the holiest places on earth, where the veil is thin between this world and the next. Where you can almost see the saints’ faces as they surround the birthing and being birthed ones. They smile. They sing. They sway. They pray. They know this is holy ground, and they are here for treading lightly upon it.
The Altar of Giving Birth is where God first gave birth to us. It’s where She bore down and delivered us in Her infinite Mercy, offering us the gift of this world to tend and explore and co-create and care.
The Altar of Giving Birth should never be forced upon anyone. What makes it holy is the ability to choose to be there or not. Always an invitation, never a demand. Choice and freedom are essential elements of the altar’s mystery and magic, and when people find themselves in the midst of the altar without choice, without freedom, not wanting to be there at all, the saints gather even closer to stand in solidarity and love.
The Altar of Giving Birth is where we grieve injustice and work, faithfully, for the day in which all people who birth and all children who are born might live in a world that offers care, acceptance, and love in the form of policies that ensure their safety, like, say, common sense gun control laws, national paid family leave policy, reproductive justice for all, to name a few. Don’t forget to VOTE LIKE A MOTHER this November.
The Altar of Giving Birth is not only about birthing physical beings. It’s also where ideas, partnerships, and visions are born. It’s where we dream. It’s where we aren’t afraid to be large and larger with our hope for different world. It’s where we trust our voices to be heard. It’s where we sing songs of freedom and of joy.
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To my two kids, Wade and Liv, whose birthdays remind me of the sacred Altar of Giving Birth, thank you. For being born, for being you, alleluia and amen!
And to all those who continue to show up at The Altar of Giving Birth to bring life, in its many powerful forms, into this world, thank you. For showing up, for bearing down, for treading holy ground, alleluia and amen!
What grows in you? What longs to be born? What might come forth when you visit The Altar of Giving Birth?
May all of us have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to open to the wild and holy births before us and within us.
Amen.
Love,
Claire
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