Why I Wrote Life Choices
I wrote Life Choices: The Teachings of Abortion to support the next evolutionary step towards a global consciousness of love and peace. I wanted to bring the conversation to a broader, deeper, spirit centered perspective about the impact of legal abortion. I wanted to show how abortion is helping to bring in a collective consciousness centered in love and caring. But not love and caring in the abstract. Love and caring in the context of life and relationships and the life and future of the planet. Love and caring in the context of the lives of real people. I wrote the book to bring abortion out of the shadows where patriarchy has kept it for centuries. I wrote it to help women know that their personal experiences happen in a historical context and that they are not alone. I wrote the book to reclaim the word life. Because, there is no such thing as abstract life. Any life form on our planet exists only in relation to other life forms, and in an intimate relationship with death. Life must be nurtured, and the health and wellbeing of the nurturer given the highest priority whether that is an individual woman or the earth as a whole. Nurturing the nurturer naturally includes recognizing her power to choose how and when she goes about doing the nurturing. Without question, abortion is liberating and empowering for women. I wrote the book to illustrate this by including the stories of women I’ve known who have lived out the complicated pressures of deciding whether to bring life through their bodies at a particular time. I wrote it to normalize the experiences of unexpected and unwanted pregnancies, and to show that these pregnancies are for the most part unexceptional and common in women’s lives. I wrote it to show how brave and creative women are when faced with the judgments of a hostile world. Anything that liberates women also liberates children and men. That’s also in the book. Life on earth is part of the oneness of all beings and things. There is a Greater Consciousness of Being that is always present in our lives. Awareness of this is accessed in new and surprising ways by some women and men in their quest for healing around their abortion experiences. I wrote about that also. I wrote Life Choices to show that the survival of humanity on the earth requires legal abortion. That pregnancy choice is tied to the movement for environmental stewardship and the care of the earth. That it is tied to economic equality and the movement from a property-over-people society towards a way of life centered in people and their intrinsic creativity. That it is part of the historic return of the powerful, non-patriarchal feminine principle that seats itself in a fierce guardianship of life and death. Is there room for a deeper perspective? I hope so. Abortion is still legal in the U.S., but in some places impossible to obtain because providers have been driven out of business! This is outrageous and very scary, and I would imagine many people feel like we’re going backwards. I don’t think so though. Yes, it’s pretty intense out there, and occasionally morbidly absurd. However, we’re managing the daily insults and threats that rain down like sharp icy particles. The provider leadership knows how to navigate the territory and is doing a great job. There is a lot to learn and a lot to teach. The political struggle is an aspect of the teachings of abortion. It is one of the avenues through which people sit up and pay attention to the importance of respecting and protecting the lives of women. It’s...
Read MoreHappy New Year and Thank You!
*** HAPPY NEW YEAR! ***** *** THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS SINCE LIFE CHOICES WAS PUBLISHED. *** I HOPE THE BOOK IS A HELP AND AN INSPIRATION TO YOU AND OTHERS YOU KNOW. ***** MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON THIS EARTH MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON THIS EARTH MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON THIS EARTH *** MANY BLESSINGS AND LOVE...
Read MoreMoving Forward Into the New (and Trusting)
The longer I live, the more I learn the beauty of each being’s way of navigating life’s changes and the spiritual openings that come to magnify and deepen each life. How are you doing with the choices and changes life is bringing to you? Isn’t it amazing how caught up we are in the continuous movement of the Forces? For many of us here in Colorado, it’s been all about the Great Flood of 2013. We’re still recovering from the powerful waters that moved through our area in the form of the thousand year rains and the 100 year flood. For a while it was hard to think about anything else. But life reasserts itself and moves on regardless of shocking events and traumas. It doesn’t allow us to stay any one place very long, but rather, commands us to continue on, receive healing, and apply the lessons we are learning from our experience. Life asks us to trust even when we feel like everything is going wrong. I wrote a guest blog post about this recently. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. The essay is also on my counseling website here. The underlying theme of my book, Life Choices, is the importance of exploring and understanding how life on Earth really works. Choices made by women and men about sex and pregnancy are part of that, but the overarching teaching of abortion and its related issues is the way life is in relationship with itself through birth, death, and everything in between, and how individual conscious awareness comes into being through experience. I can’t think of anything more important than learning how to trust. It’s almost impossible to navigate the twists and turns of our lives if we don’t. Trust often grows from surviving challenging experiences. Our experiences are tailor made to allow us to become more conscious and aware on all levels. As we open to what our experiences have to teach us we become more trusting. I’m speaking of deep trust here, the kind of trust we have in the changing of the seasons and the rising of the sun. Moving forward into the new, I have created a workshop called Trust the Sacred-Trust Yourself. It will debut on Saturday, December 7 in Boulder at Holo Being, LLC as a HoloLive! production. You can find more information here. You can sign up here. I am excited about this new form because it brings together the teachings that I share with private clients and out on the land during the annual vision quest trip. Learning to trust the way of things gives us a key to connection with ourselves, with each other, with earth, with sky, and with the divine. ...
Read MoreGratitude Then and Now for the People and the Teachings
I want to share with you my gratitude for some wonderful people and their work in the world. Here is a piece of writing that is both playful and serious thanking NASA (yes, that NASA) for using the word abort correctly. Accolades to Peg Johnston for this and other articles and for her ongoing steadiness in advocating for the health rights and empowerment of women. I’ve received tremendous support from Peg for the message I’m bringing through in Life Choices. She is someone who knows how to welcome everyone into the circle of care. Thank you, Peg! Charlotte Taft is a brave leader in feminist thought. She and I are of the same generation and share a depth of understanding and love for the emergence of women’s consciousness world wide. Thank you, Charlotte, for your perseverance and leadership, and your long term personal support for me in the writing of my book. When I hear the word Texas my mind goes immediately to Amy Hagstrom Miller. Amy has been in the news a lot lately because she is the founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, a national provider of abortion services that began in Austin, Texas in 2003. While I don’t know Amy personally, I want to thank her for being strong and clear during the grueling fight in the Texas state legislature over abortion rights. She is an inspiration for all of us and especially for younger women looking to be part of the movement. There is an incredible group of people who put out “the newsjournal of Catholic opinion,” aptly named Conscience. The group is Catholics for Choice. The journal is published three times a year. I’ve been aware of it since the 1980’s and it has kept me informed and uplifted through its progressive, thought empowering news and opinion. Thank you, Conscience! I’m sure you’ve noticed how the current political climate in the United States is becoming increasingly hostile to providers of legal abortion. I am deeply impressed by the courage and fortitude of those who are isolated in states like Mississippi and North Dakota. Unfortunately, it continues to get worse in many places. Not so in Boulder. Our community continues to be solidly supportive. A few weeks ago, I was invited to attend a board meeting of Women’s Health here in town. Susan Levy, the center’s director, asked me to come to tell the story of the founding of the then Boulder Valley Clinic in 1973. Most of the current board members did not know the history or how it was at the beginning. There will be a 40th anniversary celebration this fall. Time is moving along! Speaking of time, it feels like I am entering a new period in my life. I’m approaching 70 and feeling an even greater depth of connection to All Life both personally and professionally. I feel it as a writer and a healer, but also simply as a person living on this Earth. I am lucky to be blessed with good health and a widening community of friends and colleagues. The Quest work I do (wilderness rites of passage for women) seems intent on continuing probably until I’m unable to walk the land anymore(!). Deep gratitude for this. The work in wild nature is truly the living edge of reality consciousness. Kudos to those who found the courage to join us for our most recent 9 day journey in July and also those who have come in past years. My only wish is that more people would avail themselves of the experience. By the way, dear activists and health care workers, this sort of retreat could be a great renewal...
Read MoreAbortion Isn’t Really About Abortion-Part 2
Abortion is a collection of some of the most difficult issues related to human growth and development. —Life Choices How do you thread your way through the political and emotional minefield that is the current abortion conversation? Threats to women’s health and safety are uppermost in the minds of feminists and others worldwide, as the patriarchy in the form of male controlled governments and fundamentalist churches grinds on in its effort to limit and control women’s lives and turn back the clock of emerging feminine empowerment. It’s understandable that when the subject of abortion comes up one would want to go right to personal experience or right to the political fights. My experience as the author of a book about abortion is just that. Most people engage me in conversation about their unresolved feelings about their own abortion(s), or about their fear that abortion will become illegal again. It’s easy to be pulled into the conversation on those levels, and while they are important, there is more, much more, to be understood about abortion. The impact of the issue is deep and global and deserving of attention for its role in forging a new consciousness about humanity’s relationship with the Earth. Conscious caring is a phrase I use in Life Choices. It refers to the awareness of self and of life that comes when a woman comes to terms with her intrinsic power to decide whether a particular pregnancy will produce a new human or whether she needs to turn that pregnancy back to the Earth. It is her place in nature to decide this, and her spiritual responsibility to engage in this way. Most women know this. They know it in their bones, and proceed with their pregnancy choices in spite of whatever barriers they may encounter in their personal predicaments or societal environments. The suffering they experience comes mostly from the opposition and disrespect they encounter along the way. The stigmatizing of the choice of abortion produces shame that although unnecessary given the truth of the matter, manages to wound many women during their lives. The normal grief some women feel about choosing to turn back a pregnancy is distorted by the need to hide from the shaming. The same is true when a woman feels no grief at all, or some combination of grief and relief. Some professionals who think they are helping women with abortion frame the woman’s experience as one of victimization. This is incorrect. We are not victims of our own experience. Any experience. Even one where we might have actually been victimized! All experiences, including abortion, are with us to show us about life and about how to live freely and well. As our lives progress, we come upon exactly the right combination of circumstances and experiences to open us to what is true. Sometimes we learn the lessons right away. Sometimes it takes an entire lifetime to see clearly. Sometimes we are left baffled by the way our lives have unfolded, but that doesn’t change the basic dynamics. Conscious Caring is also descriptive of the emerging consciousness moving to the center of understanding the relationship of humans to our mother, the Earth. This growing awareness, often seen in relationship to “climate change” and environmental degradation, is a spiritually organic part of the Truth (Greater Consciousness) of Being. The role of women is often overlooked because after all, we still live in a male controlled and male dominated world. Nothing against the male of the species mind you. Men suffer terribly in the patriarchy, but that is not the subject of this essay. My goal is...
Read MoreAbortion Isn’t Really About Abortion – Part 1
Abortion is a collection of some of the most difficult issues related to human growth and development. —Life Choices Abortion isn’t really or only about abortion. It’s about women’s power in life, and learning to take conscious responsibility for life on earth. For most women, there’s nothing wrong and everything right about having an abortion. So, what’s the source of the idea that abortion is terrible and a problem? For complete answers, you’ll have to read my book! But meanwhile, consider doing the following: 1. Speak freely about abortion. Cut through the shame and stigma in any way you can. 2. Support your friends, neighbors, and colleagues to speak out and include abortion in the normal course of daily conversations. 3. Be a good listener if there is someone in your life who is upset about abortion. It’s natural and normal to have feelings. 4. Don’t play into the false division between “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” No one is against life. The slogans serve to perpetuate nasty power conflicts that have their root in narrow, unthought-through attitudes about sex and life. 5. Rise above the hysteria that blankets the news about abortion. Don’t play into the over-sensationalizing that goes on in the U.S. Large numbers of women have had or will have abortions in their lifetime. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s normal. 6. Support local health organizations that provide abortions. Let them know you support them by writing or calling them. Volunteer with them if you can. Send them flowers. Let them know you’re grateful they’re there, especially if you live in an area where clinics and doctors are being harassed. They are: the FAN clinics (Feminist Abortion Network). the members of ACN (Abortion Care Network). the members of NAF (National Abortion Federation). Stay tuned for Part 2 in my next blog post. Happy Spring, everyone!...
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