Last fall we didn’t have time to carve pumpkins and so I ended up just throwing one of them out in our garden. In the spring all of the seeds from that pumpkin took root and I had HUNDREDS of little pumpkin plants all over my garden. I transplanted about 20 of the little pumpkins and planted them at my husband’s uncle’s house (he had lots of room for them). They did really well and all summer I have been excited to have some pumpkins for Halloween. Well, a few days ago we went and harvested all them and I was shocked to discover that we ended up with 74 pumpkins… all from that one pumpkin I threw out in the garden! It made me realize that when God promised Abraham that his posterity would be as numerous as the sands of the sea, that He wasn’t joking. If my one little pumpkin can produce that many new little pumpkins from only 20 seeds just imagine how many pumpkins I would have gotten if I’d transplanted ALL of the seedlings I pulled out of my garden! That would be quite the pumpkin posterity.
Speaking of posterity… when I was pregnant for the the fist time I remember that towards the end of my pregnancy my midwife asked me, “Do you have room for this baby?” I thought it was a strange question and didn’t know how to respond. She clarified by asking, “Have you taken the time to make space in your home and in your heart for this baby?” Even though the question was asked years ago I’ve been thinking about it again this pregnancy. I’ve been so busy taking care of the needs of two other demanding children that, if it wasn’t for the fact that this baby likes to kick my kidneys, I’m afraid that I’d forget all about him/her. Last week I actually had a bit of an emotional breakdown and I realized that I needed to make room– physically and emotionally– for this baby. So I’ve been making time each night to have little “chats” with my baby and I’ve discovered that there is a very beautiful and powerful spirit dwelling within me– who is very prepared to come to this earth. I also I spent all last Saturday setting up the baby’s bed, pulling out and washing all the newborn clothes, and re-painting an old dresser to put the baby’s things in. The dresser turned out beautiful (if I do say so myself) and it is amazing how knowing that I have a physical space for this baby has really eased my fears. Now every time that I walk past the baby’s little bed I feel a sweet assurance sweep over me that, “YES” there is room here for you little one… in my house and in my heart.
Oh, I have so much to say about this cartoon… it touches on something close to my heart… and there will probably be a whole post on it soon. What these three women– Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee (both from Liberia) and Tawakkul Karman (from Afghanistan)– have done to bring peace to their nations is awe inspiring. PBS just broadcast a documentary entitled “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” which highlights the struggle in Liberia and the role that women played in bringing about that peace (watch the trailer here). Seeing what these women did is incredible and just reminds me of the unique potential that women have to create peace. There have only been 12 other women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize since it was first awarded in 1901 and so I can’t help but think that it is about time that more women were recognized for their work and dedication to the sanctity of life. Woohoo! Like I said… more on this later.
My dad sent me this video and it really boggled my mind to think that the technology is out there to do things like this! Some of it seems so crazy. Yet, I remember having a conversation a few years ago about how crazy it would be to be able to have the Internet on your phone and now that is almost standard issue. Things that were “Science Fiction” just 10 years ago are now all over the place and I don’t doubt that in the near future our world will include a lot of these sort of gadgets. It still just seems sort of crazy.
We launched the new website for our book “The Gift of Giving Life: Rediscovering the Divine Nature of Pregnancy and Birth” this week! In addition to having excerpts and information about the book we have also moved our blog over there as well. If you were subscribed to the old blog please make sure you update your feed so that you get our new posts. We are starting a new format with our blog and each of the authors is going to do a guest post each month, as well as schedule guest posts and post birth stories. We will also be posting stories and essays we received but were unable to put in the book due to space constraints. It should be pretty wonderful. This week it was my turn to do the post and to introduce myself I wrote a little about my journey to motherhood and how I got interested in natural birth, home birth and doula work. I hope you’ll take the time to jump over and read it… especially if you are new to my blog.
Also, if you are interested in doing a guest post or would like to share your birth story on The Gift of Giving Life blog please let me know!
Wow, this was sort of a birth-filled post, guess you know what’s been on my mind! Hope you have a great weekend!
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I love those thoughts about making room for a new baby! I've tried to do that during each of my pregnancies and it has always made a huge difference. 🙂
That is so neat about your pumpkin posterity! 😉 I'm a bit envious– the cool spring & a summer hail storm left us completely without summer & winter squash (including pumpkins). 🙁
So many great links to check out! Looking forward to reading the blog & seeing the PBS vid– and seriously, that Corning clip? My mind is officially blown.
Have a great weekend, Heather! 🙂
We had that happen once with a watermelon. Someone spit a whole bunch of seeds in the front garden and the next year watermelon's appeared. We got a few melons off the vine, and they were delicious.
The next year we tried planting them in the real garden in the backyard but none of them sprouted.
I loved having and raising babies. When the nesting instinct kicked in, I was always so jazzed.
That's a lot of pumpkins – I love the thoughts related to how much can come from just a few seeds!
Curls,
Yeah, I think the key to growing some thing is to just not pay attention to them. I've found that sometimes my best harvests comes when I neglect things! Not much wisdom there, but it does pay off sometimes.