GladRags Gab

Happy National Poetry Month! In a last ditch effort, before April, also known as National Poetry Month (www.poets.org) is over, I have penned a poem that has some relevance to menstruation, though barely. Maybe not surprisingly, menstruation has inspired many people to poetry, Sandra Cisneros and Lucielle Clifton among them. The website for the Museum of Menstruation, www.mum.org, has a category for poetry, with many other bleeding-inspired works. Perhaps poetic inspiration will strike you!

Wait ‘Til Jordy Hears This
by Michelle A.L. Singer

My email address differs from
Jordy Singer’s
By two numbers,
9 and 8.
If anyone forgets to add 9 and 8
To jmsinger,
The message goes to Jordy
And he or she
I don’t know which
Never asked
Kindly
Forwards them to me.

When we lived in China
And established our first ever email account
There was plenty of confusion
About email addresses
And Jordy came into play quite often.

When I didn’t get my period for three months
We’re pretty sure Jordy got an earful
Of the ensuing drama.
It turns out that I wasn’t pregnant
And that it sometimes happens
When you live abroad-
Your cycle stops
As if to see what’s going to happen next.

Ten years later, we’ve both
Kept the same email addresses
(Unheard of)
Though my physical address
Has changed eight times
And who knows how many for Jordy.

Ten years
And the other day
He (or she)
Still not sure
Still haven’t asked
Forwarded a wayward message my way.

Ten years,
And I’m late
Waiting to see if I’m pregnant
Again.

P.S. I’m not. Two days after writing this, I got my period. Even though I had taken two pregnancy tests that showed negative, nothing is the final word like bleeding. At times like these when technically I should be wishing not to bleed, I can’t help but still enjoy getting my GladRags out. Somehow they still seem fun to me.

-Michelle 

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This announcement below is from Marwin, who is doing a menstrual forum. Thanks Marwin, for letting women know about their options.

-Brenda 

Hey everyone!

I am hosting an event called “On the Rag”.  It's a forum night….about your period!This event is taking place on Monday, April 14 2008 at 7:30 PM.  It will be at SUNY Albany in Albany, NY in the Humanities building room 116.
I am going to give a talk about the history of disposable feminine products, the problems with them, and alternatives that are available to women.  Then, a forum-style discussion will follow.  I received donations of cloth pads from women who make their own pads, as well as Gladrags pads!  The ladies at Gladrags made a generous donation of several pads in various colors and styles which I am going to raffle off at this event.  I also received a sample Keeper and Mooncup that I unfortunately cannot raffle off.

I am so excited preparing for this event!  A lot of the preparing I had to do for this forum was looking back into articles I wrote a few years ago from a zine I made.  It featured several articles about radical menstruation.  One was about finding out about cloth pads, buying a few, and then moving on to making my own cloth pads!  These experiences really changed my views about menstruation and my body 180 degrees.  I used to hate my period so much, but I felt a lot better about it after putting the effort into taking care of my body.  Making pads was fun for me, improved my sewing skills, and it actually made me excited to get my period because I wanted to try out my new Hello Kitty island print flannel pads!  Come to think of it, the first pads I actually bought were Gladrags seconds and I based my own designs off of Gladrags.

I wanted to do this forum because I really want to promote the usage of cloth and/or menstrual cups/sponges to other women.  SO MANY women do not even know that these things exist!  Or, if they do, they have negative views about cloth (it's dirty/smelly/leaks/it's gross etc.)  I want to dispel these myths with people by providing them with information, and giving them a hands-on experience with really beautifully made cloth pads which were generously donated by several companies.  Having the pads is great; there are so many styles to show people!  I also want to hand out patterns or websites with printable patterns and encourage women to make their own pads as well.

I am going to write another blog entry after the Forum night, so check back within the next week for more info (and possibly pics!) of how it went.

Anyone in the Albany area hopefully see you there!

–Marwin Margolies

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We just sent off more GladRags to Chris Hanley who works with the Mekele Blind School. She sent us these photos and note. Chris, thank you for your good work.

Ethiopian School for the Blind
LOVES GLADRAGS

When I saw for myself that the 38 girls at the Mekele Blind School in northern Ethiopia had nothing to use other than found rags during their periods, I was determined to find a sustainable solution to the problem. Disposable pads wouldn’t be practical, as the school has no way of disposing it’s garbage and the expense would be prohibitive for them. Gladrags was a wonderful, welcome alternative. During my next trip to Mekele, in June of 2007, I packed about 100 holders and 300 liners. They are in constant use. I have just received an additional order of more than 400 liners at a considerable discount from Gladrags, and will be carrying these over with me when I go to Ethiopia in May, 2008.
So, from the 38 beautiful, bright girls at the Mekele Blind School, Ethiopia,
THANK YOU GLADRAGS!
Christina Hanley
Friends of Mekele Blind School
www.mekeleblindschool.org

Besides working with Chris Hanley, we're continuing to offer our Goods4Girls Kit (in which we donate a carry bag when our generous customers buy the pads). Deanna Duke founded Goods 4 Girls and is compiling pads and carry bags from cloth pads companies around the country to send to organizations in Africa.  It's amazing how that Always pad commercial has galvanized the effort to get washable pads to these girls instead of just disposables.  It seems like we are getting an email a day from organizations wanting us to donate cloth pads. It's women working for women!

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Did you know that your liver is one of the most important players when it comes to hormone production and balance?  It is the liver's job to help make our hormones as well as clear any excess hormones that might be overstaying their welcome.  Those of us who experience PMS often have a slight hormone balancing issue and with a bit of support to the liver can resolve the common complaints that we experience monthly.  Cramping is a great example of what I am talking about.  Much of the time cramping is a result of excess estrogen in the body.  By supporting the elimination of this excess, the estrogen levels can be returned to normal, often times diminishing cramps.  Of course inflammation also plays a role in this, but again through offering the liver some support inflammation can be lowered as well.  Irregular periods, breast tenderness, spotting and menstrual headaches might all be lessened with a good liver support treatment protocol.

Some of those treatment protocols would be:

1. Dietary guidelines - following anti-inflammatory diet, and look up those great liver loving foods!

NUTRITION

Food to Include:
    Dark green leafy vegetables, beets, endive, cucumbers, garlic, onions, artichoke, sprouted seeds, grains, tahini, vegetable products (raw or juiced only).
Foods to Exclude:
    All processed and refined foods, salt, strong spices, sugar, alcohol, drugs, synthetic vitamins, fats/oils, non-organic meats and dairy (due to hormones), coffee, heavy starches (potatoes, rice, bread, cereal), heavy proteins, chicken, eggs, milk or milk products, and  vitamins and herbal supplements (except as directed by your physician).
    Condiments except lemon juice and a little salt.
    
    
JUICE/TEA
    Red beet mixed with carrot (1/2 cup) once a day.
    Dandelion root tea: steep 1 teaspoon in 1 pint boiling water for 20 minutes.  Take once a day.

OTHER
    Deep breathing, 30 seconds each time, 10 times a day.
    Brisk walk or other exercise 20-30 minutes a day.
    Drink clean filtered water (at least 2 quarts a day).
    Do not use aluminum cookware.

2. Liver herbs - burdock, bupleurum, celandine, dandelion root, oregon grape, milk thistle, dang gui - go to your local herb store for a nice daily tea tonic, or liquid drop preparation.

3.  The ever famous castor oil packs

4.  Detox season is upon us!  The spring is the appropriate time to cleanse the liver.  Just as new shoots come up from the ground, this is the season the liver awakes from its winter slumber and shoots forward — creating motivation and movement.  Do your research before initiating any detox/fast protocol.  Best to work with a qualified practitioner as it is important to find the right type of detox for you.

Be well - and be happy!

Dr. J.J. Pursell ND, LAc.

The Herb Shoppe 2410 E. Burnside Portland, OR 97214

503-234-7801

 


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Our customer, Juliana, recently emailed us this tip for getting out stains.  This one is a new one for me. 

"Here is a great cleaning tip, learned from a friend's grandma about removing blood stains. if you soak in milk before placing the item in the laundry, the blood stains come right out. Not sure if it is the enzymes in the milk or what but it has never failed me. I have even just done a brief soak about twenty minutes before  throuwing the stuff in the laundry and it has worked just fine. Of course the more set the stain the longer the soak. Share with the masses :)" - Juliana

Thanks for sharing, Juliana. I love multiuse products! Milk - who knew?!  Other great products are the Bi-O-Kleen products we listed on the site (don't try to wash down a cookie with them,though!). Soaking GladRags in our new soaking bucket or percolater with some Bac-Out is a safe and healthy way to keep them fresh.

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Did you ever have the dream that you’re pregnant? That very real dream, the one you have before you’ve even had sex, but it feels so real that you don’t notice that important fact? I remember that dream, more so I remember waking up from that dream—the cold wash of pure relief. (Do men have a version of this dream?)

After I started having sex, there was the late period. The agonizingly late period, accompanied by panic and then (finally!) the warm wash of pure relief, maybe even tears, as the blood made its entrance.

Then there was a long stretch of a more mature handle on birth control that left me with just the monthly rhythm, surfing through the cycle and the secrets of its language.

And then, like a force of nature, it was time to get pregnant and we did. Not having a cycle every month was quickly and thoroughly overlooked in the face of such an event as waiting for a baby. Because I nursed my daughter for almost two years, my period didn’t come back for at least a year after she was born. But when it did, well, the Chinese call it “gui lai” and it was a real event—a marker of my changing body, changing back.

I had another child and again promptly forgot about menstruating or what it was like to not menstruate. When my “gui lai” came this time, also nearly a year after my son was born, my body sang with it. With two children, my body well knew the reality, not just the fearful dream, of what this meant. I could get pregnant!

And since that fateful day of singing fertility, it has been a game of “maybe/maybe not.” Will we do it all again? Every day brings a different answer.

People will be all over the board, having vastly different experiences of fertility and what their menstrual cycle had meant to them; for me, it surprises me that I don’t fear pregnancy now that I know what it means to go truly sleepless and compromised by the demands of caring for children every day. But in fact, it’s the opposite.

Now every month there is still the waiting, the speculating, sometimes the counting of days, the recounting of possible “slip-ups,” and yet, when at last the question is answered, the blood is here, I am not pregnant, there is no wash of relief anymore. Just a little pit in the stomach, an almost inaudible sigh. Maybe it’s not surprising at all. For me, knowing, really knowing, what it is to get pregnant and have children, it’s not the magic of the menstrual cycle I feel (although that’s there too), it’s the magic of babies that I’ve got my eye on.

by Michelle A.L. Singer 

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After reading Ellen's story (see below), Talia had her own sad tale to tell.  Read on!

It was just yesterday that I finished my first period fest with my *new* mooncup. So of course, the next thing to do? Sanitize via boil-age. Well, the water was just taking forever to boil. I decided to go downstairs real quick and planned to quickly return to the kitchen and tend to my newly clean lil moo'cup.

2 hours later.

The water boiled, evaporated and is nowhere in sight. My poor moo'cup is no longer with us. It is now a charred mess that thankfully did not lead to my house burning down.

 I suppose excessive boil-age is not covered under the guarantee warranty??

; )

Editor's note: Boiling your silicone cup is a-ok (just don't let the water boil off!) but it is not necessary for sanitation.  The vagina is strong and can accept foreign objects that are not entirely sterile…

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Saturday was a sad day for an alternative menstrual product user.  I found myself unexpectedly bleeding… shows you how "in tune" I've been with my body as of late… and had to resort to using the two pathetic little OB tampons I had hanging out in my bag from years past… shows you how often I clean out my bag. When those quickly ran out, I resorted to the plastic pads my grandmother had sitting in her bathroom drawer.  I don't enjoy pads much… apologies to the 'rags… and so bemoaned the fact that I didn't keep my Keeper with me when traveling.  duh.  I eventually made my way to the local grocery store to get something that I wouldn't have to adhere to my underwear.  Alas, more OB tampons it was.  I look forward to the day when alternative menstrual products are not so alternative and I can find a Keeper in a Chicago suburbian Jewel.

- An email sent by Diana's great friend Ellen - teacher, friend, wife and person extraordinaire

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     My husband Josh came home from work with a flower-shaped package wrapped in brown paper. We were already at the dinner table and he said he had something for his Valentines. He pulled out three red roses for me, a dark pink rose for my mother, and a light pink rose for our daughter Ruby. As he walked around the table to Ruby, who was sitting next to Jaden our two-year-old son, and handed her her rose, my son’s eyes never left the empty brown paper in his other hand. The look of sweet expectation was written all over his face. When Ruby’s rose was in hand, his expectation grew. He looked at the brown paper. “Where’s my flowuh?” he said. We quickly siphoned one of mine across the table and Josh handed it to his son. Jaden’s little face beamed. We all oo’ed and ah’ed, and he was nothing short of thrilled with his “flowuh.”     We at the table knew that boys don’t get flowers, but he didn’t. I hope it takes a long long while before he gets that message. And from now on, we will do our best to take the gender out of beautiful flowers. With his innocent anticipation, Jaden reminded me of the critical need to foster the feminine in men.     Every year around Valentine’s Day, playwright and activist Eve Ensler continues to push toward her goal of ending violence against women with V-Day—originally celebrated by staging productions of her play, The Vagina Monologues. Entering her tenth year and with the intention of continuing until-the-violence-stops, her appearances and events are now year-round and star-studded. Proceeds from every show, event, speech, and t-shirt go toward charities that help end violence against women. In addition to going to an event and furthering the necessary steps toward that worthy goal (www.vday.org), see if you can’t also find a way to nurture the feminine in a man you know. It might very well have the same effect that Ensler’s going for.

-Michelle 

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I love excuses to get out in the woods in the dead of winter.  Skiing, snowboarding, sledding and snowshoeing (ok, what's the deal with the "s-" sports of wintertime?) are good reasons to get outdoors and remember that life is ok, even when it's incredibly cold and potentially dismal outside.  As long as you're geared up and surrounded by trees and snow, all becomes right with the world again!

I personally find snowshoeing to be just the goofiest looking endeavor.  Giant flip flops for the snow, especially when coupled with ski polls for leverage, can't help but make you giggle.  Goofiness aside, man do they stop you from sinking into the powdery stuff and make for a nice walk in the woods.  I do find the flopping to be a bit too loud (here's where cross-country skis really take the cake) but let's not be too picky…

Snowshoes can be rented for as little as $10 - good, affordable fun for the whole family.  PB&J and hot tea (perhaps wine for the grownups) round off the trip nicely and a view doesn't hurt either.

Here's to happy flopping!

-Diana 

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