GladRags Gab

The snowflakes that fell on January 24, 2008 were so small they looked like glitter when the sun caught them-these are the details that come into sharp focus on the day that someone is born.

Because of the amazing digital technology of telephones these days, I know that at 8:50 a.m. of this day, I got the call-"Today's the day." Immediately my eyes smarted (today's the day!), and I braced myself-I was "on call" now. I was the "big sister doula," the person that takes care of the older child while their sibling is being born. This would be the third time I would get to witness a birth, not just through my own eyes but also through the eyes of a three year old.

At 11:21 a.m., I received the second phone call, lasting 18 seconds, telling me it was time to pick Astrid (the big sister) up for school and come home with her in order to be there for the birth of her younger sister, at their home. In this role, my job is to be firmly in the world of the child as their family transforms, expands. I take this role seriously, to protect the integrity of this major event and also because children respond very well to undivided attention. For this birth, however, I found myself drawn toward the sounds of this child making her way into the world again and again. What follows is the dual reality I found myself in: Astrid's and mine as we ate lunch, waited (not for very long!), and listened to the deep involuntary sounds of labor.

Astrid: "Kitty just ran out of there! She said, ‘Too much ruckus!'  Silly Kitty (laugh) Too much ruckus! (laugh) That one sounded like a horse. (pause) That one a dog. (pause) Oh, that one's a cow."

Me: Those are the most honest, amazing, deep, beautiful sounds I had ever heard. These are not sounds you will ever hear in any other situation. God, what a privilege to hear them. I'm so lucky. I can't believe so many people never have this experience. This is the story of going to the deepest places of the body to find the will to bear birth. "Do you want to go in and see the birth?"

Astrid:  "No, I want to go meet the baby after she is born. What is this? Can I have this yogurt? Mmmmm. I like this yogurt."

Me: "Mmmm, looks good. Your mom's doing a good job in there," (trying not to cry). "Are we going to make some necklaces later?"

Astrid: "Yes! You know what? My teachers know how to sing ‘Oh my darlin'!"

Me: "They do! That's great. Oh! Your Mom is calling us!"

We left our food and went into the living room at the very moment that Astrid's baby sister was lifted into her mother's arms by her father who had just caught her, with the help of the two midwives. I can't say what it was like for Astrid, but for me walking into the room was like walking into a brick wall emotion. My eyes and chest and throat crumpled immediately, and as I looked around, I saw the feeling mirrored perfectly in everyone else's face in the room. Whoosh!-the child slides in to the world-the father's face! the mother's face! my face, crumpled in tears.

Me: I will never forget the look on his (the dad's) face. What a moment. Look at that baby. Were mine ever that small?

Astrid: "Look at her small hand! She's so cute! (pause)  I'm still quite a bit hungry."

We went directly back to the kitchen and sat down. She ate her sandwich, wanted some mustard. She wanted to know what else I brought in my bag for her. I pulled out a light stick. We opened it up and cracked it into pink glowing life. Here, I'm a little ashamed to admit, is when she went back to her mother, holding her newborn infant in the first five minutes of her life, and said, "Mom! Look! I have a glow stick!" Her mother, of course, said, "Oh! That's great!" And Astrid came back with me to see what else we could do.

I am proud to report that I have witnessed five births now (okay, two were my own) and always come away from them wondering at the privilege of it. Here we go on about menstruation, but this, this person whooshing into the world, and the shocking love of it, that's what it, all these moon cycles, is all actually about. Whether we choose to flip one of those hundreds of cycles into a being or not, that's what they are about.

- Michelle A.L. Singer 

Michelle Singer is a freelance journalist currently living and working in Montpelier, Vermont. Former GladRags employee and menstrual enthusiast, she is also a great lover of books, hiking, and wrestling with the continual confusion of feminism. She lives in a multi-generational home with all her most important fans-her parents, husband and two truly adorable children.

I was at a book group the other night with delightful, intelligent, mothers of small children who have an unspoken agreement that although we choose a book every time, we're really getting together for wine and conversation. In fact, our discussions in recent meetings have barely grazed the subject of the book whose premise we were gathered under.

At our last meeting, ongoing struggles of life: marriage, children, and wellness (sleep, sex, and prescriptions) inevitably consumed our conversation. When we lingered on mental health and I put forward my belief that all issues of health stem from a root cause (oftentimes emotional or spiritual), one woman offered her menstrual cycle as an example of something that is strictly biological.

For a few days every month, she said, her personality changes-she "hates everyone" and wishes she could just be by herself for those days. Since this happens only during PMS, it is clearly just a hormonal shift, she concluded.

This group of women doesn't happen to know about my dear love for the menstrual cycle and as they continued to talk in turn about menstruation, I, for once, just listened. The verdict was unanimous-thumbs down-and when the hormonal pill that now advertises that women can simply "skip" menstruation came up, the idea was welcomed.
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I stumbled upon the GladRags website about 2 years while 'mindlessly' looking up cloth diapers on google.  I don't even have kids yet, but I grew up on cloth diapers, and want my kids to do the same.  Even though I had always known diapers were bad for the environment, I had never even thought about how pads were just as bad!  I had also started boycotting tampons around this time b/c one of my friends who is a pediatric nurse had a patient with toxic shock syndrome and it freaked me out.

Once I started using GladRags (1.5 years ago), I never looked back…I love them!  Maybe it's just in my head, but I think having a completely cloth pad feels so much cleaner b/c my skin can breathe, as opposed to a disposable pad that has the plastic-like lining that sticks to your underwear.  They have cute designs, prettier flowers, etc…I feel great when I wear them!  And all of my friends are getting hooked on them too…!

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all of the world's most important seeds.

In an effort to preserve crop diversity in the face of a mounting environmental crisis and monoculture farming, The Global Crop Diversity Trust has created an Arctic seed vault that will store millions of seed samples.  These seeds are the foundation of our world's agriculture and their preservation is important for continued food production.

Ok, there is a slight freakout factor with the existence of such a facility.  It means that we have brought our world to such a precarious state that we need to take precautions like ensuring we don't lose our food sources and have to manufacture all of our seeds in a laboratory.  However, this is a very pragmatic approach to preparing for the future even if it does seem "doomsday"-esq.  The fact is that our world is in such a state and we might as well act accordingly.

Another important organization is Seed Savers Exchange.  I just donated to them because I pictured being forced into eating food from a laboratory just to survive and having to take up meat eating for lack of anything else to consume.  Yikes!

I hope that our united efforts reinvigorate heirloom seed preservation and guarantee a world free of genetically engineered agriculture.

Save the Seeds!

Diana

I was recently made aware of this new site, sponsored by Procter and Gamble, to market the Gillette Venus Breeze, a razor for women.  They call the site, the manquarium.  The premise of the site is as follows: you are a girl and you want to find a man.  The manquarium website will help you build the perfect man.  The site asks you to pick a body of a guy in swim trunks (animated of course).  You can scroll through man "types", like the geeky but cute one with glasses, or the person of color with corn rows.  Ok, so now that we have picked our man, we answer some questions about ourselves, like where we want to go on a date or what the best compliment would be.  We put all of this into the site and what we get back is an animation of our man swimming telling us things that the Proctor and Gamble team thinks we want to hear.  Like if you input that you want him to think you are smart, your man will tell you something like your intelligence is hot.

Ok P and G, what are we saying here?  I glean from this website the following…

• women should be looking for a man

• they should pick a man based on how he looks

• clearly we need to shave to find a man 

I mean, that is the bottom line.  This is an ad for a razor.  So we are all heterosexual women who need to snag a man.  

Shame on you procter and gamble.  Shame on you… 

I think one of the biggest problems confronting us today is media consolidation.  The implications of having only six or seven corporations who rule the airwaves and media outlets does not bode well for anyone beyond those who own those corporations.  Dissenting voices don't get heard and big business just gets to further its case.  As with most important issues, it's complicated. Here are some links to understand more.

Now with Bill Moyers (always a common sense voice of reason).

Media Channel (they watch the media) and this link takes you to Michael Copps dissenting statement on today's ruling.

 Seattle Times Editorial

There have been many discussions on the internet recently surrounding a campaign of Always pads entitled, "Have a Happy Period".

Right off the bat, what do these words mean to you?

Are you excited by the idea that your period could be a happier thing?  Are you mad that someone is telling you to have a happy period when it couldn't possibly be happy, what with cramps and irritability and all?  Are you suspect of a marketing campaign?  Are you inspired by a forward thinking corporation?  Are you indifferent? - gosh I hope not!

Well, many women are pretty upset with this campaign.  Apparently, Always prints this slogan on the plastic wrapping of their pads so women can read the words as they change their pads.  Women are appalled at the gall of a company that tries to say that a woman's period could be a happy thing.  There is even a letter circulating among blogs that a woman apparently wrote to the company in disgust over the slogan.

Something we like about GladRags is that they not only help the environment, are great for women's health and save women money, but they also often help to improve a woman's perspective on her period.  The comfort of an all-cotton pad and the act of washing and caring for GladRags put women more in touch with their bodies in a healthy way.  We have written in the past about PMS and how we regret how it always has to be such a stigmatized thing - women are overly emotional and unreasonable during these days and therefore crazy.  We simply do not agree with that.  We have talked about how menstruation does not have to be a curse.  It can be a time for quiet, for reflection, a time to appreciate the gifts of menstruation.  In essence, we too at GladRags hope all women are able to have a happy period.

It is a shame that many women cannot take this approach to their period, but I think that many of these women are taking issue with Always because they don't feel like Always really understands them.  The company is simplifying what a woman experiences during her days of menstruating into urges for chocolate, being angry at anyone she comes into contact with, and feeling ugly.  They're riding all of the cliches, embracing them really, instead of reinventing them.

In order for women to be lead into a better perspective on their periods, I say, let's reinvent!  I used to be frustrated at how reflective I was and emotional during my PMS days.  Now, I appreciate the insights that I come to when I am literally forced into reflection by my body.  I take time out to absorb those insights and perhaps to make changes in my life based off of my new information.

Menstruation is a powerful and nuanced experience.  I hope that more and more women are able to understand and respect that rather than resent it.  And I hope that a marketing campaign doesn't push women who could benefit from a reinvention into resenting their periods even more.

Would you like GladRags Gab to cover a specific topic?  Interested to hear what other GladRaggers think about something you have recently been mulling over?  Well, go ahead then and write a blog entry topic (or two!) in the comments section below.

Hey, thanks - we'll do our best to cover your particular area of interest in the upcoming blog entries.

Amy over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess recently answered some interview questions on her blog sent to her by another blogger.  She asked if anyone else would like to be interviewed and I said, "Yes!"  So, here are her questions.  And, my answers.  Enjoy!

Oh, and if any of you, my fellow bloggers, are interested in my sending you your own individualized set of interview questions for your blog, drop me a line.

1) Would you mind telling me (and any other newbies) a bit about yourself and your background?

Sure thing!  Well, first off, my name is Diana.  Hello.  I began this life in the state of Massachusetts, dreaming of leaving home to travel and do my own "thing".  I did and now I am very happy.  After Spanish speaking in Latin America, attempted Japanese in Kyoto and various other jaunts around this fascinating planet, I moved west.  I currently reside in the extremely livable and generally happy Portland, Oregon.

Various other tidbits - I am the youngest of 7 children (can we say Irish Catholic?!).  I like exploring a variety of cultures (including, for example, woodworkers) and finding out what makes them tick - more or less.  I started eating vegan some months ago and enjoy delving into whole foods cooking and reaping its delicious benefits.  I like my friends, but who doesn't?  Children are amazing.  I don't think it's ok for a person to say that they don't like people.  I really enjoy my alone time.  Oh, and tennis and snowboarding and walking and laughing.

2) How did you first get involved with GladRags? 

I have to say that I was primed for the 'Rags before I started working here.  It all began in Costa Rica.  I was at a birthday party and my friend whipped out this interesting little device - looked like a shot glass.  So, we used it as a shot glass.  We were doing what we knew.  Anyway, turned out to be her new (a.k.a. unused) menstrual cup.  The seed was planted and I bought myself a cup and a cloth menstrual pad.

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I'll be making Walnut-Cheddar Harvest Loaf, vegetarian gravy, brussel sprouts, and cabbage salad to take to Thanksgiving this year.  The Harvest Loaf is from the really old cookbook, Diet for a Small Planet . My copy was used when I bought it and now it is totally ratty because of all the use I've given it. The loaf makes a great entree for those of us not indulging in the big bird.  When I've got time and want to impress friends I wrap it in phyllo and it's quite a presentation. 

While I'm cooking I'll be thinking about all the things I'm thankful for this year.  My healthy family, my wonderful friends, the chance to have had three art exhibits this year, and all the wonderful women I know though working at GladRags - customers, co-workers, store buyers, brokers, suppliers, competitiors/compatriots.

Best wishes to everyone for a safe, happy holiday.

-Brenda 

 Walnut-Cheddar Loaf

45 min 15 min prep
2     tablespoons olive oil
2     cups yellow onions, chopped
1     cup black walnuts, coarsely ground
1     cup cheddar cheese, grated
2     tablespoons lemon juice
2     eggs, beaten
2     tablespoons nutritional yeast
1     teaspoon caraway seeds
1 1/4 cups cooked brown rice (1/2 cup uncooked)
    salt
    pepper
1. Preheat oven to 350.
   2. Saute onions in olive oil until translucent.
   3. Mix with remaining ingredients, salt and pepper to taste and put in an oiled loaf pan.
   4. Bake for 30 minutes.