GladRags Gab

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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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.

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I find myself thinking about food a great deal lately.  I started eating vegan about a year ago in an effort to be more intentional with the food that I was eating.  My sister gave me Omnivore's Dilemma for Christmas and now I fear corn (Michael Pollan writes about the over-abundance of maize in our packaged foods.  Santa (aka my mom) gave me a pressure cooker and now all I dream about is cooking beans instead of can opening them.

I want more.  More of less.

While on 43 Things I found this entry:

I'm backing off snobby, complicated cooking. Some of it takes too long, is too costly, or is just not as great as the recipe sounds.

Lots of fishes can be poached to perfection. So can eggs. The trick is to keep on the edge of boiling pot not boiling. And so many good sauces are now available commercially.

I'm done messing around with organic sugars and flavored sea salts and odd spices that cost 30 dollars a smidgeon. Simplifying and eating well should go together rather than be opposing forces.

I understand what this person is saying.  We get excited about climate change, we want to make change, so we go on an organic shopping spree.  Good effort, but just a bit more of the same, no?  My town, Portland, OR, is chock full of "foodies".  There is really good food here.  I like the care with which food is prepared, but it is just so over the top.  I find it to be interesting that even though many in my city no longer have to truly worry about the basics - food, shelter, water, and clothing - we still obsess over them all with fancy restaurants and culinary schools, LEED Certified millions of dollars buildings, purified water in sleek bottles, and designer cordoroys made of organic cotton.  I'm not sure we're really liberated from these basics if they take up so much of our time.  But I guess life is in the details, huh?

Even if not conscienciously, I really do have such high and unrealistic expectations of the luxuries that life should entail.  I wonder how long it would take me to unlearn that sort of outlook on life.  Even in my progressive, environmentally-minded community I do not seem to be able to find a truly simplified life.  We're all still United Statesians - buying, working, distracting too much.  Just el otro lado de la tortilla, or two sides of the same coin.

So, my question for anyone out there is - How do you feel about the organic consumer culture?  And what is the Decapitator trying to say?!

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