Life Choices: The Teachings of Abortion-Talking About the Book
Life Choices is taking me on quite a journey. Ideas I’ve been living with for most of my life are now out there in the world making their way into the wider conversation. It’s exciting and gratifying to say the least. My talk and signing in Denver at the Tattered Cover bookstore went well. What an honor to have been invited to that famous place! I loved the conversation with the people who came. Someone asked me about the “pinching of the leaves to let the mother plant grow,” which is the defining statement of Life Choices and was the impetus for me to write the book in the first place. Someone else asked about how spiritual healing happens around abortion experiences. Another person asked me to discuss the connection between nature and consciousness, in other words, why it’s important to spend time in the woods! Finally, another big piece was a question about how to stop the meanest most violent attacks against women’s health services and needs. We talked about all these and more. Heady stuff I know, but it’s all good. I’ll start with the last one first. The main way I know to deal with the virulence of the movement against women’s health needs is to remain active, educated and strong ourselves and never forget how complicated and deep the issues are. Reproductive and sexual freedom goes against the power of patriarchy. The whole idea of women’s freedom is new from a historical point of view. The idea that a woman is an individual apart from her relationship with a man or men is still completely unacceptable in many parts of the world. Narrow religious views that limit the freedom of individuals are still dominant in certain circles. I think it’s best to cultivate compassion in relation to the ignorance and fear that drives the thinking of many anti-choice people. Because the politics is absurd and baffling as well as dangerous and infuriating, we have to remember what is true and real about women’s lives. In other words, stay true to real life. Lastly, each of us has to take good care of ourselves. Moving on to nature and consciousness. A huge subject. The person who asked the question was asking me to explain the value of spending time alone in wild nature; basically, what happens out there? I responded that when you set an intention to spend time in the company of more-than-human nature and to be outnumbered by non-human life forms—animals, plants, and other earth bodies—you will find as you open to their way of being and relax yours, that there is a flow of life force through everything and a natural communication that mirrors your essence and helps you to know yourself better and understand what you are doing here on the planet. There is much more I could say of course, but that’s it in a nutshell. If you are grappling with an unresolved issue in your life such as a crisis pregnancy, you will find a level of support there that you can’t find anywhere else. My approach to spiritual healing after an abortion depends on the person seeking the healing. If someone has a religious affiliation, I encourage her to go talk with someone in her group. If that is not possible, or even if it is, I proceed in counseling by asking a lot of questions to help the person explore her belief system and conflicts she might be experiencing about having decided to have an abortion. For anyone, whether she has a religious affiliation or is independent of religion, or someone who...
Read MoreAbortion Healing, Feminism, and the Earth
I’ve heard from a good number of women and men since Life Choices came out in September. Sometimes it’s about their own abortion healing, and sometimes it’s about their desire for more depth, clarity, and kindness in the public dialogue about abortion. Everyone I speak with expresses alarm and sometimes disgust about the current political battles around abortion. It’s all I can do not to be upended by the severe antipathy of the political debate.There is an urgent need for us to once again fervently and courageously hold our ground. The big lesson is about trusting our own voices. It’s about not being manipulated by people, especially people in power, who claim to have our best interests at heart but who really don’t care at all about our lives. Our real lives I mean, and the real life of our planet. The attack being waged against women is nasty and ferocious, and led by narrow thinking, usually ignorant, mostly male legislators trying to turn back the most basic of services that provide safety and good health to women. And how are they doing it? By hollering about abortion, as if abortion were the worst thing in the world. By speaking of abortion as a life taker when it is really a life giver. By lying about the real lives of women and men. By playing on the fear and embarrassment most people feel about anything related to sex. And worst of all, by pretending they care about women, which they do not, because if they did, they would know not to wipe out services that are essential to the well being of women and their families. The current situation can make you a feminist in an instant. There’s no getting around it. In April, Terry Tempest Williams (one of my favorite authors), felt called to write about the furious attack on our health options. What is good for women is good for humanity. The world’s population is rising as the earth’s resources are being depleted. This is the conversation we need to engage. Tending to women’s reproductive health is tending to the health of the planet. I was on the radio the other day being interviewed about abortion healing and the ideas in Life Choices. The wonderful people at KGNU, our local community radio station, were passionate, intelligent, committed, and supportive. I’m grateful. I’ll do a book talk and signing at the Tattered Cover (Colfax Store) in Denver on Friday, November 4, 7:30 p.m. What a time this is to be re-entering the...
Read MoreA Special Thank You
Today is the birthday of my dear friend and spiritual teacher, David LaChapelle (Oct. 8, 1952-July 21, 2009). David served the world through deep heart teachings and an extraordinary ability to perceive psychological, spiritual, and scientific—especially ecological—phenomena, often simultaneously. The result was an intriguing mix of usually separated truths joined with a poetic sensibility when he spoke or wrote. He linked everything, whether it was the most exquisitely personal piece of daily life or a grand scientific theory. He pointed the way forward to a more unified way of living on the earth. David saw through a lens of layered perception and a direct intuitive line to the All. He mirrored those of us who knew him with an accuracy that allowed us to melt into ourselves and surrender to our soul’s mission. He did it all with an unremitting love of each individual’s essence and the essence of the world. In Navigating the Tides of Change David wrote about how “accelerated change is pushing us to a new understanding of our role upon the planet.” Much of this understanding is about learning to care for the planet and for ourselves with our hearts open. In my book, Life Choices, I bring some of what I learned with David to issues that are intimately female but that effect everyone. I thank him for the support and love he gave to help me to go my own way and pursue the rightness of my path. Happy Birthday, David! On another note, I am touched by the many emails and other words of support that are coming in for Life Choices. Here are some upcoming events: I’ll be interviewed on Boulder’s KGNU radio station – Friday, October 21, 8:30-9:30 a.m. I will sell books at a benefit show for Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center – Saturday, October 22, 8 p.m. at Boulder Theater. I’ll be at Tattered Cover (Colfax store) for a book talk and signing on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 7:30 p.m. Please join me! Please make a comment below if you feel so moved. I would love to hear from...
Read MoreLife Choices Empowers Women
Life Choices: The Teachings of Abortion is now widely available. I had my debut talk and signing at Boulder Bookstore on Tuesday to a packed room of current and new friends (around 60! I was told). There was a lot of heart and a lot of love in the room, as well as a depth of thought and consideration about the need to thoroughly examine the ways in which we can engage with the abortion issue to improve women’s lives. What an auspicious start to the unfolding of this book’s path! Several people spoke to issues of power and empowerment in women’s lives. That empowerment comes as we open to making conscious choices about caring in our lives—who and what we care about and where and when we do the caring. As more and more people move in that direction, through confronting the necessities of their lives (including making choices about pregnancy), we will develop the skills to make the same kinds of choices in relation to the whole earth. Moreover, we will become clear that we and the earth are one and the same and that what we do to her we do to ourselves. We can be inspired by the courage with which women face their lives, and embrace all of life’s difficulties as we protect and preserve the only home we have—our body and the body of the earth. Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center will have a “funraiser” on October 22 at Boulder Theater. I’ll be selling my book there. I’ll be at Tattered Cover (Colfax store) for a talk and signing on Friday, November 4, 7:30 p.m. I’m looking forward to it very much. Please join me, and tell all your...
Read MorePro-Choice is Pro-Life as Far as the Earth is Concerned
Pro-choice is pro-life as far as the Earth is concerned. My new book, Life Choices: The Teachings of Abortion, synthesizes this understanding. I’m excited to be able to offer it to you. I want so much for us to move beyond the violence of the fierce and consuming struggle to keep abortion safe and legal. A spiritual ecology of relationship, connection, and love—of heart—along with a clear feminist vision can help this along. My hope is make a contribution to this through the ideas in Life Choices. The book has been a long time coming – over twenty years. It took all that time because the deepening of my experience of connection to the All of Life had to reach a point of solid knowing that my own nature as a human being and as a woman was part of nature, not separate from it, and where I had direct experience of the oneness that unites all of life. As my life unfolded, the strength and inclusivity of my growing perspective allowed me to delve into some of the more difficult aspects of the abortion issue. Nature’s ongoing creativity is a life-death-life “choice making.” It is from this point of view that I see the life giving aspect of the abortion choice and say that pro-choice is pro-life. Life Choices is now available for pre-order by clicking on one of the icons in the column on the right. It will be in the bookstores by late September. I will give a talk and book signing at Boulder Bookstore on Tuesday, September 27, 7:30 p.m. It’s an exciting...
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