Hrabana

I did look.

I looked high and low for an early medieval woman that inspired me. And then as my reading took me further and further afield I had a revelation. Just because I am a woman does not mean that only women can be my role models. I had been being sexist in my search for inspiration.

Hrabana, then, is the feminine form of Hrabanus, student of Alcuin. If Hrabanus was called Maurus after the student of benedict, why cannot I in turn, as an admirer of Alcuin, be like his favorite student.

This can be a repository of my scholarly writing and thinking as well as space for commentary on the writing and research process. I find the blog environment is quite conducive to my writing persona, and though this is perhaps an unusual format for formal work, if it produces good results then I am willing to be unorthodox.

Welcome.

Withdrawal

I LOVE Reading. I love it so much that sometimes it is painful.
First, I read too fast, and too obsessively. So if I want to check out a book from the library, I either have to find a book long enough to prevent my reading it all in one sitting or I have to get books in a series and get all of them. And sometimes I have no intention of actually staying up all night to finish a book, but once I enter the other Realm, time stands still.
I'm not kidding. When I am Off-World, people talk to me, I take phone calls, I walk and talk and interact, all without really being there. Out of body experience.
I do better on the 3rd and 4th reads of a book. Better about putting it down.

But what do I do when I have finished a book, or series in this case, and have nothing else to read (that isn't work reading) and am still kind of lost in the other Realm. If you have never experienced this, it feels like being homesick.

I am an addict.

For a while I gave up reading poetry and fiction because I finally admitted to myself that reading was interfering with my ability to be a human being on the planet earth. But I have taken it up again, recognizing that a reading me is the real me, but I am trying to find balance.

This agony feel sharper right now perhaps because the Realm has replaced good local friends of late. Moving preparations kept me too busy and created an inability to remain connected with people from whom I was about to be parted, and here in the new place I do not know anyone yet. Connection takes time.

So I will do two things, three will bring me into balance:
1. I will go the public library tomorrow and get a library card and come home with a book to read that is longish and that I have not read before and I will strive to read it judiciously.
2. I will throw myself into my work, which has too long sat fallow.
3. I will write more, blog, poetry, fiction.

Any other tips for book withdrawal are welcome, y'all!

In the Beginning, there was Breastfeeding

Put your left foot in...
I'd like to post every day. So I have been working on re-design of my layout to this flowering red design, and coming up with a writing plan. The more I write, the more I LOVE to write. Hopefully this will be a continuing trend. But I am still getting to know myself as an adult writer. I wrote all the time when i was a kid, and now that 'being like child' is more important to me than ever, I must find my writing voice again. AND it will hopefully have the added benefit of kickstarting my research work. So for a while I am might need to FORCE myself to write everyday, and this little blog will help me out! SO, I am going to be begin this enterprise by addressing a host of topics that have been on my mind.

Get ready for the N Word!
Nipple. There I said it. And now for some TMI. I have nipples. I know, it's true. You maybe are thinking that this would be an obvious statement, and so did I. Until I am in the hospital post-birth, trying to nurse my new baby, and my nipples are refusing to pop up like the nurse is saying should happen. Flat. Flat as a pancake. This nurse helps me to use a nipple shield, a clear, thin little silicon device that resembles the nipple of a baby bottle. My little man's powerful sucking action was able to achieve what mother nature could not - breaking the scar tissue (a genetic defect) that was turning my nipples into scared turtles. After several weeks I was, with a great amount of patience and perseverence on both our parts, able to wean him off of the shield and nursing progressed well after that. Although my let-down was never very much until several months down the road.
I have many other accomplishments in my life, academic, relationships, work, house. But successfully breastfeeding in a world that mainly discourages feels like one of my best successes. Encouraging breastfeeding is all the rage, of course, but it often amounts to just lip service. How can your doctor be said to be "promoting" BF when s/he also takes kickbacks and samples from formula companies and hands them to you while saying, "If you are worried your baby is not getting enough milk, just give him some formula." WHAT? That just starts a cycle of decline! AND it sends the message to the mother that she SHOULD be worrying about her baby not getting enough, never mind that Baby seems healthy and happy and thriving.

FORMULA COMPANIES are NOT humanitarian organizations, and don't forget it!

They are BIG BUSINESS. BIG BIG BIG BUSINESS. As such, it is their job to sell you their product, even and especially at the expense of something wholesome and healthy and natural that costs almost nothing monetarily. And they peddle the supposed 'convenience' and 'goodness' of their product with all the cunningness that they posess.

We must be just as resourceful, and just as unashamed of the choices that we make, even when they are counter-cultural.

More to come, y'all!