Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula

The birth partner is also supported in his or her role of caring for the mother during childbirth.

Painful and powerful birth energy moved through her body.

Zen Buddhist wisdom reminds adherents not to confuse the finger pointing to the moon with the moon itself.

The power to give birth originates in the creative life spirit birthing all, the seen and the unseen.

Let us draw strength from birthing women who embody the goddess in her glory. Let us engage with our passions and birth our dreams. Let us meditate on the miracle of our own births. Let us honor the women who, through their very bodies, bestowed on us the gifts of life and life’s companion gift, the mystery of death.

Over the first year of his life, I deeply reflected upon the connections between birth, breath, and death. After breathing my way through fear, I found myself in a place of profound and visceral love, the most precious of life’s gifts. Motherhood is its own threshold.

skilled comfort

Studying philosophy and religion is not the same as practicing it. I longed to experience community rituals and missed the presence of elders and new babies in my life.

At their best, religious traditions affirm the wonder at the heart of existence and provide meaningful contexts for its experience. This mystery allows us to breathe, dream, love, and dimly perceive something beyond time even while we live in time.