This post.

I've been reading some articles and blogs lately written by women who are also Christian and single. And I realized I don't have many female friends who are also both single and Christian. Most of my single friends are not Christians, and most of my Christian friends are not single. But regardless, I've been thinking a lot lately about singleness and sexuality within the context of Christianity. I have a lot of thoughts. I had thought I might sort some of them out here, but I'm not up for it right now.

Instead I'll leave you with a couple others: This and also this.

Another midwife, this morning, regarding a birth we did together a couple days ago:

"I was picking out a scarf to wear today, and I had to think of you. I came in the room, and there you were, in the throes of second stage, wearing a scarf! You had your sterile gloves on, and you're wearing a dress and a scarf, and you looked beautiful. With your scarf and your sterile gloves!"

I usually take my scarf off, if I'm wearing one, as the birth nears. Same as sweaters come off for water births. Things like that tend to get in the way.  I had left the scarf on because I knew the birth wasn't imminent. I didn't end up catching that baby myself, taking instead the role of second. But she needn't have worried. The scarf came off when it was time to suture.

Countryside in winter:

Flannel-backed hand-stitched quilts
peeling floral wallpaper
Howling wind
Soap in the birth pool (not such a good idea)
Brand new parents laughing and crying at the same time
Grandmothers' birth stories
Blinding snow, cutting across my headlights
Hypnotizing swirling fog
Following the lone tire tracks down a country road in the middle of the night, unable to read the snow-caked fire numbers, but somehow still finding the right house
Baby floating across the pool, a midwife almost joining him
No diving
Waiting for the restaurant to open
Greasy post-birth breakfast
Going for breakfast is my favourite
Making it to the gas station just after the gas light comes on

I've had some perfectly lovely births over the last month. Sigh. Life is good. Even when the roads and weather are not.