Life is strange. Not that I had to tell any of you that. It’s an obvious truth that just needs to be plainly stated sometimes.
Read moreWell What Do You Know….Mother’s Day is My Day Too
Tag: Community
WCW Mindfulness Meditation and Breathwork Video
My mindfulness meditation and breathwork video is now live, just click on the link below.
It touches on some of the practices that have been useful and continue to be useful to me throughout my infertility and then childless not by choice journeys.
The practice session itself is short, about 9 minutes long, so it’s accessible for beginners. So glad to be sharing this with you all, & I hope it serves you in some way. #worldchildlessweek
You can check out WCW’s other offerings on their FB page. So many great posts this year. I’ve been inspired by all of the writing, and by so many people speaking up and out in such a frank and honest way.
Childless Not By Choice Myth #237
Lockdown – and everything else – must be easy without children
Hello everyone – you can find my post for WCW Comments That Hurt Day HERE.
If there were ever a childless myth I’m motivated to tackle, it’s that our lives are somehow easier. Grrrrr…..I can’t even.
So, glad I got to do it with this year’s WCW theme “Lockdown must be easy without children”.
I wrote this one in an outward facing voice, so it’s meant to share with the outside world.
Also, check out the World Childless Week Facebook page for all of the other interesting posts on this topic. #worldchildlessweek
World Childless Week 2020 To Begin Tomorrow
For the fourth year in a row (!!), World Childless Week will be taking place starting on Monday, September 14. Combining the best of both worlds, WCW serves as a support for our demographic AND as an awareness campaign.
Below are just a few of the webinars on deck for the coming week addressing topics on all things childless.
While many of us need to pace ourselves this week, it’s also a great opportunity to give our demographic some traction in the “outer world”. I encourage you – and myself! – to like and share as much on social media as you reasonably can. Posts, including a couple of offerings from me, will be shared throughout the week on the WCW website, Facebook page and on Twitter.
On Friday the 18th Comments That Hurt Day, look for my post tackling the notion that lockdown – and everything else – must be easy without children. I’m looking forward to the other posts on this topic (also coming out on Friday the 18th) and to see how we address this misconception collectively. As it may have come across on this blog in the past – subtly of course – the myth that childless lives are automatically easier could be my most despised childless myth of all time. Given the stack from which we have to choose, well, that’s really saying something! So I’m glad I and others will have the opportunity to unpack this one. My post is outward facing – voiced to the outside non-cnbc world in other words – so feel free to share it.
And on either Saturday the 19th or Sunday the 20th, look for my Mindfulness, Meditation and Breath Work video. Accessible for beginners, I’m leading us through a brief dabbling into the practices that have been useful and supportive for me throughout my childless journey. I’m really looking forward to having this one shared and hope it serves our community in some way.
As a childless person, I’m very conscious of how much energy I give (or really, don’t give) to the parented narratives that dominate our human conversation. So most of all I’m grateful that this week exists (Thank YOU Stephanie Philips!!), and in that OUR narrative is finally given the space and voice it deserves.
#worldchildlessweek
When the Shoe Is on the Other Foot
Navigating racial inequities with my infertility/cnbc experiences
To say that the tragedy of racial inequality and injustice has made me stop and pause as of late would be an understatement. Read more
Social Isolation on Mother’s Day Not a Novel Concept For Many
And other pandemic deja vus
Well folks, here we are. In a worldwide crisis with no known ending. A crisis that entails a major loss of control, an utter disruption of our normals and a smashed view of the future. We are dealing with a disease that was initially not taken too seriously, a condition whose effect on individuals is intensely swerving and has the capacity to leave major wreckage in its wake. And all in a situation where social isolation remains one of the few ways to lessen bad outcomes, where much time and energy is expended re-learning daily life basics.
We’re fumbling our way through a global pandemic. And for me and many like me, it all feels so familiar. Read more
Precious Visibility
Living the Life Unexpected
Last week, I arrived at my yearly gynecological check up and promptly took a seat that put my back to the majority of the waiting room. It was my first year since multiple failed fertility treatments attending my appointment without Xanax, both in regards to the PTSD that followed my fertility treatments and then my thankfully waning nervous system disorder that arrived three years later. Read more
Out In the World
One of most sidelining aspects of my recovery has been the almost absence of seeing and hearing my experiences talked about in the world.
While infertility is being discussed more openly these days, one is still hard pressed to encounter its mention in conjunction with no baby bookending one’s plight.
And childlessness still seems to be deemed a “choice” by the outside world under all circumstances, no matter how insurmountable.
So when I found out about the filming of Should We Kid or Not in Jody Day’s Gateway Women online community, and that they wanted to include the childless not by choice voice (Huh?? OK!!), I couldn’t say no. Read more
Renunciate
We Are Worthy
Dear Readers,
I miss you! Life has been demanding a lot from me lately, leaving little time for reflection and expression. There are positive resolutions to some of my challenges and obstacles on the horizon though, so I’ll take it. I know I’m late to the party, but I just had to jump in on today’s World Childless Week theme in spite of my personal constraints. And even though it’s already yesterday in the UK. Hope you have or will get to check out WCW’s many offerings. More from me soon, I hope.
XO Sarah
*****
For those of us acclimating to living without the children we expected, certain unyielding realities become abundantly clear amid the implosion of our formerly held world views.
As we relearn the world through our involuntarily childless lens, we are brought face to face with the universally stringent conversational patterns that thoroughly omit our experiences and viewpoints.
*****
It was a golden, crisper than usual mid September day as I made my way to my periodic neurology appointment. I chuckled as I found the office, a drastically cozier and quieter place than the bustling hub where I had always seen my doctor prior. This other location provided a much more cooperative environment for someone in the first part of an autonomic nervous system disorder, as I was now discovering two years and nine months in and approaching its merciful resolution.
I relayed as much to the friendly receptionist as succinctly as I could. “It’s funny what we don’t realize as we’re coping, isn’t it?” Read more
How Not to Talk to a Childless Person
Fertiles Behaving Badly
“Do you know the date?” A woman to the left of me queried as I signed in at the office window.
“Uhhhhh, I’m usually the last person to know. The 7th? But don’t fully trust me on that.”
(Her) “The 7th?”
(Me) “Yeah, how does that sound?”
“Good enough I suppose” she said as we acknowledged each other with a knowing shrug and giggle.
Confirming it was indeed the seventh, she then pushed her phone into my line of vision.
“This is my husband” she stated.
I nodded and responded “Oh, okay”, leaving some space for what I sensed was to come. Read more
infertilityhonesty 