Keep screaming little baby girl

This pretty much sums up the feeling...

Pregnancy and birth analogies are helpful to me in my times of not knowing and waiting.  I feel restless lately in discerning my next vocational steps.  This prayer was given to me by a special mentor when I was at a similar crossroads years ago.  I find myself drawn back to its call for screaming and crying, speaking and breathing.  The images of darkness, waiting, participating in a process that changes me but is not under my control feel all to familiar.  There hasn't been much space in my life these last few weeks for reflection, writing or birth work and my spirit is feeling the effects.  I am posting this today to give myself a bit of a spiritual jump start. 

The Midwife’s Prayer

Keep screaming little baby girl.

Keep practicing using those lungs

And do not stop,

Because hollering will help

To ease the shock

Every time you go through

Another birth.

Practice squalling

So that your voice is clear and strong

When you speak,

And when your breath

Has been knocked from you,

Practice breathing small,

But do not stop

There are miles

Of blood vessels in those lungs;

Use every inch,

And know the voices

That run in those veins,

The voices that fill your breath,

That will inhabit

Your words when you speak

And your groans when you weep

And your mouth when you laugh

And your cries in nights of wild love

And your whispers when you pray.

So keep screaming, little baby girl,

Not for that warm, dark place you lost,

But for all the darkness

You will find inside you

That will need to be spoken

With words only you can say.

--Jan Richardson