Sunday at Chinese food lunch after church, there was a leftover fortune cookie that Mom suggested opening for the baby. Can you believe this?

sunstripes on bump

night and winter

Images of night and of winter have special appeal to me as the birth approaches. It's getting cold here in northwest Montana, though as of yet there's no snow. Winter is on the brink, just like my delivery. I know it will be dark and painful. I read and hear that many women who naturally labor reach a point of despair and hopelessness, like they absolutely can't go on; this emotional signpost lets everyone know the baby is about to emerge. I have been embracing this darkness, because for the most beautiful parts of life to happen, death or deep night must.

This is the field outside our window a few nights ago. Do you see the low layer of fog, and the way the moon lights up the foreground rocks?

The baby doesn't get his or her own room - just a wall in ours. You can't see it too well, but the big piece is black foam board that I decoupagued newspaper clippings onto in the shape of a moon. The black sky has dark blue swirls in it and tiny yellow beads for stars. The smaller pieces are tornout pages from a storybook decoupagued onto canvases. The story is called "Moon Mouse" and is about a little mouse whose mother introduces him to the wonders of the night!

Here are a few shots from this morning's thick frost.

give us this day our daily 17 vitamins

Right, so I am not big vitamin fan. Philosophically, I believe that everything I need should be coming in via food, water, and sunshine. Or, in the words of the band Rusted Root, "all I need is food and creative love." I know that in practical terms, our mass-produced food nowadays is crap, making supplements sometimes helpful. But still! Taking prenatals was a huge step for me. When I finally ran out of those a couple of weeks ago, I got a new brand and subsequently discovered that the daily dose of this kind is five pills! Jiiiimminies. Don't we have like atomic particle reduction technology or something? Can't you fit all the nutrients into one pill?

Because of slightly high blood pressure, I've been taking vitamin C (as well as walking and eating well). Vitamin Cs are chewable and thus almost like food. But then last week, my midwife instructed me to also begin with a hawthorne berry supplement to keep the blood pressure in check. The daily dose of that is NINE PILLS. Grand total = 17. This isn't counting the liquid calcium/magnesium supplement I add to yogurt or a smoothie or what-have-you each day. Then there's the raspberry leaf tea to keep ye olde uterus softened. And to top things off, next week I'll be at 35 out of 40 weeks along, so I'm to start in on evening primrose oil pills, which will ease my body toward labor.

Taking vitamins is my fulltime job, and my payment will be a bundle of joy. Speaking of which, it's only six weeks until my due date!

common political ground: helping others

I don't blog about politics, because the whole scene makes me wish I'd been born a simple water buffalo. I enjoy discussions, and I mull issues over long and hard, but if I tried to write about politics myself, I'd only say a bunch of stupid, inaccurate stuff. That being said, this entry is about politics only on the surface; what it's really about is trying to understand each other.

I've been struck lately by the common ground people of various political affiliations share, based on a number of conversations. Specifically, my family - parents, siblings, and spouses - have been emailing back and forth about the candidates at hand. Rachel compiled our whole discussion into a Word document, and it currently stands at 32 pages in pretty small font. We run the whole gammit as far as party loyalties, and between the nine of us, we're probably going to cancel out each others' votes in November.

One issue at the forefront of our discussion is that of social interventions. We seem to basically agree on helping people who truly cannot help themselves with necessities like food, shelter, and care; our faith and consciences call for it. The difference is that some of us (those leaning leftward) feel the ultimate authority for and funding of such endeavors belong to the federal government, while others of us (those leaning rightward) feel it is the duty of individuals, small groups, nonprofits, local communities.

And, that's it. That's pretty much what I wanted to say.

Do you see how those associated with the opposite party as yours are not necessarily evil or greedy or pansy-ish or whatever other labels we throw on each other, at least on this issue? Sure, if you listen to the loudest voices (like those on t.v. or the radio), you'll get a really bad impression of "the other team." But if you spend some time talking to real people who associate with one party or another, you just might find these gems of common ground. Like, A LOT OF US WANT TO HELP PEOPLE WHO TRULY CAN'T HELP THEMSELVES. Cool!

Of course, the hard part is reconciling everybody's ideas for precisely how to get that job done. Granted. But it's nice to pause every now and again to simply understand each other.