This is a week of new beginnings for me. I spent Sunday and Monday keeping an eye on my best friend’s four year old, my godson Sidney, as his wife April was preparing to deliver their second son by home birth. Monday at 11AM I took Sidney to the park; when I brought him home at 2 PM his new brother Ezra Jai was there waiting to say hello. Ezra is Hebrew for “helper’: Jai is Sanskrit for “victorious” – such a beautiful name. Then we ordered Thai food with Uncle Paul and sat around talking and eating while April and Sidney napped on the couch, the doula Emory and midwife Cara packed up and filled out some forms, and Ezra Jai rested in Barry and April’s bedroom. It felt natural and wonderful; nothing like the hospital births that I’d previously experienced. As their inspirational midwife Cara said, “Pregnancy is not a medical condition; birth existed before doctors.” <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nCara quickly amended that to acknowledge that for some woman it makes
\nsense to deliver in a hospital, and of course if needed April would
\nhave been rushed in. But everything went perfect, she was a goddess,
\nand I’m now a big proponent of home birthing when it makes sense. Plus
\nyou get a big hot tub in your house for a few days.<\/p>\n
Another new beginning – I’m on the board of the Interdependence Project
\nand regular contributor to the blog. We launched on Beliefnet.com this
\nweek which is a very interesting development for us and for me. I was
\nraised in a Jewish home, and not just “culturally Jewish” (if there is
\nsuch a thing) – we did Friday night Sabbath, I went to temple every
\nSaturday, and did weekday religious studies well into high school.
\nBut my folks were also open to other traditions and had me and my
\nsister keep an open, questioning mind about how the universe works. <\/p>\n
I’ve found that there’s a lot to love in every religious tradition,
\nwhether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or any of the other myriad ways we
\nhumans have found it worthwhile to express our belief in higher
\npowers. Although I deeply respect all religious traditions, I do not
\nidentify religiously at this point in my life – not Jewish, not
\nBuddhist – and I have enjoyed the Interdependence Project for it’s
\nnon-dogmatic, non-secular approach to making Buddhist philosophy
\nrelevant to my very (over)connected 21st century life. <\/p>\n
Collectively we are not a religious organization, though the teachings
\nof a religion inform our purpose, stripped of most of the ritual and
\n(mostly patriarchal) hierarchy. We focus on Buddhist-based meditation
\ntechniques and philosophy as a springboard for becoming more
\ncompassionate and engaged members of our own lives and communities.
\nHere at Beliefnet.com, so informed by faith and in the company of so
\nmuch true religion, it will be interesting and exciting to see how we
\noccupy this space and how we become part of this community.<\/p>\n
Thank you for having us here. I am energetically bowing to you all. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a week of new beginnings for me. I spent Sunday and Monday keeping an eye on my best friend’s four year old, my godson Sidney, as his wife April was preparing to deliver their second son by home birth. Monday at 11AM I took Sidney to the park; when I brought him home…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\n