If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. - Rene Descartes As I am writing this, my Sister Darlene is in the hospital because she had to have a hysterectomy. She is sad. And I am sad with her. Women have always had issues with their wombs as long as I can remember. I have heard women cursing their uterus as they cramped and bled. Hormones drove them crazy as they experienced the whole spectrum of emotions! Not all, but many do. And only too many, including men, curse the body part that housed them for the first nine months of their lives. The womb was our comfort, our safety, our home, our center, our co-creator. There were little miracles that grew inside of us. Every single one of us came from the womb and it is considered sacred by many religions and cultures, especially back in history. Poets have written metaphorically about the womb. Today I am angry at the medical profession. I wonder why there are no alternatives offered. Darlene is not even at what is considered stage one cancer. It is completely reversible and curable at this stage. There will not be any chemo or radiation. Their answer, and the only answer, was to yank the whole thing out. To yank out that sacred center. No alternatives presented, except to not have surgery and it was not recommended. I am not talking about someone with stage 3 or 4 cancer. Or someone who is suffering so greatly that the best thing that can happen is to surgically remove the breasts, uterus or whatever the troublemaker is, but only if necessary. I truly appreciate the Doctors and Nurses work they do in saving lives. I am talking about someone who is scared because there is cancer. Barely. And nothing else was offered. It has to be this way or no way. Instead, it is seen as something to just get rid of because it is causing problems. And I am more recently surprised at the rash of women who have had a full or partial hysterectomy. I personally know 15 women who have had hysterectomys. That does not include the customers I have chatted with or clients or strangers willing to tell me their story. It reminds me of a fast food outlet. Get in line, put in your order, take it out and head home. Where has the honour or the sacredness gone regarding women’s wombs? It feels to me as though our body parts have become expendable. “Off with their heads!” screams the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland. “Off with their breasts and out with their wombs and ovaries !” says the Doctors. It almost feels like a good old fashioned “Witch Hunt”. Only instead of burning us at the stake or drowning us, we are having our wombs removed. Again, a women’s center of power is the target. It’s sneaky. The system even has women convinced this is the best way to go. It’s covert. And in our trust and naiveté we agreed to it. Please, please do not feel badly if you have had a hysterectomy or breast removal already. You did what you had to under the conditions that you were presented with. It wasn’t until this moment I realized how I felt and so am offering another way of looking at it, even if it feels wrong to you. I feel we need to start asking questions about our alternatives. We need to be doing research about our conditions and our bodies. We need to be respected for the powerful women we are and it needs to be recognized that we are giving up much more than a body part that is causing a problem. Each and every woman I have spoken with who has had this procedure had to grieve the loss of herself in some way. What would happen, I wonder, if we were to love that part of ourselves whether it’s been taken from us or not? What if we were to love being a woman? Or at the very least, appreciate. What if we were to be grateful for our wombs, because if it wasn’t for them, none of us would have been birthed here. Let’s honour our power as women, like the wise women of old, who celebrated our cycles . Let’s realize we are sacred and all that we birthed are sacred. Perhaps by loving our wombs, there would be fewer problems with them. I propose that as one very powerful alternative. May we all be blessed with the acceptance of ourselves and honour our bodies for the miracles they are. Rev. Sheryl M. Hinds
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 08:47:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015