Week One: Owe, Birth Art

I don't really know where to begin in explaining to you the depths of pain caused by Tuesdays physical training (ie: 7:00 am military style calisthenics). Today is Wednesday night almost 2 days later, and the worst pain is hitting now. And I thought I was in decent physical shape! All of us are limping around shamefully, we seriously consider whether or not we really need to go up those stairs!
But thankfully, our academic and spiritual classes are not causing that much pain. We have begun all of our classes now, we are covering everything from mercy and justice to the science and details of childbirth to the basics of health education. There is so much to be learned!
Today a thought hit me - that I am so incredible grateful for this gift that God has given me in becoming a midwife and going to serve the filipino people! I was just overwhelmed at points with gratefulness for this calling.
Today we did an exercise in Midwifery class where we painted pictures of our feelings/vision/beliefs about birth. After we painted we each got up to share, and it was interesting to see all the different ideas and art. My painting is in the picture above. For me birth is this incredible moment when all kinds of love are mixing together to create this new and amazing being, and redefine a family. And so the love of the parents, of the mother for her child, of Father God for us, are swirling together in grace and intricate beauty. To me the white represents the innocence of babes and the natural power of birth. The blue represents beauty, and the spiritual reality so present in birth. The yellow is the glory of God so undeniable in the plan and design of human life - who can know birth and not wonder at the Creator?