I heard Joan Chittester, a Benedictine nun, speak about 4 years ago, saying that our generation is done, we have created the world as it is and we do not even know the answers to the problems that we have created. Those answers will come from the next generation, who are our inheritors. And our job is to solely nurture and protect that next generation, so they have the capability to develop the answers to what we are leaving them.I thought that it was enough to be a good woman and raise good children and for the last 30 years, I was oblivious to what was happening to our Mother Earth and to us and our fellow beings. I am a 6th generation Californian, my great great grandfather gave Spanish names to many of these local towns; my great grandfather was the first native born Doctor in California and my grandfather was Chief of Staff of the hospital I was born in -St Mary’s in San Francisco; my mother, sister and I went to college here in Berkeley, we know our heritage here in this place, and so many family stories, which includes the killing of Native Americans, gain and loss of land and money, intense striving for material and social success in a raw land, and a privileged life in the world’s most beautiful city.But I want my legacy to be a caring and loving world for my children and grandchildren. This is why EcoBirth’s philosophy is so important to me- it represents a holistic view of all the systems that are immutable in our lives- the Mother Earth who feeds us, the mother who births us and the present generation who inherits our culture, land and woundedness. Deep Womb Ecology, as Diana calls it-the mother’s womb is the babies first environment. They are all interdependent and interconnected and show the care or lack of care with which we live our lives. How we birth our children is an indicator of how we treat our Mother Earth and our own daughters. I want my daughter and daughter in law to be intuitive, strong life-givers, of happy, intelligent, independent, healthy children. I owe them and all our young, to take the responsibility for what I have allowed to happen to their world and to work to heal it as much as possible before I hand it over to them.Thank you so much for participating in our dreams and our hopes today, we were just 4 mothers who wanted a better world, we collaborated over the last 7 months with consensus and respect and tenderness for each other. We are so glad that our dream was realized today and that you were a part of it. All our goodwill goes to you and to our beloved world.
