Dear First name / friend,
I rose early on the morning of July 26th, 2023. Set my alarm long before the summer would wake the children and send little feet to the side of my bed - their longing for all of the opportunities and possibilities that this season often brings.
Just before falling asleep the night before, I noted familiar feelings of significance deep in my body. Feelings that spoke of how important it would be for me to rise before the house on this particular day, after weeks without - have some time to myself, feel the earth. A quick calculation in the middle of the night: me + just shy of 5hrs of sleep = I'll make it through the next day and night was enough to comprise my ability to welcome the journey ahead.
So when the sun and I made our way to the neighborhood trail, uncharacteristically quiet, no other people around - just us and the conversations of the cardinals, the buzz of the cicadas, the steady of the humidity - it delivered exactly what it ought. The reminder, the solace, the breadth - the satisfaction of need. For the rising of a mother would soon call - and this doula, this mother, would be ready.
