SOLIDARITY IS ANOTHER NAME FOR LOVE
We are women from around the world, shocked and shaken by the genocide and ecocide, in Ukraine.
We saw the image of the pregnant woman on a stretcher coming out of the bombed maternity hospital, in Mariupol where 20,000 civilians at least have died, and hundreds of children have died.
We saw Marcus Yam’s images of the women in the basements of Kharkiv, going without adequate food, water and medical care for weeks. We watched the images feeling powerless.
But then...
a seed, a spark, a dream
... seemed to touch us all simultaneously.
FEEL, THINK, DO
Like a river of birds in migration, we were moved to come together in circle one night on zoom in early March, and share with tears of grief and rage that, which was breaking our hearts.
As our hearts opened with compassion, we invited each one to think together creatively about possible ways to collectively act on behalf of our sisters there, especially the late term pregnant ones in dire living situations.
Then we all began a miraculous whirl of community development and organizing on a Facebook page and Zoom over two months, meeting and developing relationships with birthworkers across Poland who were touched by Varvara’s writing, Asiya’s thoughtful planning, and Nadiia's sensitivity in working with women coming from her hometown of war-struck Kharkiv and her desire to bring others out of danger.
Art by Asiya Karimova
Global birthworkers groups joined us, connected by senior midwives at The Farm Midwifery Center in Summertown, TN, and they brought resources that are translated and linked on the resource page for use across the region.
Many of the Polish midwives have copies of the books on peaceful birth published on The Farm Community by Ina May Gaskin and translated into many languages!
The Farm Community has linked us with the Global Ecovillage Network across Europe, which is working to create home space with Ukrainian refugees (ecovillage.org).
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We found resources for transportation out of Ukraine, and valiant women still inside the country helping so many. Our collaborators are listed on the Resources page - among them, many leaders from the peace community, involved since the 1960 and 70s.
WE ARE: teachers, midwives, farmers, psychotherapists, healers, writers, activists, artists,
singers, storytellers, dancers, mothers, sisters, daughters called together down out of the hierarchies to meet each other heart to heart, soul to soul, and find the power of sisterhood and solidarity.
We’ve come together to use our hearts, minds, and will to ACT in a thousand ways, like the resilient beautiful sunflowers we all are. Shining our faces toward the east and west standing together on the motherland there in spirit, transmuting the poison into promise, despair into hope, in that beautiful war-torn land.
Sunflower Birthing Circles shared our birth announcement on Easter and we offer ourselves to build the webs of women’s ancient wisdoms that can be balm and comfort as well as the soulforce to stop the wars, and bring to birth peace on earth, mother to mother, grandmother to grandmother, sister to sister. We stand together and invite you all to to dream a new world that is so close we can almost hear it breathing. One holy innocent child at a time.
The inspiration for this work comes from Masha Petryk, who is a long-time friend of the Morningstar House:
