Show Thy Sister The Way!

Do you remember how you felt about yourself when you started your menstruation cycle as a young woman? What was said to you when it happened the first time? Were you celebrated for the amazing woman you are? Where you scared? Did you have anyone to show you what to do?

I remember when it happened to me. My stepmother, Donna, cried tears of joy. This said it all to a young girl who had arrived at this pinnacle time in my life. I realized  not only was this a big deal to me, but it was also a big deal to her. She gave me a hug and smiled at me. Sometimes that is all it takes to normalize what is going on inside of your body.

One of my passions is the support of women during pregnancy and birth. I am a birth doula and childbirth educator. I teach natural childbirth and Hypnobirthing classes.  Another thing that makes me tick, is the mentoring of younger ladies. Not all girl have someone to lean on during this time. In days of old, the women would go spend this special time in The Red Tent. When a girl finally got her first period, she was finally able to go away with the mothers, sisters, and friends. What a milestone this was.

Part of the driving force for me to want to help organize and bring The Red Tent Temple to the Fitchburg/Leominster area, is so my daughters may know this amazing tradition. They inspire me everyday to make the world a little better, so when they are on their own, they will have a better chance at survival.

The Red Tent Temple is a sacred space that is safe for ladies and women to come and spend time just being. Sharing what needs to be shared, and hearing what needs to be heard are some of the gifts the tent brings to us. Another gift it gives us, is the gift of nurturing others, and being nurtured by others. Younger ladies learn from our example. We show them how to live, feel, think. We show this by example. Taking care of yourself and others is the best way to demonstrate the value you place on life.

Some of the wonderful things that happen in the tent are easy to talk about. Sharing a potluck meal is such an amazingly wonderful thing to do. As women gather in the kitchen, magic seems to happen. Enjoying some time sitting in a warm space, talking with other women about whatever feels right at the moment is sometimes missing from women's lives. The struggle of balancing work, family, home, and all the other demands of life can be draining. Your wellness will suffer if you don't take the time to nurture yourself. Songs are sung, poetry is read, yarn is knitted. People are available to give you massage, reiki, or even a tarot card reading.

Feel free to gather all the special ladies in your life and find your way to our tent. Bring the younger ladies with you so they may learn of a place of community and support. This will help to build their self esteem and help them be better prepared for life in this crazy world.

The Red Tent Temple of the Twin Cities is a work in progress at this point. We are gathering red furnishings of all types, rugs, blankets, pillows, and any red material that you may wish to donate. No material is to small or large as we are decorating the interior of our tent in red. We are also using smaller scraps to put together a quilt. If you are a practitioner who might be interested in volunteering some time during our monthly meeting of TRTT, please contact Charity Parrott at maternalinstinct@hotmail.com

As soon as we have a space secured, we will schedule our opening retreat. Please follow this blog for continued updates on The Red Tent Temple of the Twin Cities. Looking forward to making this magical thing happen in our community, for you all, and for our daughter.

~Faith & Hope~
Charity Parrott, CLD, CCCE, HCBE

Conception of the Red Tent Temple of the Twin Cities!

This past week, I made a journey. A well needed journey to the wooded area of the Berkshires. I had been invited by my dear friends, Angelique, the lunch goddess, and her new sidekick, Alisa. Those two are more trouble then a litter of kittens in a china shop, but I digress.
The place they invited me too needed no explanation to me. I am a birth doula, and childbirth educator and midwifery student, I am quite familiar with the concept of "the red tent". The tent, they told me, would be a place for women to gather and be nurtured. The culture in which we live has placed so many demands on us women, and gives us few opportunities to just spend time being supported and nurtured. Most other cultrues have support networks in place for their women. This sacred space has been created by women for other women to come to. I hear that strange things can happen in the tent, but only understood what this meant when I arrived and looked with my own eyes.
Along my journey to the tent, I was honored to pick up a friend of mine. I met this friend, Leah, in midwifery school. She is quite a hot ticket so to speak. We talked on the way, about what we thought it might be like. We arrived, finding that the tent was located in a large, lovely meeting room of a UU church. The lobby was adorned with many shades of red material. A small table was prepared and some lovely ladies were waiting to check us in. We wrote our names on the list, and made a small donation of ten dollars each. We were then shown another piece of paper. It had the names of practitioners who provided services such as reiki, massage, spiritual readings, and so on. We were told to write our names down under what interested us, and to go enjoy the tent.
Coming into the tent, I immediately say what was clearly the strangest thing I had seen in a long time. Women, of all ages, were sitting around and doing nothing! Nothing! I just wanted to repeat it because it is so rare that we as women not only shown the value of doing absolutely nothing, but also encouraged to do nothing.
Smells of foods started to draw me toward the kitchen. I walked through some doors and into heaven. I can't remember the last time I had been in a kitchen full of women, just eating, talking, and laughing together. It was a potluck, so the varieties of choices were endless. A little of this, a little of that, and a cup of tea seemed the way to go. Chatting with new friends I was meeting along the way, was so inspiring to me. I took my plate and my tea back out into the tent and settled myself down onto a lovely red floral rug.
We sat and talked, always pausing to introduce ourselves to anyone new who came along. A woman named Shari picked up a drum and started to bang it, another woman picked up another drum and started to chant and sing the most lovely song.
It never occurred to me, at this point that I was about to have a new project. Clueless as ever, I just continued to enjoy the day. Friends were going into side rooms and having massages, and reiki treatments. There was a young lady sitting in a chair and writing in a journal. Over across the room on the floor, two women sat and read tarot cards together. A very talented, and even more patient woman was sitting on the couch and doing needlepoint. There was knitting going on, and little conversations were buzzing everywhere.
We just spent the whole day relaxing together and encouraging each other.
Around 7 o'clock something truly magical was about to begin. My friends Angelique and Alisa came into the room and started lighting candles on the alter. We were called to the circle for the reading of an amazingly inspiring piece of literature, that completely made me start crying. I started crying then, and pretty much continued on and off for most of the evening. We sang as a group, songs such as Lean on Me, and other songs of unity and love. We took turns coming into the center of the supportive circle of women, and celebrated our unique lineages as women, naming our mother, our grandmothers, our greatgrandmothers, and our children. We shared something with the group, or we didn't. The choice was ours to take what we needed and to leave the rest. After we had our share, we were encouraged to cut a piece of the "Goddess Cake" which was an amazing chocolate truffle cake, rich and decadent. The cake had the picture of the goddess on it. It was truly beautiful and delicious. Some shared a poem, some shared a heartbreaking story, some shared and inspiring story. We shared for quite a while, relaxing and listening while everyone had time to share their heart.
Angelique and Alisa then asked us to now come up and write down on a piece of paper, something that no longer serves you. We were to write it down, share it with the group and add it to the bowl to be burned. We did this with enthusiasm. Writing and sharing all these things in our lives that we were looking to change. Empowering it was, to see all the women nurturing and supporting each other this way. Once the last person had a chance to share, we took the bowl together and went outside into the snowy world. We had all removed our shoes and ended up coming outside barefoot or in socks. It didn't matter to anyone, we burned the papers, danced and sang songs as they burned. We left it all behind and reentered the tent refreshed and renewed.
 At this point I was hearing about the date for the next tent. I didn't realize it was a monthly thing. Something in my spirit told me I had to come back here to feel this again. The reality set in, and with much disappointment I told myself it was fine. I didn't need this in my life. That thought entered my head, and was quickly discarded by the surprisingly loud voice inside me that set me straight. The voice told me, the women in your own community need this space and energy in their life. The voice told me that it was just another project, and it was no big deal.
Before I left to go home from the tent, I told Angelique that I was interested in building a Red Tent Temple in my community. She told me, I went to one in November and had this one up and running by January. This to me was just simply amazing. She told me how they put word out for help, and help came. They  put word out for material, and furnishings and they were quickly donated. I was so inspired and have been ever since that day.
I came home after driving for hours in a terrible snow storm. I immediately started posting my intentions to my friends on FB and they were all very supportive. From there, I started a FB page for  The Red Tent Temple of the Twin Cities.
I thought we needed to incorporate both Leominster and Fitchburg in this particular tent. These sister cities are closely located and have the resource to do so much good. I plan on tapping into as many of these resources as I can until we have our own sacred space to nurture in this Twin Cities area. Space needs to be found,  red material and other furnishings need to be donated (blankets, pillow, etc.). Practitioners who are willing to donate some time are being called. Word is being spread, and hope is being created. I hope you follow us on this amazing journey till every town and city in the United States has one of these Red Tent Temples for the women of the community. For more information, or to donate email Charity Parrott at Maternalinstinct@hotmail.com

This is the first meeting of The Red Tent Temple of the Berkshires GROW