Giving Birth, Now and Then

February 20, 2016 by JoAnna 19 Comments

Isn’t it great when you are finally about to do something you’ve been excited about, and they you’re nervous as hell? Well, I’m not as nervous about the art show as I was, I’ve got everything organized and the last little painting done. But I do hope I will relax and enjoy this weekend as an artist.

It reminds me of getting ready to have a baby. My paintings are a little like my babies. Not a lot, but a little. I created them. Okay, God helped. But I worked on them, and now, I’m going to sell them, or offer them for sale. They can spread love and joy and whatever if I sell them, or give them away, like the books I’m done with or the clothes I don’t wear. They’re not doing anyone any good in my closet. But I can’t help but have a little attachment to my paintings. Hey, I can make more though, unlike babies. I can’t make babies anymore. And that’s a good thing.

I remember the first few contractions as labor started, remember like it was yesterday and not 22 and 30 years ago. I remember how the contractions got worse and worse. No let’s just say stronger and stronger. I had decided to go all natural with my first baby – no meds at all. Ha! After several hours of labor, I was having some doubts about my plan. After about ten hours, I realized: I can’t do this. Not without some medication. The contractions were starting to feel like my hips were coming apart.

Now I know that technically, it would have been possible for me to have a baby without any pain medication. Women have done it that way for a very long time through history. That’s why after the first shot of stadol started to wear off, and I was told it was too late for another shot, I took a deep breath and started getting ready to push. That was with my first baby. With my second, I knew I’d probably get some drugs. My water broke before labor, and after walking for a couple hours to see if labor would start, I finally let them give me some Pitocin to induce labor. An hour or so later, the nurse came in and said my contractions weren’t very strong, so she turned up the pitocin. Then, a few minutes later, I knew they were plenty strong. When it was time to push, the doctor wasn’t there yet and they told me not to push. Ha! Tell that to my body.

I could go on and on about childbirth that happened 22 years ago. Now, I’m birthing my creativity. It didn’t exactly hurt to paint, except my neck and hands do ache just a tiny bit, but I have poured my soul into some paintings, just a little. Fortunately, my soul is also fed by creativity. And art can be therapeutic. I can finally make good on the promise I made to paint an angel helping the person I saw sitting on the curb outside the fast food restaurant a couple of years ago. I didn’t have time to stop and buy him a chicken biscuit, but I said a prayer asking angels to help him and made a plan to paint that some day. Here’s the sketch I did a year ago:

And here’s part of what came out a few days ago:

From  a yet to be titled painting by JoAnne Silvia

Well, you never know what’s going to come out of a stream of consciousness post. Today’s prompt was “contraction.” That’s when I thought of contractions during childbirth/labor. Then Linda clarified: “Make the first word of your post a contraction.” 

To join in the fun and adventure of Saturday SOC, visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/19/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-2016/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!