Contrasts in the Tests.

breast feeding mother in a poor country. 

Beauty as poise is a concept a woman emerges from not as an ordinary, but as an adventurous soul. There is art to class and mystery to purpose. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Mothers Mothering

Katherine Heigl a donné naissance à un petit garcon! 

Jerry Hall by annie leibovitz. Suckling.

an Honor to Mothers

Happy Mother's Day in Chinese is  母親節快樂 ! 


Jack Feinberg said of his wife on this day: Mother's Day: "A lot of great mom's out there, but I'm partial to the mom of my children, Yaju Feinberg. She's keeps the whole family in line and has taught me how to be a better parent and husband even though it is a very slow learning curve. Keep Your Lovelight On, Happy Mothers Day!"

It is a profound admission admitting vulnerability as a capacity to learn to be a better man. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/14/17  

"Sometimes one cannot find the words to correspond with, or express 'awe'. . ."

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 5.14.17

photo of Cosetta Chantal

breast feeding her tiny baby.

Mother Earth, Nut, the sky Goddess , arching from horizon to horizon is a child of Shu and Tefnut.

sitting quietly in park as a mother.

Emmanuela Obioma Ani. July 8, 2009.  

"Nothing is as precious as young adulthood. Protect it and guard it with wisdom, wise counsel, and the mysteries that envelope your spirit." [May 14, 2010]

"Seven years later I feel the same way. I trust you have been growing in spirit and mind!" [May 14, 2017]

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

This is Sacred: lovers naked embrace

body of perfection of an older woman

Many women don't know this but great sources of pride arise in husbands and fathers who know their women's weight gain is connected and linked to their relationship with their woman. Her body (like his) makes promises to the other, and the birth of a child signifies something holy and unattainable by others outside their paradigms or shifts in the powers of their body's spirit, and their shared spiritual bond. It is significant weight gain after birth, during marriage and alongside the evolving of a relationship between a man and his woman that lends something solid and intangible to the way a man lovingly regards his wife in public and watches her naked around the house. No one knows their secrets or what it means to walk with a woman who has given so much while trusting in your ability to protect her, be a man to her and love her with every bit of the lust, the need for her, and the desire to lust after her that leads him back into her bed again and again and again! Gained weight is an accumulation of powers, and properly done in a sacred manner the body's shape becomes the sacred within women and the man who is man to her.

I know and recognize the run from weight gain currently popular but women in this league, more succinctly this mindset, found the language and sound of the 'sacred feminine' foreign, offensive, elusive and menacing if they peek into what it is to care for their wombs, as the care for their souls. Such depth goes against the cultural grain and understandably so. Western history reeks of what white men did to their women who ventured into the sacred powers of womanhood. They killed them after torture and ridicule! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.16.14

breast feeding mother of 3, Maha al Musa nursing

BEARing it ALL!

There are two controversies here that are socially debated and vacillating between decency and indecencies and both are basic and natural to the processes of women, and essentially comforting to a baby: their mother's naked body and breast feeding! This riddle is really something to behold in a time, in a culture priding itself on the illusion of its advancements in its disciplines, and acceptance of lifestyles, and people. The human condition of vulnerability doesn't sit well within the frame work of an apex predator; nor does the full acceptance of Womanhood make the current state of masculinity comfortable with its inconsistencies. Manhood and Womanhood collide within the ideals of their identity not because the two are from different planets, but because the two were separated at the inception of the birth of the ideas of power within the relationships that governed survival, and privilege in American life! 

Think back to long ago times that support the American notion of time, sex, place, dignity, property, and the stories that come together to agree to exist as social mores, and look at the unraveling of mutual agreements to make sense of the violence permeating in homes and streets throughout the American landscape. The entire controversy is avoiding exposure to the depth of living as Messiahs. Our cultural patterns avoid examining its prophets. We live in great fear of the wise 'knowing' of initiated awareness that deepens the experience of living human and with humanity. Our game keeps people dumb enough, and crude enough to support a standard vaulting itself above the natural laws of existence and abundant living co-existing as wholeness! ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.06.14

pregnant Monica Bellucci 

MONICA BELLUCCI

The Italian actress showed off her bump for a worthy cause - to protest the country's laws against the use of donor sperm - on the August 2004 cover of Italian Vanity Fair. Six years later, the second-time mum, 45, posed again (in black lingerie) for the magazine's April 2010 issue. "Women who have children late like me are always told how brave they are," says Bellucci. "But I don't feel brave, I just feel very lucky."

Photo: Vanity Fair

Sloth bears

Sloth bears 

breast feeding mother - Olivia Wilde, actress for Glamour magazine! 

“Breastfeeding is the most natural thing,” Olivia Wilde told the magazine, regarding the pose in which she’s wearing a Roberto Cavalli dress and Prada shoes while nursing her naked infant son. “I don’t know, now it feels like Otis should always be on my breast.” Wilde added, ”Being shot with Otis is so perfect because any portrait of me right now isn't complete without my identity as a mother being a part of that.”

her Story

MOTHERS in ISLAM

Many parts of the world will celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, focusing on mothers and their contributions to their families. Since there is a negative stereotype of how Islam views women, many people may not know that mothers specifically and parents in general are held in very high esteem in the faith. There are verses in the Qur’an and hadith that emphasize the burdens that a mother carries and the respect that should be accorded to her. In this post, I will focus on the importance of mothers in Islam.
The verses of the Qur’an that address the mother emphasize the difficulties of pregnancy, labor, and breastfeeding and the need to respect one’s mother. These verses many times mention parents in general but go into detail in regard to the mother because she faces challenges that a father does not. Verse 15 from chapter 46 illustrates this point.

And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning [period] is thirty months. [He grows] until, when he reaches maturity and reaches [the age of] forty years, he says, “My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to work righteousness of which You will approve and make righteous for me my offspring. Indeed, I have repented to You, and indeed, I am of the Muslims.

This verse begins with a command for both parents, but goes into detail in regards to the mother and the difficulties she endures. The command to treat parents with kindness means to treat them with respect under all circumstances, to obey them unless it goes against an edict of the faith, and to care for them in old age as they cared for you as a child.

A man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet (PBUH) said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your father. (Bukhari, Muslim)



Family happiness

 A man once consulted the Prophet Muhammad about taking part in a military campaign. The Prophet asked the man if his mother was still living. When told that she was alive, the Prophet said: “(Then) stay with her, for Paradise is at her feet.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

On another occasion, the Prophet said: “God has forbidden for you to be undutiful to your mothers.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari)
 
In the first hadith, the Prophet highlights the importance of the mother over the father by repeating “your mother” three times and then saying “your father” once in response to the man’s question.

The second hadith illustrates the significance of the mother by placing caring for her over going to war to defend Islam. In other words, caring for his mother is also a way for a man to serve God. By saying that entrance into paradise is linked to caring for and respecting a mother, the Prophet accords them a great honor. In the last hadith, the Prophet asserts that disobedience of mothers is a sin.

All the verses and hadith on mothers demonstrate the importance of this figure in Islam. They also show that the mother is accorded a higher honor than even the father because of all the responsibilities she has towards her child. The Prophet never saw his father because he died before his birth and he lost his mother when he was six years old. Yet many hadith show that he understood the importance of one’s parents, especially the mother. Many Muslims will say that Islam emphasizes the importance of the mother so much that Mother’s Day is not one day a year but should be everyday. -

Hajja Ayisha Jeffries Cisse 

May 6, 2016 near Atlanta, GA ·

 

 

 

Angolan mother & her child. photo by Eric Lafforgue



Heather M. Levy with her son . . .



nursing her baby.





Staceyann Chin breasts feeding on steps of Union Square in NYC. July 27, 2012



 

A Medicine Story Ancient of times...



Melissa Missler Steenrod nursing in a field. (March 2016) photo
by  Jen Conway Birth Photography & Doula Services

‎

I wanted to share a photo that celebrates our one year tandem journey. It hasn't always been a smooth road but here we are. In the early days, I was thankful that I had a toddler to help keep my supply going while my new baby struggled with nursing. Now, I'm happy with how well they have bonded. Sometimes they are sweet and hold hands while nursing and other times they try to poke each other in the eye... This is my reality. This is what works for us.

Beautifully captured by Jen Conway Birth Photography & Doula Services





breasts forbidden... and lust encouraged is a contradiction
in Western thought, business and social life.

 

PRACTICE 37




Stacyann Chin breast feeding in NYC 



What is beautiful here is primal, compelling and affirms the connections of life that hold a child's life, as well as life in general, together. What is wholesome is found in the beginning of our lives. If cherished by more than one it can withstand the assault against purity and become becoming in the simple role of breast feeding, playing, eating and sharing explorations. 
Scared away in Western perceptions is the sanctity of the primal role and function of breasts, and the power and significance of a woman's posture sitting legs agape to support her child feeding from her breast. What it means is what it feels like without judgement, but memory. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.05.14







Longing for & the Plight of AFRICA



a depiction of Mother Africa nursing her child from Asia Abissinya Jobe
from Eritrea. 8.23.13


I wish sis to riwan back child hood memory hashewey Indabelna kab kambo police ni hilet halebi, hospital, hilet Sudan, badob, central, inda arkimede ice cram kinbeli, hilet hailsh, shuki makel siga indaboy kidney, indamariyam Halifka, megadi aligidir turn aquaritska nekeb albakasi fereg ashger, aboy Ali tax, semay, hagihasen, nimehager,golug getska nikid nitsawet hashewye nicely adi kisab measures iyu amadina kinria sis.   - Lucia Viglio 





Nations encircling mother Africa's fruit and bounty with lust, and avarice eyes is continual a state of affairs!
Jan. 23, 2012

altered sky altered moon



mystery of Jessica Alicia Bertrand by Curtis Noble in shadow !!!!

Curtis Noble Photography,

When I look at this photograph I remember the old knowledge and the impression Old Man gave me of life in his teachings to me. He didn't use these words, but the words he used changed in my body and became words I can say today because this photograph of Jessica Alicia Bertrand pulls them out.

"The mysteries within express themselves in moments between light and shadow the way death, or essential questions pose in the light of discoveries between the cracks and crevices of our awareness subtly shifting who we are and our perception of things" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.20.15

Mother nursing on bike

 

What is said breast wise



breasts feeding modern & ancient



African woman breastfeeding her child

spiritual reality



nursing gently



Lisalla Montenegro's wedding day December 2013

"We have all dreamed many times of what we should do, and must become. What stops us lives inside. On the outside is the perception of others estimating who they think we are in relation to what is accepted by the general consensus of the larger group we'll call society. But society is created from what was once a dream of how things could be for groups of people who came from small families needing each other to be themselves beyond mere survival. So, today how do you change to be yourself balanced and secure in the who of who you are?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3.26.15




Lisalla Montenegro attended Maxim Hot 100 Event at Pacific Design Center
on June 10, 2014 in West Hollywood, California !!!

 

Famous Mothers

famous moms

One Minute Section

"Famous mothers are distinguished from other mothers by their fame, and how they achieved it. Fame is such a trite expression of individuality, and a fickle aspiration, but in the life of a spiritual person, someone aware of the levels of existence fame is a tool." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.10.13

The nipples of Kathy Lee are the touching point of her children's
transformative experience into this world experience. It is true
for all children. It is a focus point, the first assemblage point of
the soul that leads the child's sense of order and place to other experiences.
- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
7.4.13

face of a Black Indian woman

DO You See the Real Story?

The Breasts and LAW

Breast feeding is now required by law in this country. 

Why is it that people naturally and justly do the right thing? Education and awareness is helpful and choices encouraged on everyone's journey. In this country(/UAE) and with their legal system I do not know what the term Law may mean and it may differ from the US legal system entirely. And the article I read and video I watched was a reporting from ?? someone maybe who also may not know the culture and systems there.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin At ASE stated "here in NYC" so leads me to assume he is US and may be familiar with only that legal system. Even while in the US there are dictionaries and Legal Dictionaries. I do not, nor do most have on hand (legal dictionaries) so again just not familiar with the word used-LAW.

Any time it gets down to Humanity "needing" a law I see obvious lack of communication/community, discussion/discourse and presentation of solutions to so called "problems". It is a means to an end (not truly) that reflects the lack of ..many things. With this I am reminded of what has happened in this area of Earth's people's history. Historically, I see that laws were once handed down from High as guidance for people via "spiritual people". Once those divisions occurred/were allowed the Spiritual people made it understandable to those under them, handed them down, and that too changed so much so that a separate dictionary was then assembled and created for those in that division, and the language, so different to now interpreted, and jobs (were) created in those various divisions to support it. Interesting thing is this division was not necessary or even Real.

I love everything a baby is and represents, the love that is, the nurturing that happens between the couple, the parents to the babe and babe to the parents, the family nurtured by the community and larger family welcoming, assisting them in their needs and the larger and larger from there. Small and tiny things have a way of wrapping the world in a huge embrace nurturing the whole. I see how important wholeness is in each step and how it occurs naturally. There is much to be said on this vast subject of Laws as they pertain to the many divisions or reflections of presentations to show how it is not so. In my Grief and Great Love I sit with I ask Creator what it is that keeps people going on and I marvel that babies still want to come into the world, and I marvel that women still want to birth babies and that men still love women and that women still love men and that humans still love the Earth. I marvel a lot and shiver to my soul to even dare what it would look like if along any of this the Great Love stopped moving and just ended Itself…. - Joan Sunday 2.3.14

breastfeeding - African woman feeding white baby...

Warmth

April 17, 2013

Back in the day!!!

Kelly RENNIE, athlete

On July 16, 2012
Mother & child, Kelly RENNIE

collage
July 10, 2012

TOUCH beyond TOUCH

Nina Ninabelle
Yesterday 

a long time ago...

"There are no words for this emotion. This feeling stamps itself upon mother and child for a lifetime, and as I discovered when my mother died last year it extends beyond the grave!" - Gregory E. Woods 2.26.14

DO You See the Real Story

I AM Presence of Diosa

 Tellin' it like it'is!

"Remember the former things of old; and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me." - Isaiah 46:9 

"There are so many like Jesus." - Brandon Tucker