Your Body is a House of Flowers

Loving the fragrance in your blood, your bones, your womb creates positive changes for future generations. Counting you, that's one more body-loving woman contributing to an environment of body love.

Photography by Lila Sterling

"Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” —Rumi

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Hello, dear readers. On my return trip from Mexico two weeks ago, I received a beautiful medicine story from a dear friend on Substack. Today you receive a double dose of Salty Crone Love. My response to Michelle’s medicine, and a link for you to read her words.

Imagine if religious institutions, pharmaceutical companies, the medical establishment, and the crumbling patriarchal systems bestowed upon womankind, mothers in particular, the generous praise @Michelle Dixon invested in the essay/review she wrote about Edge of Grace: Fierce Awakenings to Love?

We would be blown away like I was by the depth of recognition in Michelle’s words.

Self-love, confidence, and connection to our bodies, children, friends, partners, lovers, and Mother Earth would skyrocket. We would be empowered to quit the 'expert,' leave the 'confessional,' listen to what is going on inside us, and respond in ways that feel good and right to us. We would take responsibility for ourselves, and honor and trust our wombs. We would access Big Mama Medicine, and passionately accept our power to heal without succumbing to cultural power-over dynamics based entirely on a male body construct.

A sculpture by Penny Hardy called BLOWN AWAY

“Are you alright, honey?”

This is what the flight attendant said while flashing a package of tissues in front of my soggy face. My body shook—tears leaked onto my laptop. The gentleman next to me may have gone into shock.

Did he call the flight attendant?

Was the scar tissue in my body audible—wailing—releasing into the exquisite tender witnessing of Michelle?

We are, no matter our genders, or the beliefs that police our tender yearnings—children of the womb of the mother. Wombs are the common denominator that birthed us into life. Birth and healthcare are integral aspects of our spirituality, self-esteem, and power. And Big Mama provided us with a mind, a heart, and a will—the most potent remedies on the planet—to cultivate.

Everyone has a fuckernuckles story to tell from a scar in their bloodline.

It took a good portion of my life to learn how to alienate myself from myself—writing, rewriting, and endlessly revising is my way to reclaim, own, and take responsibility for who I am as a mother, a daughter, a sister, a lover, and the many shenanigans that have alchemized the Salty Crone.

Michelle gave me a strong dose of medicine I didn’t know I needed—recognition all women, mothers (and parents) yearn for and deserve. When she asked me to share her essay with my readers, I was reminded of the tender stories I’ve witnessed over the decades. I am deeply grateful for the privilege to own my body and stand for myself.

Sally—my tortoise companion permits us to go slow, to receive the sweet fragrance in our blood, our bones, and the womb from which we came. With one eye open and one eye closed—she is a reminder to nourish and love who we are.

I love Sally and reading about the Sallys in your life. If you have not met her yet, she is here.

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I don’t shy away from the deep, dark investigation of our collective psychic inner landscape. Wounds are never isolated incidents. Our scar tissue is shaped by a multiplicity of forces, mostly unconconscious. Together, we mend by weaving the golden thread of love through the tapestry of our stories. We increase our soul power for re-visioning, re-claiming, and re-creating our lives and selves anew.

Tomorrow begins our second week of the online ‘Dragon Water Medicine Journey.’ The courage, vulnerability, unpacking, and witnessing among the women is beyond anything I ever imagined possible when we come together to liberate the erotic love within our bodies. The Medusa Myth, Sacred Tobacco, Feminine Consciousness, and writing through our bloodlines hold the keys to unlocking what has been hidden in plain sight—to claim power with—together—not over. In turn, we will expand our community to include your medicine story, if you like.

Thank you, Michelle, for being my Sally, seeing me so fully, and for shining your relavance in our sisterhood.

May my storied life be a medicine offering for you to recognize fierce love, your value, and relevance—for your story to become a healing story—a medicine to live by.

Read Michelle’s Essay: Motherhood and The Awakening Path (Part 2). Subscribe to her Substack.

We’d love to hear from you:

• Do you treat your body like a house of flowers?

• How do you not forget your relevance as a woman, a parent, a partner—especially if you were one of the many who were not mothered—due to lack of resources, education, or messed up cultural conditioning?

Remember that parenting is one of the hardest and least valued—unseen yet essential roles in this world. We carry an enormity of visible and invisible responsibilities. No one mothers perfectly. We learn to become ‘good enough’ mothers/parents. It is our job to Love ourselves, which creates positive changes for future generations of women/mothers/parents. Counting you, that’s one more body-self-loving woman in the world who contributes to an environment of body love—womb love—earth love.

with love,

Prajna O’Hara, Your Salty Crone

P.S. You can purchase the new edition of Edge of Grace here for as little as $20. Or you can pay $0 by using the coupon code: GRACE (expires 10/31/24). Why? As Michelle and other readers say, “Prajna’s book is a significant offering for silenced women and the emerging feminine consciousness.”

Prajna and a dear sister/mother/friend—on retreat at Hidden Paradise, Spain. Louise, Abigail Thomas, myself, my twins, and so many have birthdays this month including Lila Sterling who contributed the exquisite photo for this essay. Happy Birthday to all the October babies and Mamas.

© Prajna O'Hara 2024