....Such a mystery really, how life opens us up, slowly, methodically without our even knowing...life has it's way with us. Spilling her seeds that with the waters of the years, will grow into the unique expression of who we are....I have been parted and I have been pummeled. I have been loved tenderly by life, and I have been entered savagely, the flowered petals of my soul ripped and left bleeding....seeds of faith and fear spewed and enbedded in my chaliced womb. Funny, the mystery of our soul's impregnation, gestation, and birth. And yes, we labor many times, male and female alike to give birth to ourselves, pieces of who we are, small and tender and new waiting to be nurtured into life's unique expression of itself.