Allie

“Weeks after talking to Kristen Swanson, I couldn't stop thinking about something she said- that birth and life and death exist in women's bodies simultaneously.
I picture pregnancy loss as a primordial river rushing through me; it carries forces so big, they eclipse my imagination. It runs through my femoral artery and vena cava, through my spleen, my brain, and the chambers of my heart. At first, this force is strong like rapids, flooding everything. With time it slows, but it never goes away. It rearranges my cells like stones in a riverbed. It never stops running, even after I can no longer see it or feel it.”
― Angela Garbes, Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

“Throughout pregnancy, I liked to lie in bed and imagine all the changes happening inside me: cells splitting, fingernails and eyelashes growing, veins spreading, brain and gray matter forming and folding.”
― Angela Garbes, Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

“In English-language speech, we spend five times as much time producing vowels as consonants. In singing, that ratio can hit two hundred to one.”
― Tom Vanderbilt, Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning

“This is how you build secure attachment: through daily attunement to the subtle cues of other people and lavishing love and care, while letting them come and go as needed. In this kind of connection, you know your home base is always there for you, so you feel comfortable going out into the world, taking risks, trying new or scary things, because you can return to safe arms when you need to.”
― Nora Samaran, Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture