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Moon Pads&Brinsmead BabieseNewsletterFebruary 2006 |
Hello Friends!
2006 is well on its way... how is it treating you?
I've enrolled to do some Small Business subjects at TAFE... this semester I've been studying how to buy and sell on the web!! Mostly looking for some ideas for how to make my website more electronically interactive!
But any major changes will have to wait till the latter part of this year, as I am taking some extended leave from May till July. My friend Kathy will be caring for my mail order customers in my absence. At the moment I'm busy sewing a big stock of Moon Pads for her to sell in my absence!!
Bubba Lugga - one of our best selling products over the summer at Salamanca Market in Hobart!!
The easy to use, versatile sling for carrying babies and infants up to 14 kgs in weight. Some folk call it "baby wearing". You can wear them on your front, your side or your back; and the baby can be lying or sitting up, asleep or being breast fed! Hands-free parenting!
The colourful hand-dyed Indian batick fabrics are easy care cotton - wash and reuse.
Every family with a baby or infant needs one - especially on holidays, in a busy market (when the stroller is a nuisance!), at the supermarket, getting on and off planes, at home cooking a meal when baby is irritable, supervising older children while bub needs a feed, settling baby as you wander the house in the middle of the night.... and one very pregnant Mum reported, when she went off to do the shopping right after purchasing her Bubba Lugga, that it was the most comfortable grocery-carrying shopping 'bag' she had ever used!
Available by mail order: $50 plus $4.50 postage.
UPDATE: Healing After Rape
The Moon Pads website is hosting a new project
Two courageous women have recently shared their stories of rape and recovery with us. Their stories are stories ALL women should hear. They are about abusive men and about women experiencing suffering and trauma; but they are also testimonies to healing and strength. These two stories are about a subject which our society rarely discusses. The huge, untold story of women being used and abused by men who are behaving in ways absolutely unacceptable to our society's values and beliefs, yet these men are often protected by the veil of secrecy.
Evelyn has now written 4 chapters of her story "To be Scarr'd or not to be Scarred?". Each chapter has some of her healing art work interspersed with her own story and her research and new understandings about her experience.
And Chloe's "My Story" is about sexual and emotional abuse within a long-term relationship.
Evelyn and Chloe tell two very different stories. By making their stories available on this website, we are making it possible for their voices to be heard, their truths told. We also trust that it will help other women. Other rape survivors may be encouraged on their journey of recovery and healing. Just one other woman may learn how to be safer in our world! And we trust that ALL of us will campaign for changing current legislation.
Please read these stories, cry with Evelyn and Chloe, grow with them, and grow in your own experience of womanhood and your own commitment to the safety of all people in our society.
ALL names of the real people in these two stories have been altered to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.
A brief outline of Evelyn and Chloe's stories follows:
Evelyn's first "chapter" talks about the need for support from friends and family. It explains what was helpful and what was not! The writer draws on her own experiences, her research after the event, her diaries and art work as she struggles to understand and come to terms with what happened to her.
In chapter 2 she tells the harrowing story of her rape; and explores the minds of rapists through her research done to help her to understand how this had happened to her. She includes the harsh reality of rape, but also gives many ideas of how women can protect themselves and keep safe.
In chapter 3 she quotes freely from her diary to graphically illustrate the depths of despair felt by a survivor of rape in the first six months after the event. The chapter concludes with some quotes from some research which validates these deep feelings after trauma. A "must read" chapter for any woman searching for meaning after rape, or for any person searching for ways to support a survivor.
In chapter 4 Evelyn recognises and researches the natural animal instinct of the body to freeze in the face of overwhelming situations. Most of us already know about stress and our reactions of 'fight or flight'. But few of us know as much about our third option, 'freeze'. It is nature's way of protecting us in extreme situations - allowing us to endure the unendurable with surges of hormones that protect one from physical pain, allow disassociation and blunt painful memories. She also describes how releasing our body from this state is an important part of the recovery phase after any severe trauma.
There is also a booklist of helpful books and an outline of the healing journey after the trauma of rape.
My story
by Chloe
Chloe's story is about abuse and rape within a relationship. For six and a half years she stayed, enduring ongoing abuse because she believed it was "her fault", that if she could alter her behaviour the man she loved would be "good" to her.
Her story is graphic; it details some of the physical and emotional abuse. Her parents could see that she suffered, her friends were unable to help her... but eventually she found the strength and courage to leave and begin her long journey of healing.
Like Evelyn she has found that it is hard to find a voice to tell her Truth; and that not all your "friends" even want to know about it. But she has also found helpful supporters and healers and is finding her own ways to express who she is and has learnt to value herself again. She is now engaged to a man who is supportive and loving - we send them our loving good wishes for a happy future together!
Are you one of our earlier customers?
If so we'd love to hear from you - how are your Moon Pads standing up to
the ravages of time???
For an inspirational short movie to remind you how blessed you are, visit:
http://www.mayyoubeblessedmovie.com
I love to get your comments! - Please send them to Pip at info@moonpads.com.au
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© 2006 Moon Pads (ABN 47 602 059 395); and
Brinsmead Babies (ABN 62 713 972 622)
PO Box 118, SANDY BAY, Tasmania 7006, AUSTRALIA