Good morning and happy Thursday! This is a really exciting post for us. For our third entry in the Sakura Bloom Sling Diaries, we decided to document our ceremony of burying Luna's placenta, something we have been planning to do since before she was born. We wanted to bury it somewhere she would always be able to visit, so a national park seemed like the best idea, since the land is so well preserved and protected. When we moved to Alpine three months ago, we were thrilled to find out that it was actually in a national forest! The same national forest I lived in for years as a kid. Needless to say, we felt it was perfect and ended up holding the ceremony only a few miles from where I grew up. It just seemed so fitting to be paired with this theme of confidence and we are excited to be sharing such a special part of our lives with you all today.
There are many sources from which to gather this magnificent quality of confidence, many wellsprings to drink from that will build us up and give us the resolve to move forward with heads held high in whatever direction we take. There is confidence that comes from things we learn or read about in books and confidence that comes out of popular opinion or kind words and affirmation from others. All throughout life we encounter opportunities for the building up and breaking down of confidence through these different influences, and it can be an emotional ride, always needing an outside source of energy to supply us with this gift of confidence. As a child I knew, and now as an adult I am remembering, of another source of confidence. One that can not be learned or taught, but only known in the deepest part of our inner soul. It is not contained in the mind or held within the body, it is a confidence accessed through the heart's intuition, strengthened and nurtured only by using it, by listening to it, and following its lead wherever it may take you.
When we started sharing the news that we would be leaving Luna attached to her placenta until she naturally detached from it, people were so interested to know where our confidence came from to make this decision. For many, it was difficult to accept that this desire we had for a lotus birth came from a place of intuition and that there was no "hard evidence" supporting it being beneficial for our child. But we felt confident; and it came from the same source where we gained our confidence to birth her at home and by ourselves, and the same source we've relied on for making all the decisions we have since she was born. Not from books or forums we've read, statistics or doctors we've heard about, but from an inner place of trust and faith in the knowing that we were gifted with this intuition, and it is a gift that is ours to use and grow.
This is the confidence we wish to nurture in ourselves and in Luna. Popular opinions may change, what doctors prescribe may vary, and the affirmation from family and friends may come and go, but we are forever and consistently gifted with this ability of our inner knowing. When we gain our confidence from this source, we are sure not to falter or fail. We were born with all we need. The answers are locked deep inside, buried in ourselves and in the earth, and love is the only key. May we always hold within ourselves a deep reverence and respect for this intuition, building our confidence around it day by day, never doubting the truth we know from before we come out of the womb.
Love and blessings from our family to yours, and thank you to Sakura Bloom for this beautiful platform to reflect, and as always to the incredibly talented and amazing CJeanPhotography for documenting this ceremony. We are so wonderfully supported and blessed.
