Girl Power!

Did you know a female fetus develops ovaries around eight weeks gestation which contain nearly seven million eggs?!?!?! By the time a baby girl is born this number is reduced to one million and by puberty only about 400 eggs remain. Now that alone demonstrates to me a higher power... my very existence was certainly chosen if I could beat those odds!

But I also ponder the physic-spiritual-chemical-body-soul-universe link that women have with their children, especially girls... as our daughter’s carry on this link to the next generation. OK... I’ll speak clearly or at least try...

Shortly after my mother was conceived (eight weeks or so) the ONE egg which was to become 50 percent of MY own unique genetic code was there within her. This ONE egg (half of me) was carried with her for over 20 years, undergoing and experiencing the changes of her body’s internal environment.

When she had feelings of joy and sadness, anger and peace, stress, fatigue and restfulness... her body reacted chemically with each. When she learned to walk, talk, do algebra, drive a car, again there were chemical reactions occurring in her brain that developed new neural links. But the things she learned also influenced her feelings and actions, which effected her entire being. When she ate nutritiously as a small child, chose potato chips for dinner as an adolescent, or got drunk for the first time... the whole of her mind and body were effected... often in undetectable ways.


All that was her was shared with me, her hopes, her dreams, her loves, her disappointments, her fears. I was with her when she took her first tumble on wobbly toddler legs. I was there when she said her first prayer to God asking him to watch over her. I was there when her first crush flushed her cheeks. And I was there through the anguish of losing her first child to a miscarriage.

Though I have no cognizant memory of these things, perhaps I share a faint impression of my mother's insights, a share consciousness. All our actions and reactions (even our untamed thoughts) have an effect on our whole. Big or small, there is an ongoing and inseparable connection of the mind and body. Such as when I am stressed or low on energy... I chose to eat more chocolate.... LOTS more chocolate. And then pretty soon my face is covered with lovely reminders of my indulgence. Will I never outgrow zits?!?!?

Think about when we fall in love... yes our brain obsesses about that certain someone both morning and night, but we often lose our appetite, our heart beats faster at the mention of this special person’s name, our palms grow sweaty in their presence and our stomach hurts if our affections are not returned.

My point is that a part of me was with my mother, experiencing her life, until I was born... And remember the first nine months of my existence, while my mother was pregnant with me, I had already developed the eggs that would become my children. The eggs that would become my daughters were carried with me for over 30 years. And when my daughters were conceived, they began to carry (and influence, sustain, nourish, impress, affect, touch, impact, protect, love) what will someday become their children, their daughters. The girls of the future, the mothers to come.

Though the implications are difficult for me to sometimes wrap my black & white brain around, I do believe as we carry our children, our daughters, we give them a part of ourselves through our experience without ever saying a word. And it reminds me of the important influence we have in our children’s lives, and the even greater responsibility.

By the way, my little sister Jen just found out she is having a girl! Her four-year old daughter (my niece Ada) literally prayed that this baby would be a sister. Now that’s true Girl Power!