healing

Sacred Reclaiming ~ A Photoshoot

| Rohana Aisha Dewfall

A few weeks ago I had the honour of going to the woods, sharing tea and crafting a story of vulnerability, sacredness, and a reclamation of power. Before we started, we spoke a while and the depths of this shoot were clear, it wasn’t just about getting naked in the woods … it was sacred. It was about self love, worthiness, joy, grief, pain and pride. It was a reclamation.

I delivered the gallery for these the other day, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how the images I caught tell a story. A story in many ways about power.

It isn’t that we lose our power as women, but often that it is reshaped, molded, and flattened into something that just doesn’t align with us anymore.

This shoot was a reclamation of that power

A “fuck you” to the idea of staying small

An full body acknowledgement that we are sacred just because we exist

A rebirthing

Because while we cognitively can ‘do the work’ and tell ourselves that we’re okay, there is an incredible shift that comes when we lie in the earth and let ourselves be held in nature.

These images are a few from our time dancing in creation; they are deep, profound storytelling images… and I’m really proud of them.

From a shedding of layers to a reflection on what’s been learned, and dancing into new directions on your own terms. These images are in more than one way a message, to give ourselves the grace of processing, to honour the time and journeys we go on, and to ultimately find ways to put on our armour and take the roads less travelled – because there we can find our magick.

As always, thank you for reading, it means so much to me that you’re here.

With love, Rohana x

Day 10 – we can disgree on some stuff

| Rohana Aisha Dewfall

It has been an epic day, topped off with a (half) surprise visit from my dad which has the kids buzzing! A went back to preschool after a few weeks off, and she had a great day, while P, K and dragon (bump) chilled at home, got messy with some paint and played. Then we all went after pick-up for a playdate dinner at a friends house.

This friend of mine is honestly so lovely, and she pulled out ALL the stops! She made me food and fed the kids, and they played for hours together while we chat, got involved and watched them.

We spoke about some kids stuff, and then about our plans etc, and then we got into birth imprints – something I have been diving deep into, and something I am very cautious about talking about. I trusted that she is/was a safe person to chat about this with, and we ended up in a deep conversation about my own experiences, experiences with P and some of her own stories. In the middle of it all, she said something that really stuck with me about our opinions differing, and I thought, yes absolutely! I know I am radical in some of my choices, and that’s absolutely fine – but chatting and opening up doesn’t mean I think any of her choices were less valid or important, or that the opinions she (or anyone holds) matter less than my own. Essentially, in my head it came down to, informed choice, informed consent, working through what we can within the resources available to us, AND respecting that others will do differently.

However…. while this was a topic we could absolutely disagree on because life experiences and circumstances had led us down different paths; and we were both happy; there are other things that are a bit more black and white to me.

I came home and my wild babies jumped on my dad to play. They were joyfully settled… and so as I pottered, I opened my phone to the news of more destruction, more violence, more insanity, and I thought, how can we live in a world where some opinions are so okay to be different, and yet others are such a blanket no. By that I mean, when it comes to birth, or parenting (to an extent), or screens, or food, or lifestyle fitness choices etc the thing that matters is respect, information and autonomy; but when it comes to political stances on the lives of children, I am pretty damn certain that I cannot and will not agree to disagree.

I text a friend the other day saying it feels like I spent 3 years studying politics and international relations for absolutely nothing. It is so disheartening, and feels like the hunger games, where the whyte governments are the capitol and the rest of us are watching as Isr3hell plays games with the lives of those in the occupied territories. I don’t understand how the world is still functioning sometimes, when there is so much collective wounding going on. It begins to break me.

So… I remind myself, that though there is collective pain, there is also mass collective healing and collective joy, in the face of all the chaos – which is ultimately an act of rebellion. We will not lose hope! Just as I believe rest is a radical act of rebellion in mothering within a society that demonizes rest and links worth to productivity, especially for those of global majority and bodies of culture; I also believe that despite the despair I sometimes feel towards situations of horror, every single drop in the ocean of healing IS doing the work. Healing at the level of the nervous system is profound, and the ripples we create are a force of good.

It feels too big… and then I think, my babies started off as 2 cells, and now they are walking, talking, opinionated and intense human beings with capacity for so much! If that is possible… isn’t anything?

Enough of my waffling… for now, goodnight.

With love,

Rohana x