Coincidences that were meant to be!

How's this for crazy-cool?! May 5th was Jasper's birthday, and it also happens to be International Day of Midwives. So cos I was thinking of Jasper's birthday, I was also thinking about my awesome labour with Jasper, and our midwives who helped us this time last year, and choices for women in the birth space in general, a topic I'm always interested in. I thought I should see if anything was happening around here to mark International Day of Midwives. I got onto a woman called Rachael, who heads up the Manitoba Midwifery Action Group, and ended up tagging along to a meeting with the local federal parliament member(!). I also planned to go to an awareness-raising/celebration event they were running last week.

I followed up the mention of carpooling, and Rachael passed on the phone number of someone called Monica. It all worked out on the day and I caught a lift to Winnipeg with Monica and her friend Bev. The whole trip there we talked about birth stuff, as this was our most obvious shared interest. It was heartening to find others who were into homebirth, who had experienced homebirth here in Steinbach, and don't think it's a kooky, way-out-there kind of option!

At the event, I got a bit of a sense of the local scene. The group has only been running for about a year. Someone was there who'd had her children in Glen Waverley, of all places! She and her partner up and left Canada, while she was pregnant, I might add, and then headed home again after four years straight in Australia! Man, I don't think I could do that! Too hardcore!

Anyway, so Rachael filled us in on some of the political stuff going on, and then Veronica shared a powerpoint presenation about her experience of being a midwife in the Philippines - great to have a visual. At the end there was a bit of an art session, kind of. It was very faciliated, so it was not too creative, but oh well. We drew labyrinths, which I'd run into before through Sunday Stuff and whatever, but the facilitator was using it as an analogy for birth, calling it a labOrinth. She said we can often plot ourselves somewhere in a labyrinth, no matter what's happening in life. I got thinking about that as I was drawing, and was kind of blown away to realise that the very next day marked the exact halfway point of our time here in Canada. I realised I was at the very centre of the labyrinth, having made the trek in, at times feeling great and other times on the margin and homesick. And now I was about to begin the journey back out.

I was also spun out cos the faciliator pointed out that I had labyrinths on my shoes: simple stitched spirals. I was likewise amazed that she had noticed!

As Monica, Bev and I were walking out, we were talking about labyrinths, and how they had always meant to do one, or do something with the concept, at their house church. I was very interested in their house church, and so then, all the way home, we talked about spirituality and faith. I was even more heartened to discover that there are people in Steinbach who are willing to explore faith in different ways from just the standard church service, simply cos I can't do the standard church service anymore, but I miss the sense of being part of an ongoing wrestle and discussion surrounding faith and life, and being around others who are up for the wrestle and won't settle for pat answers. We shared a cringe factor around church mission statements - ha ha.

So yeah, I just felt really blessed by the whole situation, coming together, kind of by fluke, to share 2 hours in the car, and discovering so much in common. A house church can be kind of hard to find, but somehow I'd stumbled across people who were part of one and who seemed to shared that sense of faith as a journey with an unknown destination. They had a really cool snappy little statement, which summed up their approach - it eludes me now, which is going to bug me! Oh well...

So, this Sunday, we're heading to Monica's house and we'll see how it all turns out. I'm excited about that. But anyway, just to top it off, today I walked into the local quilting shop here in Steinbach, and as the fellow there was cutting my material, he said that he and his wife had been talking to friends of theirs about me. I couldn't work out what the connection could be, but he said that I'd shared a ride to Winnipeg with these friends, and gotten talking about their house church. Turns out the couple who run the quilt shop are part of the same house church! I'm not entirely sure how they made the connection to me, but I guess there's not that many (any!) Aussies in Steinbach, and I have spent fair chunks of time wandering around that shop. Not to mention, Piper getting talking to them as well and convincing them to bring out toys for her, etc!

Man, Steinbach is a totally small world! I forgot to mention that in the car on the way to the event in Winnipeg, we worked out that Monica had gone to school with Charlotte Heinrichs, who married Rick, long-time friend of Gord's - we're heading to the Narcisse snake pits with Rick and Charlotte this Saturday! And then of course they knew Bonnie Heinrichs, Charlotte's sister, who I know separately from the women's monthly coffee night that Darlene invited me to. As I said, small freakin world here!

Sunday will be very interesting. And also my sense of Steinbach has changed, ever so slightly. My shopping experiences at the quilt store will feel different, but also, it's ace to have a sense of a broader, more diverse faith community here than what's initially visible. I love how this started with me thinking about Jasper's birth, and birth in general, and making one phone call.

Anyway, long story to say: I feel blessed and excited!