A Grandmother's Letter
to the Lisa Ross Birth & Women's Center:
October, 2004
Dear Christine, Shannon, Allison, Carmen,
Nickie, Cliff and all the staff at Lisa Ross Birth &
Women's Center whose nametags I couldn't read for one reason or
another:
Thank you for the magic and love you share
with the families that come to your center. Thank you for
the incredible care and fine-tuning to feelings, physical
selves and psyches of the moms, the partners, the extended
family and friends who show up to celebrate the mystery of life
through a baby's birth.
Molly and Jake and Gus Morrill, two days
old, spend time now, learning each other's schedules and needs
and ways of being in the world. You all create and
jump-start such a culture of love and balance.
One of the courses that I teach at the
University of Tennessee concerns the cultural aspects of
organizations. You model all that I talk about--the
understanding and acceptance and honoring of each other's
roles; your pride in the mission of your work; the recognition
of the implicit and tacit needs of each others' skilled work;
the generosity of people working alongside of each other.
I saw all of this in your timing and your response to
Molly, to Jake and to Gus. I saw this in how you all
related to each other, informally, as you bumped into each
other in the hallways.
What more can I say? Thank you, thank
you. May your work continue to bloom and may more and
more mothers in East Tennessee learn about the beautiful and
natural way babies can come into this highly technocratic
world.
With love and gratitude,
Jinx Watson