The beginning of her menstrual cycle is a concrete datapoint that affirms what a bunch of us have known for a while - A is moving from childhood to adolescence, on the path towards adulthood. The ceremony tonight was partly about helping her to feel that we notice and welcome her emotional maturations, and that we see her status in our community changing. It also gave her the message that she has a powerful community around her as she goes through these many changes - that we're all here for her, thinking of her, looking after her, and celebrating her.
It's also a way of helping her to celebrate her body. It's lovely when people can revel in the beauty of their physical changes. A is proud of hers.
As for periods being "an icky, unpleasant bodily function that causes half the population to be cranky and require chocolate and paper products one out of every four weeks" - well, that's one way of looking at it, but it's not the whole way. There's beauty in the menstrual cycle in the sense that it's what brings forth life. It's neat that A can appreciate that aspect of it - and ceremonies like this one are part of what will help her to appreciate it.
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Date: 2005-08-06 08:40 am (UTC)It's also a way of helping her to celebrate her body. It's lovely when people can revel in the beauty of their physical changes. A is proud of hers.
As for periods being "an icky, unpleasant bodily function that causes half the population to be cranky and require chocolate and paper products one out of every four weeks" - well, that's one way of looking at it, but it's not the whole way. There's beauty in the menstrual cycle in the sense that it's what brings forth life. It's neat that A can appreciate that aspect of it - and ceremonies like this one are part of what will help her to appreciate it.