The expansion of the womb demands an expansion in every other area of your life. You don’t get to stay the same. Everything shifts, and it should.

As a woman’s body expands, so does her awareness. Of how she was raised. Of how she wants to raise her child. Of the dangers lurking in the world. Of the beauty waiting to be discovered. Of Joy. Of pain. Of the very real link between birth and death.

I remember being so terrified when I was pregnant. I was albut sure that I was going to die. I could feel myself changing from the inside out, and with those changes, something waking deep in my subconsious. What I didn’t realize at the time is that life is an unending cycle of life, death, and rebirth, and there is magic that happens within those transitions. It’s alchemy. Our capacity to love and be loved widens, and the meaning of everything shifts.

During this session, as we walked on ancient dirt and rock eroded by the persistent nudging of water and air, photographing this incredible couple about to embark on this wild ride of parenthood, I became acutely aware that the force that carves landscapes also blossoms our wombs; the force of life, death, movement, and relentless growth. Anything that does not change dies. Movement is demanded if we want to stay alive. And so it is with becoming a parent.

Becoming a mother was the most transformative experience of my life. It was the catalyst for the wild and rapid change, in my external world, but also internally. It was the beginning of my awakening.

But I resisted. Fear was much stronger than curiosity for me at that time in my life, and I am still learning to have patience and grace for my own pace of growth.

Sometimes I marvel that we struggle so wildly with change; That we fight against it instead of embracing it as an opportunity to test ourselves, grow to new heights, and explore our inner lives with more depth. Even as I contemplate these things I find myself struggling with the changes upon me now; Maybe it’s part of the will to survive that resist change, but change is also imperative to survival and life is full of these strange contradictions.

But there is a power in the process of becoming. Growth requires struggle and tension; “There is no ascent to the heights without prior descent into darkness, no new life without some form of death” (Karen Armstrong). Pain is a very real part of transformation and it should be revered instead of avoided. I wish I had learned these lessons much sooner in life, but I am so encouraged and inspired when I meet people (like this beautiful couple), who welcome their becomings. They remind me to welcome my own.