(Black) Eye of the Beholder

This past weekend I went to Fairplay for a retreat with Yobel Market. It was fantastic! I hung out with our incredible volunteers, ate great food, worshiped the Lord, cast vision for the upcoming year, and played many many games. One game, in particular, I had never played before. It is called 'Psychiatrist'. Essentially the object of the game is for everyone in the room to be in on a secret and to ostracize one person and make them guess what that secret is.

My friend Hannah told me she thought I'd be great at being the person in the middle which of course made me want to do it immediately! I can't be sure if she was lying just to me to get me to do it or if she actually believed I would be good at guessing secrets but either way I accepted the challenge. You see, peer pressure doesn't work on me, but lavishing me with complements will usually get me to do something. You can all now use that to your advantage.

I was relegated to the basement which we had deemed the "man cave" while they told secrets. Supposedly this was the only place in the house where I wouldn't here them telling secrets without me. (I like to whisper too). I plodded down the steps dutifully, and arrived in the man cave with nothing to do but wait. Which is never a good idea for me. I get bored. And then I do stupid things. As I looked around the man cave/make-shift tool shed I got a little idea. Why not pull a little prank while I'm down here? I immediately went to work. I didn't have much time, so I did as much damage in as little time as possible. Objective: Place as many uncomfortable things in as many of my friends' beds as possible. Objects: A blow torch, a screw gun, a hammer, some dowel rods. If it makes you feel any better, I did hesitate for the briefest of moments when trying to decide whether or not to put a blow torch in someone's bed. I had visions of them getting under the covers, running their foot along the on switch not knowing it was there and the blowtorch turning on and catching my friend's leg hair on fire as well as his bedding and then naturally the whole house. But I ignored my inner momming and decided to put the torch there anyway. The chances of that happening were minimal.

But apparently there is such a thing as Karma (ok, I don't really believe in this) because while I was collecting my tools I reached to grab the hammer from under the shelf and came up too quickly, misjudged the proximity of the upper shelf and hit my eyebrow so hard that I gave myself a black eye. Awesome.

Don't worry, I am a pranking pro and I only let this phase me for a couple of seconds. I finished my prank, put on every item of clothing I could find that wasn't mine and raced up the stairs wearing men's jeans, men's swim trunks, a very large striped shirt and a towel for a cape. You know, just to wow them. I eventually guessed the secret. I think it had something to do with my new found superpower that came along with wearing a cape. And now I sit here writing this to you with a swollen eye that's nice and pink. I can only hope it turns purple, then green, then yellow, etc. If I'm going to have a black eye, I may as well have a good one, right?

Other than games and black eyes, a lot of my time at the retreat was spent talking about this new endeavor I'm embarking on. I felt really well supported by friends and family. Many of them didn't know what a doula was until they read my first blog or until I told them about it this weekend, but overall I'd say I was super encouraged by the people who have come around me and are excited about this new adventure for me. I started reading "The Doula Book" by Klaus, Kennell & Klaus which is really informative and exciting. And I had a chance to do some education as well! I had conversations ranging from the cultural influence of Western medicine on births in the U.S. to the importance of a doula for both the mother and the father to perineal massage (Men, if you don't know what this is, don't google it. You won't like the pictures that come up). All in all a great weekend, thanks Yobel for providing a space for greatness!