June 8th, 2011

 

Hello again from the new Mama!

The past few weeks of bonding with our new beloved have been nothing short of magnificent. I know I had an “open heart” before, but since this birth I have to say I have been blasted open in ways I couldn’t even have imagined. Simply amazing! I am (we are) in constant awe of the miracle of life and the infinite vast unconditional love it is possible to experience.

“She” is softly asleep, snuggled up with me as I take a moment to write…and ponder that already a whole month has passed since she was born! Thank you all so very much for all the emails I received after I sent out the “Divine Birthing” story email. Please understand that my time has been focused with my new family life and so I have not even begun to attempt to respond to the well-over-a-hundred messages, but please know that your love and positivity and congratulations were/are so encouraging and appreciated. I was particularly delighted so many people were so supportive, and so touched, moved and inspired by our choice to follow our hearts in our sacred birthing. I hope to find time to respond personally to so many lovely letters, but for now I am grateful to just get a moment to remember the luxury of washing my hair!

THANK YOUS…

I want to say a very special thank you to Brandi, Jess and Zeke for creating a lovely baby shower, and to everyone who came, and everyone who wanted to be there but couldn’t make it. And, it was a great surprise to see that so many friends had gotten together to surprise us with a “B.O.B. Stroller” !! Super cool!

We are so grateful for ALL the gifts we have received for our new baby in the past few months!

Wow, even yesterday, we came home to an apple tree that had been left for us to plant in her honour!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!!!!!

*(For those who have asked for our postal address, it is PO Box 56, Big Lake Ranch BC, V0L 1G0 . It has been suggested we start a little baby fund/bank account for all of our friends and family who are not here and want to gift her too. We will be sure to use this for other things she needs…or perhaps a school fund for the future?!! )

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR GENEROSITY!

Our beautiful girl sure is blessed and loved!!!

So, as for the big question we keep being asked…HER NAME?!?!

Well, exactly one month has now passed since the beautiful birth our our baby girl, and the truth is, she still has not been officially “named”. She is currently living somewhat of a “double life”, as we have been alternating calling her by two different names.

She is known as both

Athena,

and

Zamani.

 

 

And so she will either be:

Athena Grace Zamani Ditoro,

or

Zamani Athena Grace Ditoro.

 

For those of you who would like to read the story behind the names, read on………

Many Spring Blessings to All!
(SOOOO) In Love,
Sashie, Zach and Miss Athena/Zamani

Many of you have asked about our baby name choice/s and the meaning or stories behind them, so here’s the down-lo! 

As for Athena, well, giving our little lady a Big Powerful Goddess name seems only like an obvious thing to do!

But only obvious now that she is here…before she was born, I  perused many a Goddess name site, but didn’t put much thought into it as I thought “she” was a “he”! And Zach was so set on our baby being a girl, and naming our baby girl-to-be Scarlett, that even more-so I focussed resistingly on a boy!

Anyway, a couple weeks before “she” arrived, two friends were visiting and one asked the other if she thought our baby was a boy or a girl. She didn’t say, but when we walked outside, she told me that out of the blue she had just heard the name “Athena”. I was still feeling a “masculine” baby, but something grabbed my attention profoundly when I heard that name, and I paused in awe at how beautiful Athena was and sounded to me in that moment. You couldn’t imagine my surprise when “She” was born! It’s a Girl?!

And so not long after her birth, I was back to exploring Goddess Names, and for Zach and I, (assuming Scarlett was out of the question! -though, STarlett, now, maybe! hee!hee!) Athena was the one that stuck above all others and felt most possibly meant-to-be .  But we weren’t sure, so we stayed open and kept asking the question of what her name was to be…The intention was out. We were getting to know our baby and who she was and wanted to be. We were “listening”, and we were searching. Many beautiful possibilities came to us, but it wasn’t until she was a few days old that I was really ‘given’ a name for her.  Literally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was dark and still, and so peaceful in the cabin, around 4am on our fourth night together. I was awake alone, sitting up breastfeeding her in bed, and meditating on my new life. I’d done a painting while pregnant, and was now gazing at the image I created of the “Divine Mother” or “Great Goddess”. She was the one I connected with throughout my pregnancy and birth, and now I was asking Her to help me embody Her qualities…patience, compassion, selflessness, nurturing…So I too could be a Divine Mother and best serve my new baby. Through our connecting on this beautiful and mysterious night, She spontaneously gave me a name for our baby. What I heard “out of the blue” was a name I had never heard before. It was Zamani. Hmmm…interesting. But when I googled it, what I found was even more interesting!

I typed “Zamani” into a search page, and what came up was a Wikipidea definition. But what was most interesting was that the name was not defined on it’s own, but part of two, inseparable as one concept in the free encyclopedia.  I googled “Zamani”, and believe it or not, I got “Sasha and Zamani”! I was a little bewildered, and only got more-so when I read on.  Read on below, if you want to learn more about “Zamani” and “Athena”…

It seems pretty 50/50 what we are calling our baby girl. Truly, she’s being called both names equally by both Zach and I. And we have both wavered back and forth as to what we think would be best to put on that birth certificate to make official! If only she could talk and tell us! Kind of feels like Zamani is a good baby/girlie name, and Athena is one for her to grow into. Though I must say, she is already quite the powerful little goddess!!!

From Athena to Zamani…Oh, how to decide?!

In Love, Sasha

 

 

 

 

Here are some bits and pieces I found on “Sasha and Zamani” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: (full writing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_and_Zamani )

Sasha and Zamani are two stages of time in some Eastern and Central African cultures. Sasha concerns and is present time and the recent past and near future while Zamani is the limitless past. As generalized ancestors, the Zamani are not forgotten but revered.”[1]
Loewen cites and paraphrases this explanation from African Religions and Philosophy by John Mbiti. Sasha and Zamani are not stages of death. They are the two ontological stages (or dimensions) of history in Swahili culture.
In Swahili, the two time dimensions are called sasa and zamani. Both of them have quality and quantity. People speak of them as big, small, little, short, long, etc. in relation to a particular event. Sasha refers to the events that have just taken place or are taking place now at the moment or are just about to take place in the near future. Sasha time can extend into the future for about six months or, at the most, one year. Zamani time overlaps sasa time to some extent in the present, but it also goes back very far into the past time. It absorbs, holds, and stores all the events that have ever occurred. It is more significant than sasa because it stretches endlessly back into the past. It includes the time of myth when all the stories of creation took place and when the great and famous heroes of the past performed their exploits. (Anderson 1986, Mbiti 1994.)
Zamani is not limited to what in English is called the past.… Zamani overlaps with Sasha and the two are not separable. Sasha feeds or disappears into Zamani. But before events become incorporated into the Zamani, they have to become realized or actualized within the Sasha dimension. When this has taken place, the events “move” backwards from the Sasha into the Zamani…. It is the final storehouse for all phenomena and events, the ocean of time in which everything becomes absorbed into a reality that is neither after nor before.
From African Religions and Philosophy, by John Mbiti.

And from : http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/zamani
Sasha and Zamani
The English language is limited in many ways. We lack many expressions and terms that other foreign languages possess.
In African societies, humans are divided into three categories: those still alive on Earth, the Sasha, and the Zamani. The Sasha are referred to as the “living-dead”. They have passed away, but there are family members or others who are still alive, who have personally known them and are able recount stories of their lives. The Zamani are people who have completely left this Earth, meaning no one alive personally knew them. The Zamani are revered. They are people like George Washington; we don’t question their history, but accept it.
Sasha and Zamani; ways of being immortal through history.

 

 

Here are some writings I found on Athena:

Athena is best known as the Goddess of Wisdom.

She is also know as the Goddess of War, though she “fights” more with wits than with weapons, and only to protect what she believes in. Though Athena was a goddess of war strategy, she disliked fighting without purpose and preferred to use wisdom to settle predicaments.^[13] The goddess only encouraged fighting for a reasonable cause or to resolve conflict.
Athena can be summed up in one word: ability. That ability encompasses just about everything: wisdom, philosophy, war, weaving, shipbuilding, metalwork, dance, athletics, music, strength, strategy, female arts, justice and skill, invention, crafts, and technology in general.
She is known for her strong personality, her independence, ability, and confidence.

Athena Glaukopis is a form of the Wisdom-Goddess Athena in Her aspect of a bright-eyed Owl Goddess. The intense staring eyes of the owl made it emblematic of bright wisdom and intelligence. The name Glaukopis most likely originally meant “owl-faced” or “owl-eyed”;  it went to “bright-eyed” or “gleaming-eyed” and over time, through association with Athena, it came to mean “bright blue-eyed”.