It's a virtual lovefest right now between we makers of menstrual alternatives!  My counterpart over at Lunapads , Madeleine Shaw, just posted about me and GladRags and I have to say right up front I did not pay her to write it!!! But I would have in a heartbeat because it is glowing and my head swelled to an enormous size as I was reading it. Read it here. I'm lucky to  have her as a friend.

And while it's kind of weird to recommend a competitor's blog to our customers and readers, I have to say Madeleine is worth reading anytime, on any subject.  As I have told her before, sometimes I feel like she has gone inside my head and taken my swirling thoughts and put them down into cohesive, inspired, and sometimes downright poetical blog posts. That's because she has the pulse of what is going on in the world and especially the world of women and the environment.  I usually have two reactions to her posts: 1) wow, that's right on; and 2) Damn! Why didn't I write that!  

So thank you, Madeleine, for your kind and generous words about me and for talking about our rather strange but happy competitor/compatriot relationship. And more than that, for your always thoughtful and thought-provoking words on important topics in our world.

-Brenda

December Monthly Friend: Michele A.

Age: 26

Current Location: Brooklyn, New York

What she does: She is a performative story teller and a kinesthetic monologist. “They don’t have words for what I am.” she says. And, oh yeah, she’s also a waiter.

Dreams: “I wanna have a dream!” She guesses that right now her dream is that her friend, who is due to give birth sometime next week, has a healthy baby. Another dream of hers is, “That someday I will chill out and realize that I am not in control of the whole universe, and to let things just happen to me.”

How long she has used menstrual alternatives: Probably for about 9 years, starting around the age of 17 or so. Michele said that she stopped using tampons and pads at this young age because she realized that conventional products were inconvenient, expensive and uncomfortable. Around that time she was validated in her ideas while reading the book Cunt by Inga Muscio and realized “Wow! Other people don’t like those either? Awesome!”

Reason for switching:  “Back then I wasn’t about to use a pad (they’re like diapers!), and just forget about tampons! So I just started to bleed all over myself.” Eventually she started innovating -  she would stick a sock in her underwear, or just whatever soft fabric was around. After a while it seemed right to do something more intentional, making her cycle more hers.  She started collecting rags for this purpose and after a while she had her “bag o’ rags”. In a culture such as ours where bleeding is hidden and forgotten, this enlightened young woman was celebrating hers.

Michele once had an assignment in her ritual dance class, in which she had to find something she did with intention, and create a dance about it. Her dance was about the ritual she had cultivated of “reading” the period blood on her rags. When she had to change or refold her rags she would ask ask the universe a question and then apply what she saw in her blood in whatever way seemed right.

As an ending note and as a great plug for us, Michele would also like to say how much she loves her GladRags, and how dainty and lady-like it makes her feel to use her beautiful, soft, lovely Rags.