As I write this, I have myperiod. And I know it sounds corny and dorky and trite and like flat-outhyperbole, but I’m happy because of it.I’m happy because getting myperiod means that I don’t have a terminal illness, I’m not suffering frommalnourishment (whether from an eating disorder or a lack of food), and I’m capableof having children when I choose to.
Yes, I hate the gut-wrenchingcramps that wake me up and make me roll into the fetal position until thehandful of Advil kicks in. And of course I complain when my hands feel likefalling off after I’ve stood at the sink and tried to scrub the stains out ofmy panties with ice cold water for God knows how long. And when I go to thebathroom and see the blood for the first time, I groan and wish Eve never atethe stupid apple.
But getting my period still makesme a little bit happy inside. It’s a sign from God to me that my system isrunning okay. It means that I have the ability to give birth to a newgeneration of Jews, that I can be a part of populating the Jewish nation. Mygrandmother, a Holocaust survivor, always felt that having children was thebiggest slap across the face she could give Hitler, as if to show him that hismission utterly failed: Jewish children are being born. The Jews live. And whenI get my period, I think of how a few days of discomfort every monthinvalidates every goal Hitler and the Nazis had.
I read something online a while ago that said that women are pretty much superheroes: we can bleed for months on end and nourish a child from our bodies, but we don't lose out or die because of it.
Yes, I know everything I justwrote is extremely melodramatic, but it’s all true. So call me cliché or adownright idiot, but I’m still happy when I get my period.
I know that modern Jewishfeminists have established brakhot (blessings) to say when you get yourperiod, but I couldn’t find it online (although the Google search led me backto my blog, which amused me). My suggestion is to try and get your hands on it,and if you can’t, then just keep in mind on your thanks to God when you getyour period.
Tizku l’mitzvot (may you be worthy to perform additional commandments)!
