the sizemore family – rosemary mix

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
Carl G. Jung
“The Philosophical Tree” (1945)

For 10 months prior to the birth of our daughter we struggled very hard with the perceived pushes and pulls towards unhealthy and confused situations from people around us, each other and ourselves. The imaginings and “ignore-ances” of those who were assumed and supposed the closest to us and those that we gave the most responsibility, trust and faith to seemed almost too powerful to understand and negotiate. This was nothing all together new and/or uncommon, as we pride ourselves on trying to work through such ideas and experiences, but given the circumstances of being pregnant coupled and grouped with various other issues and occurrences, we found ourselves struggling with our own perceptions, ideas, feelings and actions and no longer felt equipped or capable to make good choices. We felt surrounded by the unenlightened and unwilling, by adepts in duality and addicts of victim consciousness and we saw ourselves slipping more and more back to those places that we had endeavored so hard through. We found ourselves searching and finding ways in and through the darkness of the shadows projected by these friends, family members, care givers and ourselves. With these songs and dogged attention to our responsibilities we found understanding and acceptance as well accomplishment and resolve.

So when given a homework assignment by our birthing home to manifest in some art form what our “interpretations of ourselves in this pregnancy connection” were and what we were “thinking, feeling, being and so forth”. We chose to express the ideas and feelings we shared through the songs we had some sort of identification and association with during the 10 months and that we used to remind and illustrate what we considered proper and whole was of living and being. Some of the songs were taken to be literal, sentimental and sympathetic, some more poetic, abstract and allegorical. All are honest and unpretentious.

Together we sat down, discussed and recalled our notions, dispositions and moods that were relevant to the shared subjective experiences that were associated and connected to our pregnancy. All the while referencing Jungian psychology with various other mystical, transpersonal and esoteric theories, philosophies and ideas related to responsibility, holistic health, the evolution of and becoming more intimate with self and being and the unifying of perceived opposites and dualities. We sorted through and culled out dozens of songs together and then I arranged 20 of the most meaningful, intimate, cohesive and “pop” structured songs into a seamless mix. In what normally takes at least three weeks to finish was accomplished in 3 days, just in time to present copies to the parents and their families, midwives and assistants in our evening birthing class.

This mix may seem peculiar to most in the idealized, cliche and proverbial frames of pregnancy, as we found that there seems to us a lot of repression and projection going on with the experience for most folk and such proved to be the major issue addressed with this mix, but we do as we do, with love and honesty so that is all this is. We now make the mix available for free downloading to you and everyone else willing to stand judgingly between their light and shadows or just willing to listen.
-The Sizemore Family