what a wonderful world

I love this photo and the story behind it which Eva pulled me aside to tell me about today.

~basically it goes something like this- there is a herd and the dominant male is the one in the middle with the red horn on his head and around him are all the females, some of whom have babies (if you look closely at these tiny metal balls that actually came with those magnets you can buy and build things with, you will see there are a few that are smaller than the others- I am not saying you can tell this from the photo, but if you were here and you sat in front of them in their formation, you would definitely be able to see the smaller ones)- anyway, those smaller ones are the babies and some of the babies are in with all the other metal balls, next to their mothers, of course. there are two other babies under the shell and their mother stands in between the shell and the herd- something about not being ready to join the herd yet and wanting to be able to protect her babies from the herd and the dominant male? and the really great thing about these creatures is that unlike us, they have three nipples and so on very rare occasions they can have three babies- she didn't, she had two- but what i love here is that for eva, breastfeeding, nursing, nourishing our babies with our bodies, is the way of life, the default, how it is and this excites me because maybe someday, someday, little girls will grow up after being breastfed themselves and will know how grand it all is and there will be enough of us around to help and support and guide and love them through the experience of nursing their own babies themselves. in the meantime, for this herd, for these babies, there are extra nipples for all!~