Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Redmon.
Rachel, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My journey with motherhood has been tumultuous through miscarriage, rough pregnancy, mental illness, infant loss through PPROM, and raising my amazing spitfire daughter. After losing our second daughter to PPROM, we shared our home with five amazing foster children before my mental health required we take a step back. Through these experiences, it became glaringly obvious what a great need there was in our culture for hard, honest, uncomfortable truths. We often are witness to seemingly miraculous before & afters, and so the life long wrestling with grief, mental wellness, spirituality gets all but erased from our social story. I wanted to explore these topics and others out loud and in process. Brutal honesty and radical grace. It began with essays and has since expanded to include poetry and art as well.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I struggled with my identity. It was difficult to begin calling myself a writer, a poet, an artist. Anyone who knows me would tell you that’s who I am through and through, but it was a challenge for me to own it. Once I did though, there was such freedom and power in knowing my strengths and not apologizing for it. By telling myself I somehow hadn’t earned those titles I was only holding myself back. My advice would be to give yourself permission to know, celebrate, and own who you are and what you do. You don’t have to wait until you achieve x, y, or z. You don’t have to wait until you are a certain age, or make a certain amount of money. You don’t need someone else’s permission. Your identity is valid from 0 to 100. And it doesn’t have to be set in stone from the get-go – a story that changes and morphs is just as fascinating and empowering as one that doesn’t waver.
Please tell us about your work.
My favorite topics to write about are motherhood, grief, and loss, mental illness and health, embodiment and identity, spirituality and religion, culture and justice. Photography is my first love and has been absolutely foundational in my perspective and voice. Other forms of art like painting (watercolor, acrylic) and especially embroidery are points of joy and community for me. Something about the fiber arts feels very ancestral and healing.
Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
Honestly, anything and everything. Because of the insane amount of pressure put on girls and women from the start, we have an incredible amount of skills that we don’t even realize are innately within us. The question isn’t what are we capable of, but what do YOU want to do?
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rachel-kathryn.com
- Email: rachel.k.redmon@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/motherofwild
- Twitter: twitter.com/motherofwild
Image Credit:
Rachel Redmon
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