A sandwich is an opportunity

Pregnancy is about opportunity. A client tells me about her lunch sandwich: A piece of processed turkey with some mayonnaise on some ...er... bread..... A missed opportunity! Then I hear of a sort of salad with some lettuce, olives, croutons, grated cheese and ranch dressing. A missed opportunity! What about that weird dream she had last night? "My brothers are teasing me and I wake up really scared and in tears. That was strange. I don't think about my brothers too much", and she gets up and goes to work without thinking any more about it. And here we have another wonderful missed opportunity.
A pregnant woman cares intensely about her unborn child. It gets all her nourishing juices flowing. If, up until this pregnancy, she hasn't taken the opportunities that life offers to nourish herself, being pregnant is a powerful opportunity. In her journey of self-discovery that is pregnancy she can add interesting new ingredients to her sandwich: What about avocado, sprouts, radish, humus, even a scrambled egg in there between those pieces of crusty, grainy stuff....? What a pleasure. And what could she put in that salad bowl? Cabbage might be good, why not? And jicama, she could give that a try. And how about celery and sweet red pepper, tiny juicy tomatoes, pine nuts, green and red onion, and a little basil, all dressed with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and some balsamic vinegar? Doesn't that inspire you to go into the kitchen right now and create something tasty?
And what about that dream? Let's not dismiss it. Maybe she can tease out for herself her subconscious message. You don't need a degree in psychology or a year on the couch to ask some simple questions of yourself. Go past the immediate facts of the dream to its meaning in the feelings that it evokes. What is it the feeling of the place in which this is happening? What does that intense feeling when you are being teased remind you of? Does it remind you of another time and place? What would make you think of those feelings now? How does that help you to use this opportunity in your pregnancy for greater self-knowledge and ultimately to be the best mother that you can be? How will talking about these feelings and understanding them help you to deepen your relationship with your spouse and thus work better as a team to parent your child?
Every occasion from the sandwich and the salad to your dream last night, is an opportunity. In pregnancy this is especially true because it is a time of change, and therefore a time when women are open to all kinds of new experiences. Don't miss the opportunity!