Andreea and I were having a conversation about a vision-statement for a new website we will soon be launching to support her Doula-training work in Romania. The direction we were heading in would translate roughly as (a) every woman has a right to choose how to give birth; (b) every woman has a right to support and assist other women in their birth experiences; (c) a Doula is a woman who supports another woman in realizing her birth-related wishes (to give birth as she chooses).
The phrases, once present, continued to go through a process of refinement. One such refinement was around the word “realizing” in the 3rd phrase. I was standing outside, closing up for the day, speaking to Andreea who was standing at the entry to the house and I used the Hebrew word להגשים (“lehagshim”). However, seconds after Andreea disappeared inside I realized what a difficult task I had left her with – translating that into Romanian.
Just then, I kid you not, it started to rain and I looked up to the sky, smiled and called Andreea to come back outside. There I was, standing in the rain, and I asked Andreea if she knew what the root word is for להגשים. She didn’t … so I looked to the sky and she soon smiled and got it.
The root word is גשמ “geshem”.
Another word that branches out of this root is גשמי (“gashmi”) which means corporeal or physical.
Or if you simply replace the last letter of the root word with a final letter (there are a few letters in Hebrew that have two variations – one used inside a word and another used at the end) you get גשם which means “rain”.
Rain falls down to the earth. Things that come from the heavens to the earth become real … they manifest. להגשים means “to make real” … and indeed a Doula is there to support a woman as she transforms her birth-related wishes into an unforgettably real experience.
In hebrew rain, which will awaken the potential of our newly planted seeds and enable them to become mature plants that feed us, is rooted in the idea of making things real. Helping other transform their wishes into reality …. thats sounds like a great thing to do. Andreea’s eyes sparkled with realization … however it didn’t make her task of translation any easier 🙂
Sidenote: it seems that in business lingo Rainmaker is someone who gets things done … brings in a lot of business … hmmm 🙂