Neo-Natal Life...again

Birth. I wonder how many times we as the inhabitants of this planet, the masters of our own universe, the beings that we see each morning in our bathroom mirrors are allowed to be a part of the awe inspiring feeling that Birth affords? If we're at all lucky, we'll get to be involved in a birth several times over the course of our lives. Of course "we" ourselves are born but what most times follows are children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and more; so if we're fortunate enough, we get to see this wonder occur over and over. All be it the birth of any one or thing is truly a wonderful, exhilarating occurrence, the re-birth of anything is an even more splendid, almost incomprehensible event.

By no means am I downgrading the creation of life itself or birth. By no means am I trying to express that the first movement of a child in their mothers womb is anything short of beautiful and miraculous; no, that's not my intent at all. However when a part of ones life is over, whatever loss it may be, even if well intentioned people tell you "life will somehow be better someday", "give it time", the dread and fear that this can instill is almost enough to bring you to your knees; until your mind allows you to begin waiting and hoping for a possible new beginning, a re-birth. So when that life inside of us seems to stir a bit, when we can once again feel movement within ourselves that is giving us the OK to proceed with our lives, now that is an utterly miraculous feeling!

You see, the nine months that it takes for a child to emerge from its mothers womb is ordinarily a joyous time. Yes I know, or have been told, that some times during a pregnancy could be very stressful and sometimes debilitating but in a measured amount of time a life will be brought into this world; there are at the very least expectations of joy. Whereas grief is not brought about by creation, no joyous expectations, no set time frames when it will be over, it hurts and could last for years. Many times during those years there is a feeling of absolutely no hope for a future of any kind. So as I said earlier, when the stirring begins inside of us, that's a true sign that we're on the road to re-birth!

I have a lot ahead of me right now, I don't know where or when but I will be "fully" re-born someday and I'm eagerly awaiting that time. So, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and the like, give that new child all the love you have so that one day if a re-birth is in order, they can look back at their former lives and be proud of who they were, who helped them get there, and forge on anew...again!

The Birth of a Prophecy

Most people rationalize it as a nine month wait but for Don and Elly it had been more like fourteen years before that day. They had gotten married at the young ages of nineteen and twenty one and knew that they had plenty of time to begin a family. There was so much to do right now that the thought of a child was the furthest thing from either of their minds and they were enjoying the new union of their lives.

Don worked down at the Pfizer plant and eventually became supervisor over the crew who bottled Dilantin Tabs for mass marketing. This was supposed to be some sort of anti-epileptic drug which had been used since the 70's but was of late being replaced by newly formulated drugs as well as those damned generics. Elly was a secretary to one of the head honchos upstairs and it wasn't until after the Christmas party of '93 that they started to see one another regularly. It hadn't taken them six months to realize that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and when they married three years ago both sets of parents thought they were too young. This was the year however that they were going to get pregnant, it was time to start their family.

God knows they screwed like rabbits and every month they waited for her cycle to end hoping that her period wouldn't show it's ugly presence but every twenty sixth or twenty seventh of the month it appeared as if by clockwork. During the next seven years she had several possible miscarriages one in which the bleeding was so bad that she wound up in the hospital for a week. The tests results that week told them that she would never be pregnant again; they were heartbroken. It wasn't until they were into their eleventh year of marriage that they decided if they couldn't have a child of their own they would adopt and so they began a new mission.

Almost fourteen years to the day they were finally able to say they were parents; they finally had a child to call their own. The child they received was from Indonesian descent and was named Merpati, she was absolutely beautiful, she was a doll. During those first months with Merpati a strange and completely unexpected thing occurred. The twenty sixth, twenty seventh, twenty eighth, twenty ninth and thirtieth rolled by and no period. That next morning Elly used the early pregnancy monitor she had purchased the night before and discovered that the impossible was indeed possible and this time almost fifteen years to the day of their marriage their son was born. They named him Ramelan in honor of his big sister Merpati.