Midriff Muse

“There is an angle in our family,” were the words of my husband, who flew to meet her only hours after her presence commenced in this life.  This first grandchild has forever changed all of our long-held titles: Mom and Dad to Grandma and Grandpa; and sister, sister-in-law, brother, brother-in-law to aunts and uncle.  Indeed we have been promoted.

To the Hospital!

Upon receiving the message in the wee hours this morning that labor had begun and my daughter-in-law and stepson were enroute to the hospital, I began reciting Hail Mary’s as I rummaged for candles to light and cleared spaces for them to reside – you cannot have a sacred space in the middle of a pile of tax work (or maybe you should for a better outcome).

When I went into labor with our own firstborn, nearly 24 years ago, we called my mother-in-law before leaving for the hospital in those pre-cell phone days when calling, let alone texting, as we drove was a futuristic concept.  My mother-in-law responded by saying that she would go to the church, light a votive and say some prayers.  I was comforted by that. I thought it was lovely.  I’m sure that her Irish Catholic sensibilities were rooted in something that existed long before the tiny isle converted.  Today my friend Peggy Bull responded to my text that labor was underway with the reassurance that she would light a candle and say prayers.  Continuous love poured in with texts from my sisters and friends.  As I lit a pillar candle in the middle of the living room, then placed a taper in the east direction on the sun porch and finished with a trio of tea lites on the mantle to summon the three sisters of destiny,

Three Sisters Candles

I felt bathed in the softness of spirit.  “ It’s all about love”, my Dad once told me from the other side.  I perked a pot of coffee and drank from the china cup and saucer he used in his last days here.

There is a children’s book about “on the day you were born”.  It tells of how the awareness of the moment resonates in every being in every corner of the kingdom on earth from the sea turtles to the arctic terns.  I felt this sense of the “talking wires” sending the buzz around the world.  I’ve often reflected how in times of birth and times of death, when the stuff of life comes to a halt for those most entwined, the rest of the world goes maddeningly on while you are paused in the ordinarily profound.

Today in the midst of my pause for Kiera Ann, I was electrified by a harbinger of good things to come.  There is a different movement deep in my being that is a simmering cauldron of things like: furniture sold on Craig’s List being carried out the door, a change in financial habits, a welcoming of new healing in my physical body, a willingness to seek out new  perspectives, the movement of my son’s adolescence into adulthood and my daughters’ young adulthood into adult lives and livelihoods, my husband’s decision Monday to fly to New York for the birth in spite of the fact he is just two weeks into recovery from knee replacement surgery which was affirmed and complimented by the fact that he was able to purchase a cheap ticket just hours before the faires went through the roof.  So many odd little things are adding up to a belief that things are going to be more than okay along with an overall sense that some long broken things are going to be fixed.  The affirmation of all that on this day of Kiera Ann’s birth is that: for weeks now – since before Christmas – I could not find heart to write any blog posts.  Then last weekend when the first inspiration in a long time came to me, I posted it  - only to find that my blogsite had been infected with a virus for weeks.  I have been ditzing around for days trying to straighten it out, feeling clumsy and inept and fearing I would have to start from scratch and lose all my posts, but last night Kiera and I had a secret conversation and I knew that Kiera’s early arrival today signaled that we understood each other.  I started writing this post with some sense that my blogsite would heal enough to share it.  Before I was through writing the piece, my webhost security was able to clear the virus.  My website is back and better than before with updated software.

That’s because there is an angel in my life.

Baby Makes 3

Brian(new Daddy) Hawk(new Grandpa) Shannon(new aunt) Kiera(newbaby)

Father and Son moment

Grandpa's Girl

My baby girl holding her niece.

Grandma T-T

February 23rd, 2010 | Tags: granddaughter, midlife humor, Midlife Musings, new baby, Three Sisters of Destiny | Category: Daughters, Family, Me, Myself and I | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL