TRANSFORMATION
C h a n g e
Birth… a shocking emergence from darkness to light, from ease to effort.
The beginning.
As a child… time passes like a sleepy ocean, waves rolling in and out, each one unfolding a new discovery as it flows out.
But as a parent… from the moment of two lines on a stick, change looms like an ocean preparing for a tsunami, sucking out.
Hormones sweep us along. Nature knows what to do. Our bodies change. Our minds can’t always keep up.
Birth is transformation. The wave of change breaks with surges of joy and intensity. Then we are lost in changes and challenges that cascade around us, each unfolding before we have time to process the one before. Time loses its meaning until we stop and realise that it is gone, and those changes are all past and the child has grown.
But now… the wave pauses, trembles, looms.
The birth of a mother and the birth of a child.
It rises before me. Powerful, inevitable, fearsome.
Sometimes there is no certainty. We just need to trust, and walk towards the waves.
So… I was going to edit this story down so it wasn’t a complete novel. And I gave up. So, consider yourself warned: this is my complete birth story, including the bits that only happened inside my head. (And it’s kinda crazy in there!). However if you just want the bones of the story, without the flesh and nerves attached, click on the box.