A new beginning...

“Only mothers can think of future, because

they give birth to it in their children”

Maxim Gorky – Russian writer

“Your phone is buzzing.”

“Yeah, I know,” I replied. “Probably some headline from the BBC.”

A single buzz when my phone is on silence is usually a headline pushed from the British Broadcasting Corporation's service.

The day began…

It was unusual to still be in bed after 5AM in our time zone, but I was awake and thinking about Mariah, Dan and baby Robertson.  By now the little creature was eight days late, and from the chat I had with Mariah the day before, the little character was just hanging out, with no apparent urgency to get into birth position.

Mariah and Dan are both doctors, and fully aware of the steps necessary if the baby were to get too big by staying in its current home too long: drug induced labor and/or caesarian birth…steps they had worked hard to avoid. By yesterday their physician indicated this baby was probably NOT going to emerge naturally and would need either chemical or mechanical help (surgery) to bring it to its first lung filled non-fluid breath – not particularly reassuring. 

It was, as this organic life emergence ritual is for all new parents, stressful for both of them.

Getting in the game…

I was, in fact already preparing a second letter to the baby suggesting it might not be a bad idea to, as my grandmother was so fond of saying, “Get a move on!!”

This morning, Molly started the coffee as I lay there praying the baby would feel the ancient and primal urge to slip into position and descend to a world “…where no man [this baby] had gone before.”

Molly burst into the bedroom and said, “Check your text messages.”

It turns out the buzz was NOT the BBC, but the MLR (Mariah Lynn Robertson).

The text: “My water broke at 5:30am this morning. Ted your letter to BR worked.”

In that moment I appreciated ‘intention is everything,’ as I had not written a word yet.

It looked like baby Robertson had sensed the prayers and cosmic messages – from many folk, I might add – and decided it was time!

The process…

Around 1PM they headed to the hospital for the final stages of the impending event.

Not having personal experience, there is a lot that goes on as the birthing event approaches. Mariah and Dan have a lot of family and friends who, during the whole pregnancy, were updated and/or in contact with them. They would all want to know details as the focal point of the process was now at hand.

I texted Dan: “We will remain ‘radio silent’ until we hear from you.”

The day and evening passed with no news, so with the two of them – well the three of them – firmly in mind, I tucked into bed at my usual hour.

2AM – the phone buzzed! Almost instantly alert I grabbed the phone: It was the BBC a volcano in Chile.

After calming down, I drifted back to sleep.

3:10AM – the phone buzzed! As before, it seemed that all my senses were ‘ready to go: It was the BBC, an earthquake in Tibet.

5:30AM – the phone buzzed! It was the D-A-N! It was a 22.5” (57.3cm), 9lb 2oz (4.14kg) baby boy! Coen Arnott had made his appearance some 24 hours after Mariah’s initial text the morning before.

Mother and baby were healthy and well – as, now were Molly and I!

Perspective – is there any?...

I have recently been reading Carl Sagan, the astrophysicist and cosmologist, whose television specials brought the science of the universe into so many of our homes in the 1990s.

I have come to appreciate there may be billions of universes, of which our planet is nothing more than a speck of dust. I appreciate billions of children have been brought to life on this ‘speck of dust.’ I further appreciate this primal rhythm happens in ALL species as the reproductive miracle of sustained life is invoked innumerable times every single day.

This day, however, I was cloaked with the provincial sense that none of this mattered as this drama unfolded. This day, there were no universes, no specks of dust, no billions of births in every living species we know…No, this day I could only see two young people closing the chapter that was, for them, as unique and truly unknown, as the result of the care and love that had brought all of this to bare.

This day, there was only one universe...one world...one speck of dust to me: Coen Arnott Robertson!

- ted