Saturday, October 27, 2012

Celebrating the Wonder of Birth!

Rock star has landed!
       Haddie Ann Kreider
             Born Today!


WORTH IT ALL

 

First there was the long awaited joy discovering

That you were a mere fetal speck.

Months of pampered excitement

Watching my belly slowly swell

Then balloon beyond belief.

Impatient, I longed to peek inside myself

To see the secret you,

Your sex, your skin, your forming face

With x-ray eyes

In those pre-sonogram years.

Week by wondrous week

I felt you growing, strengthening,

As you poked me from within

With fidgety feet and fists.

Imagined a hundred scenarios

Of the you you were becoming.

Laid hands upon my rumbling stomach,

Prayed blessings

Penetrating pre-born you.

 

Then, arrived the day of

Tremulous wonder.

Contracting crescendos,

Long hours in a surrealistic haze

Climaxing in pushing, pushing, pushing you out

Of my cozy womb into my waiting arms.

Labor blurred sweetly into joy’s

Highest measure. You emerged,

Perfect. Miraculous.

 

Then followed years of diverse labor stages

So intense, childbirth’s memory

Paled into small inconsequential aches,

And star spangled ecstasies catapulted me

Far, far into glittery galaxies.

 

You’re adult now, on your own,

Still developing, discovering,

Dazzling, surprising,

Still nudging me

Within and without.

I still long to peek

Into places I cannot,

To know you even more

Than I know you,

And who knows you more?

That’s how it is for mothers.

That’s how it’s always been.

Umbilicals are only severed

In the physical sense.

 

Maude Carolan
 
Welcome to my brand new great niece, Haddie Ann, who was born this morning, October 27, 2012.  She's the daughter of Carrie & Troy Kreider and she's sooooo beautiful! God bless her and her little family.
 
This poem was written years ago in remembrance of the times I awaited the birth of my own three children.

 

 

 

Saturday, October 20, 2012

I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine.



To my husband, Bob, on our 6th anniversary:


DODI LI


"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."

Song of Songs 6:3


 

Shirley says

my heart is a thimble

and God's love is the ocean

and He wants to pour all that love

into my little heart

 

I have learned that the Lord

has made my heart

a little like His own

 

that the heart is limitless

in its capacity to love

 

that it may seem

the heart's chambers

are about to burst

…yet there's still room

 

that bodies grow older

…but not our hearts

 

I have learned

that God

is the Restorer of Hearts

The Master of mending

broken ones

 

that although sorrow

may visit us

the heart keeps its rhythm

…hope is not shattered

utterly

 

I grew tired of the Titanic song

weary of Celine's heart going on

and on and on

 

but now I understand

the heart does go on

 

I've also discovered

my heart is undivided

when it professes

Ani le dodi ve dodi li


and speaks of

two bridegrooms

One of my soul…Jesus

and one of my heart…Robert

 

and I believe

one of the best things there is

about knowing God

is that He is Love

 

…that we love

because He first

loved us

 

He just keeps on

filling our thimbles

with inexhaustible oceans

 

so we'll always

always, always

have Love

to give

 

Maude Carolan


 

Happy Anniversary, Bob…I love you!
 
I read this poem to Bob during our wedding ceremony, October 21, 2006.
 
"Dodi le dodi ve dodi li" means "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."  Our gold wedding bands bear that inscription in Hebrew.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Have you ever been to the Dead Sea?




LIFE FROM THE DEAD SEA


Israel Pilgrimage—1986

 

There’s something mysterious

yet wondrous

about this great water body

that lies smooth and still

in the midst of utter barrenness

so salty, one can actually climb

and walk upon giant saline mushrooms

which rise up from sea bottom

at the lowest ebb on Earth

 

For millenniums it has taken

from the Galilee and Jordan

without giving—

refusing sustenance

to fish and flora

hoarding its rich minerals

and precious oils which intensify

in ongoing evaporation

 

People flock to its shores

from far continents

to bathe, buoyed

in lifeless waters that heal

They even slather their bodies

with its dark therapeutic mud

receiving restoration

from the deadest dead

 

One great day

the mighty arm of God

will reach down, down, down

to touch its lifeless liquidity

with miraculous rebirth

Its waters will spring to life!

Fish will thrive

Trees will bear magnificent fruit

along its lush and fertile shores

 

Maude Carolan