Something absolutely new
Drew on the day he was born, March 1984
“The moment a child is born,
the mother is also born.
She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never.
A mother is something absolutely new.” — Rajneesh (Osho)
As most readers know, I normally schedule these posts well in advance, usually by about two weeks. However, today I am making an exception and preempting tomorrow’s scheduled post in favor of this one, which I’m writing as I sit in the waiting room of the hospital where I am awaiting the birth of our first grandchild. He is to be a son, as was our first child, whose newborn baby picture appears above.
As a disclaimer: I’m no fan of the teachings of Rajneesh (also known as Osho, whom I’ve quoted before). While he had some ideas to which I take strong exception, he also had quite a way with words. And perhaps no quote I’ve seen recently more accurately captures the experience of becoming a parent (I think the father is also something absolutely new).
Babies change their parents as nothing else can. The formerly carefree will experience anxiety at levels previously unknown — as will the already anxious. Those who were impatient are about to be immersed in the grueling curriculum of the School of Learning to Put Up with Stuff. And those who were happy before are about to forget how they could have possibly been content (or busy) without these new creatures who suddenly take up most of the real estate inside their hearts and minds.
If things go as planned, by the time you read this, I’ll have experienced being a grandparent for the first time. I’m told it’s the real payoff for all those years of diapers, delights, disputes and departures. What do you think? Those of you who are grandparents, share your best advice with us in the comments below!
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: babies, childbirth, children, families, fathers, grandchildren, joy, love, mothers, newborns, parents, sacrifice, sorrow
Defeat Despair 
What a beautiful baby! Drew looks very alert!
Thank you Mary Ann. He was indeed very alert, active and strong. He was more than two weeks late, and my mother was fond of saying that he was born a month old. She might be right because he crawled at four months and took his first steps late into his 7th month, walking without any support just before his 8-month birthday.