30 weeks... hopefully a good 8 to go. Well, at 190 lbs I have caught up to Eric. I'm healthy, the girls are healthy, Eric is healthy, cats are good, but the pooch is having some digestive issues (the details of which I will spare).
We spent the weekend in the Berkshires at our friends Mike and Julie's folks's house in Richmond, near Lenox and Tanglewood. Four couples/friends and their kids came with us...a total of 10 adults, 4 children under 2.5, and 2 dogs. Amazingly, we had a super relaxing time. Ate well, napped, played music, listened to wonderful guitar playing by various pairings of the husbands, and oggled at the babies playing with the big dogs. It was very cold for March, so staying inside by the fire was pretty nice. I loved having time for long talks with the women- all of them had been through childbirth with a range of stories and lots of wisdom to share. It felt really good to just sit around and talk about that stuff to my hearts' content.
And one evening, after the babies had gone to bed, we all stayed up late talking about religion and how we would introduce it into our childrens' lives... a very timely topic given that today is our god-son's baptism. Peter Fath, Annie and Dave's 10 month old boy, was baptized at the United Church in Oakville, Ontario. Eric and I sent the following poem and quotes, along with a letter to the little man.... The letter felt like the beginning of a roadmap for our own relationship with our daughters and how we hope to support their own exploration of religion. Its fun to think about all of the things we will explore with them.
The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
The one who has flung herself out of grass,
The one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearm and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down on the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Some Quotes from Different Religious Traditions
In your buddha-father’s personal opinion, religion can be a tool to bring happiness and fulfillment. Each religion is different, and each of us are different. Some religions suit some peoples’ personalities better than others, but when praciticed well, major world religions bring us to similar places. As communication improves between cultures, we can learn to respect all religions, and simply see them as tools designed, when used well, to make our lives, and the lives of those around us, richer with happiness and meaning.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." - Luke 6:38 (Christianity)
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” - Rumi (Sufism)
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” - Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Zen Buddhism)
“Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement.”
– Shunryu Suzuki (Soto Zen Buddhism)
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