Saturday, March 31, 2012

Thirteen Years Ago

It was March 31, 1999. I was still twelve days from my due date, but I was ready. Two of my colleagues had just each at their babies on March 8 and March 10 and there I was bigger than the both of them ever were waddling out the last few weeks on my own. I walked as much as I could, went swimming every other night, but none of that worked to produce this babe. However, on the night of March 31 there was a "blue moon", a second full moon in the month of March. I went out to the pond in a flowing sundress with only my glowing pregnant self underneath. When I got out to the water the moon was shining full force, glistening diamonds, the April birthstone. I raised my skirts and, I kid you not, I called out "Goddess, Mother Moon, I am ready for this baby. Please let her come." I sat for a while then on the bench swing by a gorgeous willow tree and solemnly said goodbye to the life I knew before children. At about 6 a.m. the next morning, my water broke. That was April 1st. I thought how appropriate for my husband and I to birth an April Fool, having met in Ringling Bros. Clown College. But my daughter had other plans. She wanted to test my resilience and decidedly did not want to be born a fool. Her birthday is April 2. And this year, 2012, she turns thirteen. I wanted to make sure to post at relatively the exact same time 13 years ago that my pagan instincts got the best of me, and the moon gave me my own little potential goddess. I think perhaps I need to solemnly say goodbye to the life I knew before teenage daughters under my roof. Believe me there will be more posts to come. In fact, since my daughters are six years apart, I will have a teenager under my roof for the next thirteen years.