This sacred moment

Yesterday morning, the cramps across my abdomen woke me from a restless sleep at 3.30am.  After an hour, I decided that this might actually be 'It'.  So I got up and lined the bed with towels, just in case my water broke unexpectedly! 

The cramps neither intensified or disappeared.  Dirk went to work and, as the hours passed, I wondered how to truly honour this event, how to acknowledge the sacredness of a life emerging.

Should I stay in a semi-meditative state?  Listen to calming music?  Or would sacred music be better?

In the event, Nothing happened.   It was just more muscle practice as my body prepares itself for the great event. 


Which led me to the question: How do we honour a sacred moment? 

I would argue that every moment is a sacred moment, if only we weren't so busy rushing through it to get to the next moment.  I am acutely aware of my desire to rush through this 'waiting period', these last days of pregnancy, maybe even the birth itself, in order to meet the baby. 

And what then, will I rush through his/her infancy?  Toddlerhood?  School years?...

So how do I honour the millions of sacred moments I'm living, as I live them?  I think it's probably deceptively simple - which is why I struggle with it!  I suspect that it's about bringing my attention to the present moment.  It is about simply slowing down enough to notice what is happening right now, rather than missing it because I'm too busy planning for the future or remembering the past. 

Bringing our attention to the Now is nothing new.  Eckhart Tolle writes beautifully on the subject.  The challenge is to implement such a simple practice.  It's about slowing down.  It's about noticing, softly, that I'm excited, that I'm apprehensive, that I'm cleaning the bathroom again... This noticing has a gentle quality to it: it is accepting, it is compassionate, it is even humourous.

I appreciate how great an honour it is to be pregnant, knowing how difficult it can be to get pregnant.  I also know this may be my one and only experience of pregnancy.  For me, the best way to honour this (and every) moment, is to notice it; to become gently aware of it, rather than lose the moment as my mind sweeps ahead of where I AM now... 

And perhaps, in that noticing, in that gentle awareness, the sacred nature of each moment can begin to reveal itself to me more fully: the richness, vibrancy and wonder of life, however mundane it may seem, can touch my heart in a way that I cannot appreciate when I'm too busy rushing through life, searching out its 'high-points' and missing the wonder of Now.