Having my baby has been a transforming experience in more ways than one. Of course there is the whole being a mom thing and how for the rest of my life now I will always be a parent before playing any other role but there have been a few humbling realizations along the way and I sure hope that I will not forget these lessons.
The biggest has been that when someone said no man is an Island they were bang on. The journey to having my little boy was an unusually tough and arduous one. I was lucky to have an incredible family support system that saw me through this but I also met some strangers along the way who made the everyday things easy by just being the way they were. There was the lady who my mom found to give me a leg massage as I was confined to my bed forced to lie flat for nearly two months in a hospital room and the girl who came from the local lady’s salon to give me a manicure and a pedicure so that I still managed to look human through the months. It was not so much what they did but how they did it. The massage lady realized that my mother and I needed her as much for the company as for the massage. So she became our daily dose of gossip and chatting. The girl from the salon gave me the manicure while I lay down flat! I can’t imagine that it was easy for her but she did. Similarly for the nurse who gave me my daily shots. She took that extra bit of care to make sure that even if it hurt she had a soothing hand and a word.
I haven’t met any of them since my boy arrived and really don’t know if I will, but their association will stay with me forever. It has taught me that in our lives even the shortest encounter can have a lasting impact on our lives. And while we may consider ourselves all modern and self sufficient, a one-man army rarely wins the battles in life. We all need that helping hand even if it is brief and that of a stranger.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment