Sophia says at RevGals: I am pre-posting this because Friday I will be at my new Independent Catholic church's yearly Synod, being welcomed and conditionally re-consecrated to episcopal ministry for this jurisdiction...
This has me thinking of the special rites of passage in our lives which we participate for ourselves or in which we support and bless others: baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, graduation, funerals, etc. Such important days, so exciting and joyous, but also sometimes anxiety provoking or deeply painful....So, this week, please share five memories of such sacred moments with God and her holy people from your life and the lives of those you love.
1) Being present at the birth of my niece, Mallory in 1997. It was a planned C-section and my BIL Scooter and I were there with sister Nancy. Nancy was, of course, lying prone on the operating table; there was a drape up so that she could not see what was going on in the surgery area.
I was wearing my glasses, which I then (and still today) used only for distance. But I wanted to be SURE not to miss anything! Scooter and I were standing by Nancy's head, out of the way, and having a hard time not showing our shock as the various organs were (it seemed) casually lifted out and set aside...then they opened the uterus and lifted out A PERSON! By this time Nancy had realized that if I held my head just so, she could see what was going on in the reflection of my glasses. A whole new member of our family came out of her, ready made. We were all crying! It was a liminal moment. Here's a picture of Mallory in my arms that morning:
2) Going to Nancy's house for Christmas Dinner 1.5 years later, and meeting and connecting with Mallory the Real Person. Yes, I had spent a good bit of time at Nancy and Scooter's house in the ensuing months, and I knew and loved the baby and toddler Mally...but I walked in that evening and looked into the eyes of this little person with the marvelous curly hair, and we knew each other. In a way we had not in the past; in a way I have known very few others. I was enchanted all over again. She spent that evening in my arms, feeding me baby carrots (sometimes faster than I was ready for!) Here's a photo of us that night:
(the black & white scans kind of funny)
Since that time I have told both mother & daughter that Mallory is really my child, but I let Nancy take care of her for me. Joking. Like me, she is such a voracious reader, I love and adore that in her. But she is also every inch her mama's child and I couldn't have raised her nearly so well. I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had to be in her life, and those of her wonderful brothers.
3) Being with my grandfather as he died...My Meme died on October 10, 1991, after a protracted bout with COPD. Bigdaddy went to the hospital shortly after her funeral. I'd returned home to Texas (from Florida) but I immediately turned around and flew back. I was with him in the hospital for the 16 days until his own (somewhat unexpected) death on October 26. The gift to me was the unusual time with him alone...everyone else there had lives, homes, jobs to contend with; my boss at the time gave me the gift of compassionate leave and I was able to focus on him and his care and needs. We think he had been holding out until Meme left, and then he just let go...it took several days and I was there for them. Thank God.
4) Ken and I were married at Scarborough Faire, the Renaissance Festival in Waxahatchie, on May 31, 1999. It was Memorial Day. It was just Ken, Brandon, and me...and a JP/Methodist minister. All of us dressed up in RenFaire garb (including the officiant). He married us with the Book of Common Prayer service. It was very HOT but it was a lovely and peaceful day - almost entirely stress free (with the exception of the stress of, oh, getting married.)
5) I really must look back to the first RevGals Big Event...I wrote about it a number of times on this blog, and this post really tells it best. The point in the long run was that the online community that we had formed over the years...had begun to come together. It was IRL, with skin on. It worked. It was God's grace in the world.
6) No, not finished yet. Very soon after I returned from the first BE, my older brother died unexpectedly. We had been estranged for many years, and it was a sad and terrible situation for his wife and son, whom my parents, I, and some others had not been allowed to know due to the estrangement. My little sister and I co-officiated at his funeral, certainly something I'd never have expected to do...but it needed to be done. It was a gift to me. And the gift since then has been a new relationship with the wife and son; they've attended a family reunion since then and I cherish them.