~*...baby blessing...*~

today i went to my friend andrea's place for a baby blessing, an alternative to a baby shower. it was a pot luck combined with a clothing swap. the food was delicious.


after eating, we moved to the solarium, my former bedroom, for a baby blessing ceremony. in the middle of the room was a small shrine adorned with sculptures, crystals, candles, flowing material, and a goblet of water. we sat around the shrine in a circle and presented our gifts and blessings for andrea, akkal, and their baby.



instead of baby shower gifts, andrea requested an addition to the mobile she was creating for her baby. my addition was a quartz crystal braided in red hemp.



last night, my friend lindzee said to me "a child is the most beautiful physical representation of love". i could not agree more.



as an alternative to creating a piece for the mobile, owent wrote a story. he and carron painted the pages that story was written on, and he read it aloud as his contribution to the blessing.



other than owen, myself, and andrea's partner akkal, the people at the blessing were all women (three of whom were pregnant). one of the women, christina smith, brought her daughter grace with her. christina is the artist who painted the many pictures that hung on the walls of andrea's home. her site is called earthly images. seeing her, with child, underneath her own paintings was beautiful. she is a physical embodiment of her art, carrying the future of the world in her womb.



the blessing ceremony then went to the temple of song. there is something about the voices of women singing that makes me melt, and my heart was warmed with the harmonies of the beautiful goddesses at the blessing. one song that we sang in a round echoed in my mind, even later as i walked home.

i hear the voice of my grandmother calling me
i hear the voice of my grandmother calling
she says wake up, wake up
wake up, wake up
listen listen

after visiting the temple of song, andrea took a piece of yarn and tied it around her wrist. she then took the same yarn and tied it to my wrist (i was sitting next to her). i then took the yarn and attached it to the wrist of the person sitting next to me. this continued until all of us were connected by the same piece of yarn.


andrea then went around the circle cutting the yarn, leaving a bracelet of yarn on each person. it represented the connection of all of the people at the blessing, and serves as a reminder for all of us to channel love and blessings to andrea, akkal, and their baby. we will all remove the bracelets when andrea has given birth.

after the blessing there was a clothing swap. unfortunately, almost all of the clothing was women's clothing so there weren't many options for boys.

thank you for including me in your baby blessing andrea and akkal. i wish for you a happy and healthy baby.

as i was about to leave, i noticed that the girls had placed the poem i had written in calligraphy for them up on the wall of the solarium. it looks good there, and its an excellent way for me to end this blog entry.



Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men-go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers or families-re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body. - Walt Whitman

~*...normaste...*~