For June: A Love Story

     I wasn’t sure what to write about on my blog for June until yesterday. It was the 2^nd of June and a child, their first, was born to my godson Casey & his wife, Kathleen.

                                                          Kathleen, Sam, & Casey

     They named him, Samuel Joseph Harris. I was hoping they’d choose Biscuit, but I’ve let that go . . . pretty much! Now it seems obvious that that event and all that it implies and suggests is what I want to write about for my June blog entry.

     I am godmother to several children, but Casey was my first. He was also the first human being that I fell in love with at birth, (his, not mine!). He had just been brought home from the hospital and was lying, all wrapped up on some kind of bouncy thing on his parents’ kitchen counter. I looked right straight into his eyes and he looked right straight back and something inside me changed forever.  I’d never seen anyone, nor experienced being seen by anyone, so clearly, simply, and truly. In that moment, without a thought in my head, I knew what Love was and knew that I knew it. As I said, I have never been quite the same. I have loved him from that moment and will forevermore. I feel no choice about it. It just came upon me in that moment like an awakening. It’s not a thing that can ever  be discarded or lost. It’s not a ‘thing’ at all.

                                                 Baby Casey and his adoring Godmother!

                                                

                                                                          

     When his mom became pregnant with his younger sister, Molly, I worried that I could never love her, or anyone for that matter, as much as I loved Casey. Before she was born, I’d moved far away, so I missed her first year. When she was one or so, I came for a visit. One evening I was alone with her, watching tv and she covered us up with a blanket. Sitting with her under that blanket, I realized that she smelled like milk, and I became intensely aware of how young and vulnerable and innocent she was and something completely out of my control happened in the area of my heart. It felt like something ‘cracked’ inside me.  The process completed itself some time later, when she came with her parents to visit me. They spent several days and, when it was time for them to go back home, I went to the airport with them to see them off. We said ‘goodby’ and the three of them walked off to get the shuttle to their plane. Suddenly, Molly, 2 or three years old, stopped stock still and whirled around to face me. I saw that her  face was covered with tears and my heart exploded as she ran full out, back to me and threw herself, sobbing, into my arms.  I wrapped her in my arms and held her inside my heart and she has resided there ever since.  She will always be there, because she has always been there. As with her brother, it was an awakening to some eternal state, already in place, not the adding of a thing that was not previously there.

                                                                    Baby Molly

                                                                                                                                               

            These are two of my godchildren. ‘Godparent’ is defined as: “ A person who becomes a sponsor for a child in baptism. “ This does not express my experience. I looked for quotes about godparents, but could find very few and only one that was at all satisfying.

It’s by Christina Gabrielle Rosetti :

My Gift

What can I give Him
Poor as I am;
If I were a shepherd,
I would give Him a lamb.
If I were a wise man,
I would do my part.
But what can I give Him?
I will give him my heart.

     I am grateful to all my godchildren for opening my heart to Love.

     And now my first love, my first godchild, Casey, and his wife Kathleen have their first child.  . . . have brought into the world another being who has and will also inspire Love and open hearts.  And his aunt, Casey’s sister, my beloved goddaughter, Molly, will be among the first! And on and on and on! I wonder at my ability to forget . . . .  to become oblivious to the glory of it all! 

 

Happy Birthday, Samuel Joseph Harris! 

Welcome to the world of Form! 

Welcome to the ever lengthening chain of linked and loving hearts!

 “Here is the world.  Beautiful and terrible things will happen.  Don't be afraid. “ Frederick Buechner

                                       

                                                          Casey and his son, Sam

                                                                 Grown up Molly   

                                                                 

    

                                              

                                    Casey & Molly’s parents, my friends, Baxter & Bonnie, who started all this through the action of their love for one another! This is/was their wedding day! A blessed day that was!