I have a habit of praying for incoming souls in general for the last fifty years. But I usually just have one or two I know about personally that I am praying for at any given time. Once I met a dad who was the father of twins. I had a slightly awkward moment explaining to him my prayers for his twin daughters. I told him about praying for incoming souls. I told him that sometimes I had a time trying to find an incoming soul in particular to focus on. He seem to understand and we both laughed.

The baby next door, for whose soul I prayed in advance, is now seven months old. It was a great pleasure to watch him watching his family dog, while carried by his father, a morning walk. 

The little boy could not get enough of that dog walking beside him. Even-though his face was turned away from me I know it was full of delight and interest because that is the way he looked at me the other morning, as he smiled at me. 

For the last few months I have been praying for my other neighbor’s gestating baby. She was born right before New Year’s. 

At the end of my meditation as I prayed for her, I would focus on that particular baby and my face would break out in a big smile. It never failed to happen and I prayed for them every day, after she told me she was pregnant about six months ago. When the baby was not faced down for the birth I spent some extra time imagining the baby turning and being ready for the birth. 

I heard that the midwives surrounded her, the mother, one evening and literally turned the baby into the correct position with their encouraging hands manipulating her pregnant belly. If the mother got worried, they would see this and reassure her and at last it happened, and the baby was facing down and stayed there, with just a few weeks left before the birth. 

This evening I saw the baby outside on the father’s chest and I walked over. The father was wearing a blanket around him, and  the baby was cosy. 

He told me of that most special time of being behind his wife, holding her, as she pushed the baby into life. He said that he got into it fully when he started to shout words of encouragement to his wife when the pushing time came. 

Later she told him that the shouting was the most helpful thing, in that hectic time when the last stages of pushing for birth are happening. He gesticulated with his arms as he told me of the shouts and he leaned back at he told me how his body seemed to get into energetic action in pushing the baby forth.

When he lay at home on his bed twenty four hours later, he could feel the energy still coursing through him, down into his hands and through his whole body. The holiness of the moment and his willingness to get into the flow of the birth of his baby daughter brought him to love in a profoundly felt moment. He said it was “life changing.” He did not judge his actions but was in the “Tree of Life”moment for him and his family. 

Fathers especially feel these moments, as they have to be the one holding her hand as the wife goes about this most holy of motherly tasks. The father of my children always held the newborns and wept. It was a lovely moment for me as he turned away with the child and had that moment with them. 

He said the baby seemed to be doing fine “eating, sleeping and pooping.”

I wondered if it would be ok to bring over a jar of applesauce canned this fall, to make sure everyone else in the family is on the same schedule above as the baby. We laughed. I said I would leave it on the front porch.

He said his dogs seemed to understand that the baby is part of the family now and accepted the baby. He noted that I should not leave that applesauce on the front porch as the dogs might think that I was an intruder and would bark the house down. I agreed to leave it somewhere else for them. 

We even talked about stitches and tearing versus cutting to help the baby emerge. I think I had three episiotomies with the birth of my children. My tail bone was also broken off when the obstetrician helped my first born into the world with a forceps. I sat on a doughnut for six weeks until it healed. I saw red about it for some years afterwards. It is all forgotten now except sometimes I have to let go yet again relating to that pain. I have to say thank you to the staff there at the time who were attending to my birthing needs. 

I am chanting and reading. One of the little books said that all the meditation in the world is no good if I do not practice love with all my heart. I gave a healing massage for someone who felt “like crap.” I sang “Oh healing Waters” over them. I felt very high afterwards and full of peace. “As long as you do it to one of these the least of these my brethren you do it to me.” I am getting the hang of this a little. I hope you do too.

Love from Rose.