Cry for me Nokomis (grandmother)

A week ago my noshis (granddaughter) Ava was born.  What a moment it was!  Twenty five hours after my daughter’s water broke and coaching her through all her pain and worry, I stood beside my daughter helping hold her legs as the nurses and I encouraged her to push out the baby.  At that point she didn’t want to push but she had no choice!   As I saw Ava’s head crown in the birth canal, I almost burst into tears; how blessed I was at that moment to be welcoming my granddaughter into the world.  With more pushing and encouragement, my daughter pushed out Ava’s head.  Her head! Yes, it is a big feat to push out a head from your cervix! I have a hard time just pushing out poo from my butt!  If you don’t think pushing a head out of small flipping hole is easy then I suggest you give it a go!   I am so amazed that as womyn we can do that; so amazed! At that moment where Ava’s head was out, my daughter took a breather to utter a few curses and then preceded to push out Ava’s shoulders and legs out into the world.

Ava only hours old

Suddenly, in a moment of stillness that seemed to stop time, the world that my daughter and I both knew changed!  “Ava Helena is finally here”, cried out my noshis!  Well, she didn’t cry it out exactly like that; she is a baby after all!  It just seemed like she cried it out; such an energy she had about her the instant she was born.  It was Ava’s defining moment and rightly so as she had been cramped up in the “mommy hotel” for 9 months.  I would be crying “Good gawd let me out! at the top of my lungs!  I hate being confined in small spaces, really; nine months would have just made me batty!

And just like that and as natural as can be, the nurse then put my granddaughter Ava into my daughter’s arms and asked me if I would like to cut her umbilical cord.  I was floored! Really me?  “I am the world’s biggest klutz and they trust me with cutting her cord”, was the thought running crazee amok in my mind. But with big tears in my eyes that threatened to overflow onto the hospital bed, I accepted the scissors and prayed to the Creator that my klutzy ways wouldn’t make an entrance. With direction from the doctor and nurses, I cut the physical cord that tied my granddaughter to her mother and I cried; Ava would now have to make her own ties.  I was instantly afraid for her because up until then she had no choice to the ties that bound her.  Not that she would want to change the tie that she had for 9 months with my daughter/her mother, however not all ties regardless of them being physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual that bind us, are good ones.  I cried.

In my teachings, we cry for those who come into the world and rejoice for those who pass on and go back to the spirit world.  We cry because we know that life isn’t easy and that there will be sorrow and pain that will accompany the joy and happiness of a new spirit born into a physical body; a baby.  The journey that each of us are on is the one we ask for when we are in the spirit world.  Yes, it may seem a bit crazee that we have asked for hard times but those hard times, those moments/days/months etc. of extreme sadness, pain, or sorrow are where we grow as beings; teachings are hidden within them.

As spirits looking down upon Mother Earth we become curious as to what it is like to experience life in a physical form and ask the Creator to teach us, to let us be born so we can be curious no more.  The Creator is the one who puts in our path what we have asked for as spirits in the spirit world, only we have no idea what each hurdle, each sadness, pain, joy or happiness will be because we forget the moment we are born. Not knowing what will come next is the greatest gift of all. You may think it isn’t, but it is. If we knew every step on the path of our physical journey on Mother Earth, then we would not learn a thing and what would be the sense of being born at all?

To many people, it may seem that we have no control over the paths we are on and take, but we do.   And while it may also appear in times of great pain and sorrow that the Creator isn’t having pity upon us, she/he is.  The Creator does not wish for our spirits to suffer and will put things on our path that will help us or warn us of things to come; the choice is up to us is to see it and reach for the change. Free will is in the choices we make, whether we stay on one path or move to another.  It isn’t an easy choice to make but the trick is to find the positives in the negatives and move on them.  When it appears we can no longer take it, where we keep on the same path over and over, the Creator puts other spirits in our way to guide us.  Again, it is our choice to recognize them and reach out to them. 

I cried for my noshis but I then wiped away my tears and went to where she was being weighed and assessed and I smiled at her.  Only moments old, she grabbed my hand and smiled as if to say we are going on a journey and the adventures that await us will be the ones we create! Yes, the sure will be!

Miigwech Creator for Ava.  Miigwech for Ava choosing my daughter to be her mother and for me to be her Nokomis.  Miigwech, miigwech. I am truly grateful and humbled.

Carrianne