Birthing

Something new is emerging
wanting to be birthed
has wanted
waited patiently
to be in the light
for so long now

no longer okay
with laying dormant
no longer necessary
it is ready
NOW.

I know labor
the waves of contractions
trembling me
moaning me
into this
very
moment

impossible to cling to the past
or reach for the future

only right here

in the shaking and the trembling
the resting and the quiet
the shaking and the trembling

where even the earth echoes
the pains of labor

believing surely I will die

yet mind body spirit
fully alive
present
together breathing
the same prayer.

Birth and death
death and birth
meeting.

No returning
nowhere to escape
nowhere but
here.

Somehow an ancient knowing
carries me through the waves
as I feel
this painful now

this holy unknown.

And I know with certainty
there is no going back
no running from
no denying

birth is happening.

As much as I want
to cling to what
was
what is familiar
I know I cannot.
There is only allowing
opening
and surrendering.

This is how labor
is.

Now
something new is emerging
wanting to be birthed
has wanted
waited patiently
to be in the light.

My heart is
panting, pushing
to breathe the air
outside the womb.

© Lisa A. McCrohan 2011