Lament for Life
Pregnant. She clutched her abdomen, reeling as a known reality collapsed under the forces of a thousand questions she never knew to exist. Fear, anxiety, wonder, awe, terror, curiosity; she staggered under the weight of possibilities and conversations rushing upon her, an ambush breaking loose. Aware of her body like never before, she considered the occupant within her. A baby? A thing? Never before had the choice of terminology thrown her into crisis. If declaring it a problem, she must seek resolution. But if a life... could she carry a child with tender love and fierce devotion to responsibility? What if she carried the infant for a few months, found herself irreversibly attached yet confronted with glaring reality of her own inability to parent? No, this must be an "it"- an intangible nuisance. Agonized, she shuddered in her soul. What if she was terribly wrong? ............. Creator of the universe, we gather to lament for mothers crying alone, wondering in the anguish...
