the purefinder - archives - Mon, 2004-12-13
« I'm not the person I was. | Main | a different burden »December 13, 2004
the same profound calmness
When my children were babies, and I was their attentive and full-time dad, I found that I could relax them. I could actively cause calmness and contentedness to return to them - no matter how agitated or upset they were.
I would pick them up - tiny little things enveloped in my hugeness.
I would hold them close to my chest and swaddle them with my arms.
With their chest and my chest in contact, I would breathe.
I would breathe long deep regular slow breaths.
Their sobs and their panting would subside and gradually their breathing would follow mine.
They would follow the rhythm of my rising and falling chest, against which they rested.
We would share the same profound calmness.
At night they would sleep and I would return them to their bed.
Now they are no longer babies.
Tonight, after a stressful and demanding day, I held them both, individually, against me. I could feel the frantic rhythm of their own fast breathing and eventually I could feel their racing little hearts beating against my chest.
They calmed me.
Posted by padraig at December 13, 2004 08:10 PM