Friday, March 4, 2011

TRDC - Water


Red Writing Hood - Water

The prompt I used was: Water gives life

The grainy image on the screen showed a delicate hand dancing with grace. Hypnotized by the motion, I watched my daughter in the waters. She appeared to delight in the movement. Buoyed by natural surroundings, she stretched and curled up next to where she could hear my heartbeat the best. There will come a time to leave the familiar and each heartbeat brings that trickle of time crashing to the bottom of the hourglass. Each grain of sand deafening in its landing as time that has passed.

Pushed violently from the common into the unknown; the dry air was an invasion and the blanket that intended to swaddle her was offensive. When cleansing water was finally offered it was in the form of abrasive scrubbing and offered no comfort. Her strong cries of protest were not of the scrubbing, but of the uncertainty of the air. Her hands that I had watched gracefully, fluidly dance were clenched until the dimpled knuckles had whitened. I longed to watch her in wonder of this new world. I craved for her to feel comfortable and at ease cradled in my arms instead of where she had nestled beneath my heart.

Days passed and we were finally home. My feeling of relief did not transfer to her and unloosen those tiny hands. I needed us to have a moment in which we were in the familiar together. I sat in the warm waters of the bath tub with my newly born daughter. I supported her head with my hands. I watched my daughter float and glide with ease. She settled into the weightless movements and feel of the fluid as her hand began to dance again.

The crying that had continued for days and hours had stopped. She was hypnotized by the motion and I watched my daughter surrounded in warm comfort. I slowly and carefully began to pull her out of the water; to leave what had been so familiar. Although the towel I offered her was coarse and stiff, it dried the warm water droplets from her dampened curls. I laid the towel back on the side of the tub letting her nuzzle and curl up to my chest. Easing her gently into this world and let her find comfort where she could hear my heartbeat best.

27 comments:

Lapiz de la Guerra said...

I love the images that this conjures up. And what a great idea to take a bath with your baby after her birth. I wish I'd thought of that with my munchkin when she was born, it might have saved us both a lot of heartache.

There were a couple of spots where I noticed your tense didn't seem to match and a couple of other places where you could have shortened sentences or contracted words to make it flow a little bit easier. It took me a few lines to really get into it, but when I did, I loved it! I almost wanted to snuggle up with you too ;) Great post!

tracy said...

Beautiful, mama. xoxo

Charity said...

You made me cry and want another baby. This is truly beautiful. You make me wish I was a writer and not a crafter.

Cha Cha

erin margolin said...

Beautiful details, Alycia. Love the idea of a bath with my baby. Such tenderness is expressed here. Love getting a bird's eye view of this incredible experience.

livingsj77 said...

This is beautiful. I had to read it three times and it brought tears to my eyes. Really sweet.

Pamela Gold said...

I always wanted to try birthing into water. The image as seen through your eyes speaks to me. This a beautiful post!

Carrie said...

This is magical. What an interesting idea, to recreate the womb with a bath.

Visiting from RDC

(Miss_Scarlett99 on Twitter)

Anonymous said...

So very sweet. Brought tears. Brought memories of my new-born and the bath, many years ago. Lovely writing!

Kir said...

oh that was beautiful....a moment every new mom can relate to and my eyes filled with tears of knowing.

I loved how you used this prompt.

My favorite line
There will come a time to leave the familiar and each heartbeat brings that trickle of time crashing to the bottom of the hourglass. Each grain of sand deafening in its landing as time that has passed.

WOW.

Shell said...

You always bring such emotion to all you write.

It's a good thing I love you or I'd be insanely jealous of you.

Anonymous said...

Undeniably beautiful!

MrsJenB said...

What a terrific way to interpret the prompt. This is such a rich, emotional piece. Very very nice.

The Sisters' Hood said...

How smart you are ... you need to write a book for Mommy's on how to quell their crying babies ...
'Ebb and Flow, womb to world.'
I will be your agent.

Love, sweet thing :)

The mad woman behind the blog said...

Slam dunk, my friend.

Ami said...

Gorgeous response to this prompt! I loved that you were able to describe the contradiction between the soothing water of the womb and the harshness of the world. And bringing it back to the heartbeat at the end was perfect!

TempestBeauty said...

LOVE IT!!

I love the descriptions of birth from an infant point of view. I love the bath, and how it calmed her so.

Wonderfully written :)

Anonymous said...

Oh! I have tears in my eyes. First because the sharp contrast between the womb and the world. Then, because of the love you showed her by bringing her back to where she felt most safe.

I so wish I would have thought to do that with my babies!

Kelly said...

Oh, Alycia, you have done it again!!

Does your talent know no bounds?? I hope the answer is no...because I love your writing so.

Simply wonderful!

Stasha said...

Stopping by from TRDC...

I had tears in my eyes.

Taking a bath with her to make her comfortable? Beautiful!

I echo the other moms who wish they would have thought of that when their children were babies...

Brandon Duncan said...

You did a great job on this, CW. I enjoyed the contrast between the air and water. You never really think about how rough it must be going from one to the other.

Excellent job.

CDG said...

What a tender moment to write about for this prompt. It's amazing to me how different our expectations of those newest days are going to be from how they sometimes are. Also amazing is how we find the right thing to do in the moment.

Just beautiful.

Leighann said...

I read it three times! My favorite line, "Buoyed by natural surroundings, she stretched and curled up next to where she could hear my heartbeat the best."
Beautiful.

{Stephanie}The Drama Mama said...

Simply beautiful. Imagery, flow, all...gorgeous.

--The Drama Mama

Tracie Nall said...

Such a beautiful moment....so much love.

Also, the bath with the newborn is such a brilliant idea.

Veronica said...

Not only beautiful but insightful, the recognition of the of living in one environment for so long and transitioning suddenly to an extremely different one could be traumatizing!

It also makes me wish snuggling up with a precious newborn, close to my heart, their little bum in my hand.. So intimate and sweet.

Ash said...

Oh how I wish I had thought of that! Such brillance, yet so simple.

You're a good mama.

MamaRobinJ said...

Reading this after your Child in My Dreams post? Perfection.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails