(I am writing the next few blogs while Roland is in Italy with his entire family for a well-deserved extended vacation. These are big "blog shoes" I am going to try and fill...so wish me luck. Eddie)
My long anticipated business trip to Australia and SE Asia was unexpectedly interrupted earlier this week as I was literally packing the night before the flight. The call came Monday evening that my older daughter had gone into delivery four weeks ahead of the projected due date.
We spent much of that evening and the following day at the hospital with my daughter and the anxious soon-to-be father. All the hard work by the young mom eventually paid off and the baby, let’s call him MD, was finally here. MD weighed in at 6 lb 12 oz, 19” long and was irresistibly precious, like all newborns. What a phenomenal afternoon…there is a certain realization about one’s grown children becoming parents themselves.
Both mom and baby are doing well thanks to the excellent care from the professional staff at the local medical center.
Once the excitement settled and MD was taken for observation, I could not help but think about what the little man had just been through. His whole world had suddenly turned upside down. Here he was tightly cuddled in his pitch black world surrounded by soft and friendly embryonic fluids at a constant temperature and comforted by the soothing thump thump of his mother’s heart beat, and suddenly, without warning, he is squeezed and yanked at the same time, his eyes are exposed to intense light in the delivery room, his skin is surrounded by dry and cold air and the constant and comforting beat of mom’s heart is nowhere to be heard.
Talk about change. The good thing is, we all experienced this traumatic change when we were born, and I doubt any change we ever experience can be as drastic.
Change is a fundamental element of all progress. Embrace it. Champion it. Manage it.
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