Spiritual Midwives

My best friend is a nurse-midwife.

I have had the honor of being present at a few births with her as an observer and as a birth Doula. The love, care, nurturing and support I have witnessed my friend provide to her patients is inspiring, loving and spiritual. Watching the miracle of life coming into the world is well,a miracle...a profound mystical joining of this precious being to all of creation. Watching my friend help bring life into this world in a gentle, nurturing, present,wise,compassionate way,is a not only a miracle but a blessing to those she cares for.

Midwives understand the process of giving birth. They understand that it takes time and that it’s going to hurt. There are certain things we can do to hang on through the pain, but that there’s no way around it. From that pain new life is born and joined to all of humanity. There is a sacred bond I have seen my friend have with her patients. They share a sacred portal as they journey through the pain to the joining of science and mystery that is linked to God. In that moment, when a baby takes its first breath, God breathes live into that little soul and all of heaven rejoices.I think at that moment there is a union of souls, here and not of this world. God and the heavens rejoice and in that rapture a bond is formed.

"They come through you but are not from you, and though they are with you, yet they do not belong to you.
You may give them you love, but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams."Kahlil Gibran

My friend is my midwife,not in the conventional way. she is my spiritual midwife. This metaphor is an important one. So many people experience huge spiritual shifts and new discoveries as they journey in their life. We all need guides who hold our hands and remind us to breathe and to be present in our joy and in our pain. We all need people who recognize and respect the birthing-something-new process who don’t try to rush it or numb it out. Being present in the moment, present with the pain. My friend has done this for me. We do this for each other.

We all need spiritual midwives.

If you are lucky, you may have more than one. I think this is a natural thing during different seasons of our lives. As we meet people throughout our lives, we share, we connect, we love, we are in relationship. Authentic relationships link us to something bigger within us and that links us to that other person.

I am very lucky and very blessed to have spiritual midwives in my life.

My priest is just that person too. As I began that shift in my life and in my faith to listen to and accept my call, she has been that steady, loving presence. I long to give birth to this new me that is forming with this call. I do not know exactly what will emerge,yet once I said yes, it continues to push me to step out in faith. Somewhat of a birthing of my call, a beginning. At times the journey is painful on many levels, yet joyous. My priest helps me sift through and embrace the unknown, through prayer, chats and by the power of the Holy Spirit. She has a tender openness to my questions and fears, that are gently guided. She reminds me to breathe and trust in the process. With her, I am freely able to ask questions, experience the joys and difficulties of a call and to be present in my pain and struggles instead of numb it. She will listen to my joys, my fears, my venting,my angst,she enables me to understand that raw honesty is helpful instead of pretending or numbing out and losing touch with what’s really going on inside....listening to and trusting in the movement of God in my life. With her I can share the sacredness of my relationship with God.

I am blessed to have such a mentor in my life. My journey has been difficult and it is so much better that she is there along the way. She helps guide, nurture and remind me that the struggles won't be like this forever and something wonderful and beautiful will indeed emerge and be brought to life, in God's timing, in God's way. "All will be well"

We all need midwives who tell us we can’t hurry the process.

I have lost some friends on my journey and that has been very sad to me. I do grieve this loss. I do have some amazing friends in my life who really have stuck with me through all of this. They won’t let go of me. They return my phone calls, hold me when I cry. Share in my joy and they gently point me toward what is beautiful, what is hopeful but without telling me what I should do and how I should do it. They respect my autonomy are with me in the moment and remind me to focus on what is emerging.

When it comes to the spiritual things being born & re-born in us, we need midwives who help celebrate the beauty of the moment, of what’s emerging, of what God is doing with us in the midst regardless of what it might look like at the moment. My friends help me see the beauty in the process even when I am not looking or sounding so beautiful. I have a dear freind who reminds me of this daily. We are both mothers, following a call. We remind each other that God called us to be a wife and mother first and from that He has called us to serve Him now in an added way. This reminder helps me be the wife, mother and woman God has called me to be. My friend has listened, prayed with and helped me with practical matters of everyday life and of my call. Her support has given me courage to press on and her words breath grace into my life. She will be ordained a Deacon. Her faithfulness, her gentleness, her frankness are a blessing to me. We journey together, yet our journey's are different. Oh...and we can laugh,cry and share..."Isn't God amazing?"..."Can you believe God did....", or "What is God doing?", "Why is he shaking things up?"When I feel that I can't push myself any further or out fo my comfort zone, she reminds me that the push/the movement out of my comfort zone eases the next push on the journey. When I am ready to take two steps forward, she reminds me to take one step back and slow down. As similar as we are, we are so very different.

We all need spiritual midwives who we can celebrate our uniqueness with.

My sister sees things differently, she has the gentle eyes and soul of a Christian mystic. She has been given the gift and a blessing of conscious awareness of God. She too is a spiritual midwife to me. Through her guiding eyes,I am able to trust in the possibiliites and let go, trusting in the movement of my body and its union with the Spirit. She is amazing. What makes her amazing is her faithfulness. She would be the first to say she is not special and that we all have the hand of God on us and that we have to listen to the whispers. She reminds me we are all theologians and we all can go deeper into the mystery of God's love in prayer and dwell in the mansions of our soul. As sisters, we share that special bond that sisters share. She has known me all my life and has seen both the light and darkness in my life and my journey. She guides me as we process and discern together, navigating through questions, struggles and sharing the joy and peace that passes all undertanding. There was a time that our relationship sturggled and it too went through a birthing process and what has emerged is a sacred sharing of two souls joined to the belovedness of God. Her husband calls us "The Sacred Sisters."

I know if we hang on long enough and see the process through, a “baby” will be born that will need nurturing, love and care. Some of the pushing is over, it doesn’t hurt so much anymore. New hope is somehow born, but like a newborn baby, it needs to be fed, nutured,loved and guided. The new things surfacing in us spiritually need tending to so that they can be healthy and strong over time.

We all need spiritual midwives.

As part of my discernment process it was suggested that I speak with a Spiritual Director. My spiritual director is also a spiritual midwife for me. I meet with her monthly and we pray and talk about my growing relationship with the Divine. Our conversations open a tending to the holiness of God touching my life both directly and indirectly. We discern the scared stories I may share on how God is working in my life and what I may perceive as not....during times when I feel spiritually lost. One of the many gifts she has blessed me with is a question she asked once,"How do you think, you experiencing that, made God feel about you?" Tweleve simple words that I have linked to my quiet time with God and I ask Him. I never thought of that before.....that God may possibly feel the same joy that He shares with me. I wonder if God has this over the moon joy,with me?

I use to cringe when people would say they were "born again" or they would tell me I needed to be "born again". I was often approached by very loud, over bearing Evangelical Christians. This intimated me and quite frankly turned me off. So, I avoided being "born again" at all costs. As I have matured in my faith, I do believe I am ...yes...born again. We are all born again, over and over in our journey, in our prayer life, in our relationship with one another and in our relationship with God. We are always evolving and clay in the potter's hand. This is what I feel Jesus is telling Nicodemus in John 3.

“Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

There is so much more than just eternal salvation. I believe we are "born again" over and over in our spiritual journey.

Though exciting, beautiful and from God, birthing spirituality is scary, painful, joyful,life altering and complicated. This is why we need spiritual companions along the way to help us navigate and experience the miracle from deep within our soul. They help us hope, trust, believe in the process of the light of life emerging.

Thank you to my spiritual midwives.

Namaste'
Maureen