What have you birthed?

While it takes a womb to hold a baby, giving birth is not limited to gender. Giving birth is a process of creating something. It is putting together ideas or processes or people or materials in such a way that there is something new. That original thinking or combination may not last or may be the foundation of a modern branch of science. There is labor involved, if your creation is of import to you, even if it is only for you, such as pouring your heart into a journal. 

Perhaps you've instilled a love of golf or reading in a niece or nephew. Maybe you started a business or took over one that was failing and made it thrive. Do you plant flowers for a passersby to enjoy or have you stood on stage and made people laugh or cry? Creating moments and memories and gardens are as important as writing code that results in Word or Excel or Facebook and are often as painful as the exertions on a maternity ward.

Our offspring, whether two-legged or something ethereal like the awakening of a love of nature in a friend, will struggle and won't always be perfect. Creations may be fleeting, a happening that was here only to provide something shared, a respite from loneliness. Or, they may keep you company, be part of your life every day. Like children, they may become independent or turn their backs on you such as when they no longer bring you comfort or your talent at them ebbs, flows or fades. Or you sell them off or give them away. Gone, but not, never, forgotten.

Next week will mark the 200th blog in this format. It was preceded by a year and a half of simple Monday Musing emails. It was during that time that my book was published. If you had asked me a decade ago if I had birthed anything that might be considered a legacy,I would not have known how to answer. But today, as I think about nearly six years of putting words together around a random thought every week and inviting others to read and comment on it, I celebrate my Monday Musings baby and say thanks to all the readers who have helped nurture them along the way.

Erich Fromm wrote, “Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is.” Today, do something to acknowledge and celebrate what you have birthed!

Marilyn