Creating Something Beautiful

Spending an hour playing guitar is a simple pleasure of mine. While pregnant with my first,  I’d imagined playing guitar while my baby napped. But in reality, there was a more often a baby in my lap, not a guitar, for the next several years.

One day, a decade after our youngest was born, I went to a music store. I sat down with an elegant classical guitar. My fingers still knew a simple allegretto and, for the first time in a long time, I began to play.

It was wonderful. An intricate melody emerged into the air, lifted my heart and then… was gone as the last note faded. I thought “This is what birth feels like”.

It’s a subtle, ethereal moment when you realize you just brought forth something unique and beautiful.  Then, your muscles shake, the baby squeals, and the moment evaporates. Yet, that moment was there.

Labor and birth are alot like music. Both require persistance, a positive discipline and repetition (over and over, that breathing rhythm). And you get frustrated at times, there can be dissonance and sour notes. But what is inspiring is that feeling of creating something beautiful.

c. text and photo R. Snyder-Drummond 2010