When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,
Joseph
These past few months have been the most demanding of my life
the most emotionally draining
I've known the fierceness of love and anger
The depths of despair, the unravelling of joy.
But I'm a man
I'm supposed to be hard
Demanding
Unforgiving
I'm not supposed to be turned to mush
by watching the woman I love suffer
She looks so beautiful carrying my child
And it is my child
I may not have planted the seed that grows within her
But I have watched her body change
I have rubbed her swollen flesh
in the night when she aches
I have felt our baby move and grow
I have felt the kicks and the hiccoughs
And I have felt her pain
as our friends have shunned us
No cosy chats with the other women for Mary
Swapping stories, normalising pregnancy
And no back slapping congratulations for me
Or even leery comments
Just menacing silence
sizzling with reproach
Little do they know, my former so called friends
If they had stuck with me instead of cutting me off
They might, just might, have brought me to my senses
But Mary and I, pushed together in our adversity
Have learned resilience
And grown together, forced into maturity
It's not just us
We have a little life to care for
And we will prove them wrong
Those who think we'll never manage.
We will show them
That we are the people God calls us to be
Parents for the Son of God.
Liz Crumlish 2014
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