"Babies are unique
a fleeting metamorphosis
one can not hold the wind"
Penelope came into our lives on September 13, 1978. After taking her sweet time descending through the birth canal, she finally appeared. Penelope was so pale almost translucent. She was peaceful as she laid on my stomach and looked around. I was worried because she hadn’t cried and asked Dr. Mella if she was all right. Penelope checked out perfectly. I had given birth to a Buddha Baby.
I took daily, early morning walks with Barbie, my sister as Penelope sat in her stroller drinking her bottle. She quietly took in all the sights and sounds. She very rarely reacted to anything in an outward way. It seemed to me, as if her life began on an inward path.
When Penelope was about six months old, her blonde hair was soft and wispy. Angel hair is how I would describe it. I was worried she would have thin hair. But two months later it seemed as though, suddenly overnight ~ POOF ~ her hair had a Medusa quality to it. Thousands of tight, tendril curls popped out from all sides of her head, all going in different directions.
Once a week we shopped at our local Publix food market. I was fine when the “grandmothers and grandfathers” came over to our cart and patted Penelope’s head; often commenting “Oy! She looks just like Shirley Temple!” I smiled knowing how Shirley Temple, the 1930’s child star had sang and danced into their hearts and brought them solace from their struggles during the Great Depression. Week after week, month after month, Penelope’s head was patted.
When she was twenty months old, an elderly man wearing a golfer’s hat, stripped button-down shirt, baggy plaid shorts and black socks walked directly to Penelope. As his hand landed on her head, she looked up at him and loudly proclaimed, “I AM NOT A DOG!!!”
I took a deep, heartfelt, gasping inhalation as I gazed at my daughter and couldn’t believe how I allowed so many people to touch her. Penelope needed to have her personal boundaries honored.
That evening, I began to see how, I too, permitted people to trespass onto my space. Whether it was my psychic or physical space, it didn’t matter. Seeing and then feeling my own sacredness was new to me. I began releasing negative people from my life and learned it was okay to say “no.”
Penelope is now a beautiful woman who is a professional organizer and life coach. She still has amazingly, clear insights.
Interestingly, Penelope was student at Naropa Institute, a college that embraces the teachings of Buddha. Once again life reveals its circular motion.
