#13: The Full Human Experience

Cocoon

The full human experience includes this: pregnancy, birth, life, death. And if all goes well and normally, the pregnancy is 9 months, the birth takes a day or so, the life is decades long, and the death neither sneaks up nor hovers for too long.

But the normal order is sometimes confused. The pregnancy is too short. The birthing process is unusually long. The death casts a shadow for months and even years. And sometimes, things happen in the wrong order. Death skips ahead and takes a life before it has even had a chance to be born.

Gina tells us what it was like for her to be a mother in that situation, in having to say goodbye to her son before she really got to say hello. Spoiler alert: it’s pretty painful. Physically, emotionally, spiritually—lots of hurt all over. The interesting thing about Gina, however, is that she accepted that pain was part of the experience. Not something to hide from, not something to push away—something to notice and feel and walk with throughout her ordeal.

Surprisingly—or maybe not—Gina found that pain and beauty, sorrow and joy, go hand in hand. Life is fuller when we embrace all the feelings it brings.