Life and True Intimacy

A dear priest friend read this as part of his homily at Mass this morning. I thought: "if President Obama and Pelosi, et. al, read this, would they be moved enough to reverse their views on abortion?"

This quote is from a book by Jack Kornfield "A Path With Heart":

"There is a tribe in east Africa in which the art of true intimacy is fostered even before birth. In this tribe, the birth date of a child is not counted from the day of its physical birth nor even the day of conception...in this tribe the birth date comes the first time the child is a thought in its mother's mind. Aware of her intention to conceive a child, the mother goes off to sit alone under a tree. There she sits and listens until she can hear the song of the child that she hopes to conceive. Once she has heard it, she returns to her village and teaches it to the father so that they can sing it together...inviting the child to join them. After the child is conceived, she sings it to the baby in her womb. Then she teaches it to the old women and midwives of the village, so that throughout the labor and at the miraculous moment of birth itself, the child is greeted with its song. After the birth all the villagers learn the song of their new member and sing it to the child when it falls or hurts itself. It is sung in times of triumph, or in rituals and initiations. This song becomes a part of the marriage ceeremony when the child is grown, and at the end of life, his or her loved ones will gather around the deathbed and sing this song for the last time."

Food for thought.