New Life

On my way to school today, cranky that it is STILL RAINING I was thinking that I would be so much happier if the d@&# sun would consent to paying us a little visit . . . maybe just a little glimmer would do. Still kvetching about the stupid weather and the work that is on my desk to the unsuspecting colleague who happened to make the mistake of saying good morning, my phone rang. A bit surprised to get a call at 6:55 am (only crazy people like high school teachers and students in my district are alive at this time) I said hello to hear a tentative, sleepy, and slightly scared "Coach?" on the other end. The dear voice on the other end was that of a former student and basketball player of mine and my husbands' who has become like a daughter to us. She was calling from the hospital where she has been in labor for nearing 15 hours. She wanted to check-in and let us know that she was there, all is okay (relatively speaking when one has been in labor for 15 hours!!), and that her husband is taking great care of her. And instantly everything changed. Life was again good when the hope and promise of new life is so deliciously near. And the obnoxious cliche of the rain before the flowers, the pain before the birth came tumbling down on me and I laughed at myself and the rightness of it all. Now if someone could just come and take the work off of my desk . . .