Friday, May 21, 2010

scene from an airport

I spent the last few days in the middle of the country, spending time with 5 amazing, wonderful girlfriends. Lots of talking, laughing, crying, drinking (lemonade for me, sigh) - best. week. ever.

Last night, I flew home. The flight didn't leave until 9pm, and I got to the airport unusually early. So I sat in the waiting area, with my Sex & the City 2 edition of Entertainment Weekly, and waited. People came in and out. The gate agents finally got to the desk. All those airport announcements - "will Bob Smith meet his party at the baggage claim," "this is the last call for flight 1264" - floated in the air.

And then I felt it. Either that, or I was having an extreme stomach moment, but I'm pretty sure - I felt movement. All around me, people were texting friends and reading magazines and snipping at the gate agents because they didn't like their seat assignment, and the woman sitting next to me was shooting nasty looks at the kid seated behind her who kept banging against the seat back, and I was feeling this baby move for the first time. Ordinary life just kept going on, and all I wanted to do was grab the microphone from the irritated gate agent calling up standby passengers so I could say it out loud: "I can feel this baby move! Do you people know what a freaking miracle this is? DO YOU?"

I think I've felt it a few more times since then. I had thought maybe I was feeling it over the past few days, but it's so hard to tell - baby, or gas? Trust me, there's plenty of the latter (the romance of pregnancy continues). But this was real. In the middle of the airport. Where nobody cared. And my life was changing, right there, and nobody knew.

Who knows what's happening in any of us when we run into each other on the street, see each other in cars, walk past each other in airports? Who knows when someone's whole life is changing, right then, and you just can't see it?

The world is charged with the grandeur of God, wrote poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Sometimes even the airport.

11 comments:

  1. I can't wait for that moment! xx

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  2. Wonderful news! It's such an amazing thing when you feel them move inside of you. Enjoy it, every single time.

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  3. Wow! That's amazing! It seems like I won't feel movement for ages, I'm only 8 weeks pregnant. I can't wait for that day!

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  4. It's the most amazing feeling in the world and it still makes me stop in my tracks every time I feel it even now! I don't even mind when it keeps me up at night because it's a miracle. So glad you got to experience it, even if it was with a bunch of cranky strangers!

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  5. Oh what a wonderful moment! Make sure you write down that in the baby book...first time you ever felt your little miracle.

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  6. That is such wondrous moment, isn't it? Intellectually, you know that there's a life growing inside of you, and then it's like OMG! There's a LIFE. INSIDE OF ME. KICKING ME FROM THE INSIDE.

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  7. Oh wow! I'm so glad you captured this moment. I wish you had grabbed the microphone!

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  8. I agree with Sarah... wish you had grabbed the microphone. That first momnet of feeling movement is priceless and everlasting, and definitely something to be shouted from the roof tops (or in your case an airport microphone :)). Glad that you shared this moment in time with us, and congrats on feeling movement for the first time, now just wait until you feel hiccups for the first time. :)

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  9. What an amazing post about this big moment. You are so right, miracles happen every day and sometimes right next to us without anyone noticing:) Sending lots of love.

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  10. Awwww. I LOVE this post!! Thank you for sharing that moment with us. I'm just sorry you couldn't share it out loud right then and there!!

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  11. Oh wow, amazing! Feeling the baby move is one of the most powerful moments. Congrats!

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