Today I fly on my journey to the Great Midwife, walking through the air, landing on a beach. The smell of the ocean and the moistness, remind me of the tears and amniotic fluid of birthing. The sound of the waves, gently lapping on the shore, is a soothing rhythm behind the squawking of seabirds. I cross a place where a stream enters the water of the ocean, sinking in and mingling-sweet water and salty becoming one water. I know I am close to her village now. I see the men out with their boats, bringing in their morning catch.
I begin to hear children laughing. They run up to me, their tan bodies a study in movement – some dancing, some jumping, some standing as still as statues. A couple of them run up to me, saying, ”Aloha, Aloha. We didn’t know you were coming today! Will you play with us?”
“Yes, after I visit with Grandmother, I mean, Tutu.”
“OK!” They accompany me to Tutu’s place.
She is outside preparing food and hears us coming. She’s peeling mangos. Tutu gets up from her seat on the mat and stands. Her rounded, solid body opens up to hug me. She wears a sarong around her waist, exposing her grandmotherly breasts, which have nursed so many babies. “Aloha!”
After her warm hug, she motions me to sit in the refreshing shade of her mat. She pours me some coconut water to drink and hands me a leaf with some mango pieces on it- so ripe and sweet. “What may I do for you today, my child?”
“I am writing a book for midwives in my country. I want to share about welcoming and I know that this is your specialty for so many years. May I sit with you and hear your wisdom about welcoming?”
Tutu smiles at me. She has been midwife and healer to her village for many years and through this and her many meditations has learned about the welcoming way. “This is good. Welcoming is allowing and accepting your guest as who they are and what they must do. It is honoring the highest in them.
Welcoming is the heart of midwifery and having babies-- Welcoming the new one into your body; Welcoming the changes of growing with the baby; Welcoming the contractions of labor coming in their own time; Welcoming the new one’s way of entering this world; Welcoming the baby and the mother into the sisterhood of breastfeeding.“
She gets up, motioning me to wait in my place. She approaches the fragrant frangepani tree and th hibiscus growing nearby, singing to them as she plucks some of the blooms and places them lovingly in to her basket. She comes back to the mat, bringing thread and a needle made from a fish bone. She sits, singing a new song, as she nimbly threads the flowers into a lei.
She smiles at me when she is done and places the lei around my neck. “Aloha—welcome. May the waters of our lives always freely mingle. May the ways of welcome grow strong in all midwives, so that they may welcome the mothers and babies. In this way they will teach welcoming to their communities, smoothing the seasons of birth, life and death for them all.”
The flowers envelope me with their aroma, their beauty, and the love infused into them by the prayer-songs from the heart of Tutu. From the Aloha to the hug, the coconut water and mango, the wisdom passed on to me, the ritual of making the lei, and Tutu’s wise words, I feel blessed and part of the flow of Tutu and her world. “Thank you Tutu for your blessing, your beautiful flowers and your open heart. May you prosper and continue to pass on your wisdom to the generations.”
I reach into my bag to gift her with a sprig of roses from my own garden. She smells them and holds them to her heart.
As we say goodbye, starting towards the beach, the sounds of the children enter my ears again. They rush up to me, tugging me by the hands towards the water, laughing.
-Terra Rafael
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