A Magical Moment And The Power Of Choice

Posted on 20. Feb, 2010 by in Uncategorized

I wrote this article a few years ago before I had a blog and with my son Brennan just turning 5 a few weeks ago, it felt right to re-post it here.  Enjoy.

7:23 pm is a time that I will now always remember.

January 30th, 2005 is now a date I will cherish forever.

On that date, at that time, Brennan Zachary O’Brien decided to make his grand entrance to this world as my first son.

7:27 pm was the time my heart melted, my world stopped spinning and everything was in perfect alignment.

It was at that time that the nurses called me (my wife had to have a c-section) to come see Brennan for the first time.

He was wailing, I mean, really wailing.  At that point after what we went through in the previous hour, we were thrilled to hear him crying.

And cry he did; the kind that starts way down deep in the stomach, pierces your ears and is clear that he is letting everyone know that they should now be paying attention to him.

Then it happened.

I walked over and said, “Hey Brennan, it’s your Daddy.”

Immediately, he turned his head and looked directly at me and stopped crying.  His eyes peered into mine, finding familiarity in this ever so strange new world.

I lost my breath.

It was amazing, and truly one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.  The connection had begun – a family was formed.

My wife and I had had the opportunity to spend about two hours with our new son before he needed to go to the nursery for the battery of tests they do on infants.  Interestingly enough, the next time Brennan cried was when I had to hand him to the nurse for his tests

So I went with him to the nursery while friends stayed with Michele.  We didn’t want him out of our site.  Not that we were really worried someone would take him or that they would mix him up with other babies, but…he is really cute!

The tests are done and we swaddled him up for a nap and I am standing there, over his crib, looking around the nursery at all the babies.

It was a busy day at the hospital and there were at least 10 or 12 babies in the room.  For some reason, my mind started swirling and I began to think.

I began to think what it would be like if all the babies in the nursery could talk.  What if they were born with full vocabularies and a mastery of the English language?

I don’t exactly know why I started thinking along these lines, but there, in the euphoria of the first few hours of fatherhood, I had my Buckminster Fuller-like realization.

So I asked myself, what would there conversations be like?

If all of these brand new souls could immediate converse with each other – what would they say?

I envisioned a number of variations in my imagination about the babies describing the sensation of physically developing in the womb and if they had any memories of pre-conception and all sorts of other surreal, metaphysical, intellectual gymnastics, then my mind shifted.

And for a moment, I became sad.

I started thinking about the things they wouldn’t be talking about.

They wouldn’t be talking about war, hatred, violence, ignorance, racism, hypocrisy, gangs, jealousy, power-trips, revenge or murder.

They wouldn’t know these things.  They would have no experience of feeling insignificant or unworthy or less than.

They wouldn’t know shame or guilt or deception.

We learn these things.

We build them into our human condition by choice.

And yes, we do choose them.  Unfortunately.

In that moment, I no longer felt sad.

Choice.

We always have choice.

We choose whether or not we feel guilty or shamed or to use deception to whether we feel hatred or jealousy.

We choose whether or not to be ignorant or a racist or a hypocrite.

We choose whether or not to engage in violence, murders or wars.

And yes, we choose whether or not we feel insignificant and unworthy.

We have the wonderful ability to direct our thoughts and emotions in whichever way we’d like, regardless of circumstance.

It’s not always easy.  Sometimes it feels nearly impossible.

But ultimately, we always have choice.

It takes no more energy or effort to choose joy, passion, love, abundance, worthiness and happiness.

It’s still just a choice.

So thank you, Brennan, for reminding me of one of our greatest abilities – our ability to choose.

  • cheyenne

    I really liked this blog about Brennan….and had to laugh when I read :” I began to think what it would be like if all the babies in the nursery could talk.”…lol, you were definitely on a high !! :-)

  • http://authentic-networker.com admin

    Thanks Chey. Yes, my mind was spinning, no doubt.