Something which comes out of nothingness is naturalness,
For a plant or stone to be natural is no problem.
But for us there is some problem...
To be natural is something which we must work on.

- Shunryo Suzuki, Zen Master
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
 
So when I was pregnant a little over three years ago with our son... my husband and I did a photo shoot of the two of us and my pregnant belly.  This time around I've been feeling pretty guilty about not being able to do the same with this pregnancy.  After pondering over it for bit I realized that the photo shoot from my last pregnancy isn't actually all that great LOL!!!  There are a few shots that I like but I never fell in love with them enough to even print them out and frame them.  In fact I'm not sure I could even find the CD of photos right now if I wanted to!  So that got me thinking about this one picture my hubby took when we were pregnant with our son... we were just fooling around one night with the camera and were doing a bunch of silly shots.  Well one of them ended up turning out pretty cool in our opinion.  Mind you we are no where near professional photographers and we just had a point and shoot camera.  Well that thought led to me thinking of a specific photo my hubby took during this current pregnancy and how I love it just as much.... and voila! A new idea was born!! 

I decided that I would order a 5x7 print of each photo and frame them and hang the corresponding one in each of our baby's bedrooms!!  The guilt was slowly drifting away.  In my opinion I think that's even more special than a staged photo shoot.  Each picture with their mommy happily showing off her pregnant belly of each of them.  I received the prints in the mail today and as I was thinking of the types of frames I wanted to buy for them another idea popped into my head.  I remembered that quite a while ago I had written a poem... a poem I thought I had lost but happily found and saved to my computer.  I went searching for it, found it, read it and got a little teary eyed.  This poem I decided would go alongside each photo in a double frame.  A gift to my babies from their mama.  I only hope that when I go searching tomorrow I find the perfect frames to hold two 5x7 prints... I know I've seen them before so hopefully it won't be a problem. 

So since I don't share pictures of my baby (and baby to be) I figured I'd share my pregnant belly pics that I've chosen for this special gift.  I will also share the poem I wrote that will go alongside them.  Please remember that when I write poetry, my heart and sole goes into it and they are quite special to me and extremely personal.  So if you feel inspired to share please give credit back to me... it would break my heart to see this poem out there being claimed by someone else.  I thank you. 
Picture
Picture
 I made you from scratch

There is only one "you"

Take care of yourself

Be kind and be true.

Don't mark up your body

For you have only one skin

And I made you from scratch

Must I tell you again?

There's only one "you"

And you're beautiful see.

Don't put yourself down

Else you're putting down me.

Smile to everyone

So your heart won't turn sour.

Others may hurt you

But don't give them your power

Don't follow the crowd

Don't try to be cool.

Cuz I made you from scratch

I made only one "you"...

 

By: Linda Leigh L.

-Mama-