Happy birthday, baby Perez, happy birthday, baby Perez, happy birthday dear baby Perez… ok, you can come out now. Get it? Birth day? C’mon. We’re ready for you.
I’m about to become an aunt, and I’m pretty darn excited, can you tell? I hope I’m up to the task. Even if I’m not, I know this kid’s gonna have fabulous parents. This one goes out to Jen and Tony, hereafter known as mom and dad.
1904: The Value of a Child
Is there any computing it? Can even mother-love set an estimate upon it? A soul straight from God, clothed in a physical form that reflects the mother’s own life and thought, and looks up at her with eyes often the counterpart of those which smiled into hers during that golden period, life’s honeymoon, which was after all but a foretaste of the heaven now here. A life with infinite possibilities; a little human blossom to be cared for, guided, lovingly trained into more and more of the divine likeness as the years go by. What a blessed privilege! Till now, hers has been the pleasure of preparation; now it is realization.
Each new-born child is a gift not only to parents, but to society, the nation and the world. Its right education is therefore all-important. This education having been begun before birth, need now only be continued; and Nature’s laws, in all their harmony and beauty, should be applied to this sacred task.
Source: Melendy, Dr. Mary Ries. Vivilore: The Pathway to Mental and Physical Perfection. Chicago: W. R. Vansant, 1904.
~ p. 80 ~
[Note: This was published originally back in 2001, when I was about to become an aunt for the first time! An update: Olivia finally arrived, as did Iris and Trey in subsequent years, and I’m doing just fine as Aunt Abbie, if I do say so myself.]