all in a heart

This week Marshall discovered his heartbeat and it was the beginning of series of events that caused me to think about this remarkable organ we all carry inside. He is constantly running every where and going constantly. He stopped to be still for a moment and was suprised to feel a bumping in his "tummy." I explained that it's his heart, what it was, and why he could feel it. He then felt mine and discovered he had a bigger bumping than I did. I just told him its because his heart is bigger than mine.

Then as I lay down to rest for the night and be still, I can hear in my ear my own heartbeat so loud I have to try consiously to drown it out, due to the baby, needing to lay on my side, and my increased blood volumes at the moment. Sometimes it is so loud I feel like it could burst any moment not being able to handle another beat.

Yesterday I heard of a recent friend that I made over the summer who has tryed for 12years with her husband to get pregnant and finally she saw through ultrasound the beat of a little baby bump. I tried to imagine what it would be like wanting something so bad for so long an to see some glimmer of hope in one little heartbeat.

Today as I made my weekly trip to my midwife and getting weighed in the hall you could hear through the door the sound of woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh of the doplar machine listening into a heartbeat of some unknown mother's child in womb. I listened shortly after to hear my own Mia's beating strong as well. Remembering the week before when a machine traced the beats of her heart. Sometimes it was slow as she was resting but then she would move and her heartbeat would move faster.

There are so many things in this world that we try so hard to make last. Machines envy the power, strength, and durability of a heart's pulse. Flashlights can't even manage to be powered for longer that a month's time in our home, yet something so organic has the power and ability to fuel a person for a lifetime.

I am amazed at this evidence of God's power to create such a perfect organ to keep life going. Sometimes it's good to remember how lucky we really are.