Pregnancy is a time of waiting and hope. No one ever tells us it is an opportunity to be hopeless. But it is a good time to practice cultivating hopelessness.
There are so many unknowns in pregnancy. Will the baby be a boy or a girl? Will he be healthy? Will she be strong? Will I be a good mother? In confronting the mystery of what is unknown we instinctively tack on our hopes to this child growing within us. Sometimes it’s hoping for what we didn’t have as a child. At other times it's for what we did.
The hope gives makes the fundamental uncertainty less frightening. There’s nothing “bad” about it. It’s natural and understandable. And yet, Pema Chodron, the gifted writer and Tibetan Abbot, challenges us by saying that “Hope robs us of the present moment.” It’s an interesting exercise to ask ourselves – what does it feel like to bring fewer hopes to our pregnancy? What does it mean to stay in this moment just as it is? Nothing more and nothing less.
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