What does the word 'Quickening' mean?

TEACH

Be willing to learn, and then TEACH.

Every woman in every time in every place who has borne life knows what ‘quickening’ is. I can see and feel the smiles that come to faces at the memories the word evokes for every last one of us.

Quickening is that magical mystical moment – feeling for the very first time the movement of the new life which grows within a womb. There’s nothing else like it in the world, nothing. A tiny flicker that you maybe aren’t entirely really sure that you truly felt … and then it comes again … and you know. 

The new life has already been growing and moving around for quite a while, but that first fleeting flicker will have your hands on your belly in an instant – and most likely a smile on your face. You probably won’t be able to feel it with your hands from the outside, not quite yet, but oh it’s there … and you smile.

The thought that has kept me awake on this night has to do with the concept of quickening.

One day probably not too far in the future perhaps Baltimore will be remembered for something quite very special.

Because I can feel it – a quickening.

Were it not so, the sensation would not be so strong as to both keep me awake and drive me to my keyboard. Trust me on that.

I think that Baltimore is representative of a much more significant event than the news carries.

It’s a quickening.

Not the beginning of the life that has been growing for some time already but the actual unable-to-quite-believe but most assuredly unable-to-ignore fleeting flicker that heralds the living presence of that new life.

What we’re seeing, hearing, and feeling when it comes to recent events in Baltimore seems to me very much like that same feeling – on an emotional level though, which is actually quite very handy as maybe some men might be able to feel it as well as the life-bearers of our world.

An alleged wrong was committed in a community by persons who are accused of abusing their authority. Because to the best of my knowledge this is still the United States of America in which we live, they are to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

That verdict will be determined in due course, by our court system.

Meanwhile, what I’m finding significant in this whole thing is that a community of people within our larger community, within our society, within our culture, took steps. They took their stand and made their Voices heard.

Perhaps some of them took it a bit too far. Perhaps that was necessary, perhaps not – the fact of the matter is that a whole lot of people woke up in a real fast hurry. And apparently the hot-heads were cooled down by the response … we aren’t hearing of much yelling and screaming and rioting and such going on right at the moment, that I know of.

Impressive have been the public actions and words which have without doubt helped with that cooling down process. Also impressive is that, although those actions and words could well have gone unheeded, they evidently have been pretty darned effective. To me, that speaks well not only of those who did and said them but also of those who heeded them.

And so the world has a chance to be in on what could well be the Quickening of America.

While Baltimore plays host(ess) to an immensely publicized series of events, the Quickening, we can’t ignore the fact that it’s not the conception … the new life it represents has been growing for a while now.

When people choose to recognize, acknowledge, and address something they believe to be counter to what this nation is supposed to be all about; when they use first the standard methods of drawing attention to their concerns (and might maybe get a nod from the Powers That Be); when they feel the nod is perhaps not an indication of intent to rectify the situation in any meaningful way, and tempers flare because a nod just isn’t enough any more; and (most important) when cooler heads prevail so that the Constitution of the United States of America can do its job – I’m feeling that flickering flutter in my belly, oh yes I am.

It’s exciting and it’s frightening at the same time.

Because as with every Quickening, it is not a given as to how things will progress from here on out.

The promise inherent in a Quickening, the hope and excitement it brings, is also a warning.

It’s a certain-sure assurance that yes indeed there’s a new life growing. It’s at the self-same time a clear indication that care needs to be taken with this new life, that nurturing is called for.

So many factors influence the development of this new life. It’s strong enough to have gotten to the Quickening and is most likely to follow through … but that’s not guaranteed.

As We the People of the United States of America begin to gather again to ourselves the reins of our own country, we need to be very careful.

This new little life is more fragile and vulnerable than we often times recall and we have none living to help us but only the words of those long gone. We are both midwife and mother-to-be.

And so we must nag ourselves to do right by the young we are to bear, provide the best we can for our own needs so as to also nurture and make strong this life which has only just Quickened.

In case you’re losing the thread of connectivity here and are wondering what on earth one has to do with the other – the Quickening of new life within a nation and the Quickening of a new life within a mother – I remind you that both have needs which are essentially the same.

Safety; food; clothing; shelter; education; the care and support of friends, family, community; a helping hand through and over the rough spots; a secure place in which to bring forth life and renewal.

Make no mistake, we have everything we need in order to do this safely and well … if we but put to use the heads given us by the Creator, the bodies also so given, and the knowledge which we ourselves have and will continue to accumulate. We even have a guidebook, our Constitution.

We do indeed have everything we need. How we choose to use what we have at our fingertips is up to us.

We will bring forth this life, this renewal of our own selves as children are the renewing of their parents.

The stronger we make ourselves now, before the birthing time, the better prepared we will be to tend to the needs of the infant to come, to raise the little being into a strong youngling, and to guide the fledgling into flight.

And just exactly how are we supposed to do all this?

For starters, we can’t teach what we don’t know and we can’t demonstrate what we don’t know how to do.

We don’t have a heck of a lot of time here, although it will be enough if we use it wisely.

An uneducated parent cannot teach.

When it comes to educating a nation about how to be a nation, all we can do is start educating ourselves about how it’s supposed to be done.

You can whine all you want about getting harped at to read your own bloody Constitution. 

Whine away but for pity’s sake take fifteen minutes out of your busy life and read through it.

Trust me, it’s not really all that complicated or long or confusing or technical or any of that. The people who wrote it had both backbones and brains. Where are ours?

Lots and lots of folks are some concerned about whether or not the Bible, Torah, Koran belong in public schools. I have a feeling, a strong one, that if the one document that most assuredly does belong in every public school, and the private ones, and the home ones, were in fact in those schools (and got the studying it should have) the controversy would be more than a little quieted.

We cannot teach what we do not know.

We cannot demonstrate what we do not live for ourselves.

This Quickening life is going to be born whether we’re ready for it or not.

We’d best be considering how best to become ready because when push comes to shove and the birthing cries are in our ears we’ll be better off if we can find in those birthing cries reason to rejoice.

We want it coming into a life of safety, food, clothing, shelter, education, care and support, a helping hand, and security.

Getting those things into place ahead of time is simple common sense.

And that, my friend, means providing them for ourselves, whatever it takes to get them in place.