"The Age of Aquarius" by Lois Maxwell
The
year was 1969. It was a warm June day. I was twenty-one and had just given birth
to my son, Kevin. I was young, inexperienced and frightened. It was just nine
short months ago that I had gotten married. The newness of being a wife had not
yet worn off and here I was now facing motherhood.
The maternity room nurse whom I had grown to depend on for the past week, waved good-bye as we drove away with our new son. I looked at him and wondered how I was to care for his needs. He was six pounds and nine ounces of pure boy. The
stone gray eyes and soft fuzz on his head would later change to a deep blue and
blonde. At this moment and for a long time to come he would be totally dependent
on us for all his needs. The joy of this occasion was mixed with downright fear.
We had just pulled out of the hospital parking lot when the radio started to
play a song by the Fifth Dimension. "When the moon is in the seventh
house and Jupiter aligns with Mars........" Never has a song made such
an impression on me as that one did at that moment. I looked at my infant son
and realized I was entering a new phase in my life, just as the song related .."this
is the dawning of the age of Aquarius."
It probably was not the first time I heard that song. It didn't make an
impression on me until that special moment when I found myself away from the
doctors and nurses who watched my son for the first precious days of his life.
My husband and I were driving home for the very first time as a family, with
years of responsibility ahead of us. Just as in the words..."and peace
will guide the planets", I was also praying that peace would soon come
to our planet. We were still fighting a war in Viet Nam and the world was in
such turmoil. How could I bring a child into such unrest?
Well, the years passed and my son grew healthy and strong. At 32, he is now a husband and father and there is not a time when "Age of Aquarius" is
played, that I don't reminisce back to that day. It was a moment of change, and
it was that moment when the reality of motherhood had taken hold of me. For
whatever reason I believed in that last phrase....
"love will guide the
stars".... because from that moment on, love guided me through, and
still is.
"Age of Aquarius" by
Lois Maxwell odiepowwow@aol.com
The story is
about my son Kevin who was born in June 1969. He and his sister, Denise, who
came along two years later, are now grown and have families of their own.
Although I have a love for writing, I have never been officially published, but
have written scores
of short stories and poems. Some of them can be read on AOL's Instant Novelist
site.
I am currently working as a real estate agent, and besides my love for writing, I
enjoy gardening, antiquing and most of all my grandchildren.