I have been thinking of an imaginary epitaph for a stillborn child:
If I am so quickly done for –
What on earth was I begun for?
Even today, many women experience carrying a living child within them only to find it stillborn. If, as I believe, we each come into the world with a purpose, a life to be lived to the full, how do we explain this? And in the past, before the introduction of contraception, vast numbers of women would give birth to twelve or more children, many of whom were stillborn or who died at an early age. This is but one of many mysteries, and it is easy to become cynical and decide that life is ultimately meaningless. The Psalms express all this most vividly, being a record of the long years spent by the Israelites in foreign countries and in the desert, journeying towards the Promised Land. Even in their darkest moments, they are able to say, ‘Yes, though I walk through the valley of shadow and of death, thy rod and thy staff comfort me.’ And so we persevere with our meditation practice in an act of faith.
