Chapter Nineteen

September 1976
The new moon in September fell on our anniversary, and as my cycle ran with the new moon, we decided that according to our plan now would be a good time to make a baby. We were done with Wobbly, school didn't start for a couple of weeks; perfect. So we laid off for a week before the first fertile day, and I didn't take any wild carrot; it would be a great experiment to see if just going off it the once would work. We had set aside the three days to devote to the project. If it didn't work, we'd try again next month. For a couple of weeks I had felt a presence hovering, a presence that was warm and humming, like the kundalini buzz. I told Geordie, and this is one of the reasons we chose now to try this. Certainly all the right physical signs were there; I had a tremendous cramp.
'It's holding us to our promise,' he said, smiling.

In our morning meditation we focused on that presence, and got really high. The room got very hot and I felt a buzzing in the small of my back and the top of my head itched. George had that too.
'Kundalini,' he said. We knew it now. 'Come on, baby,' he gave me a slow juicy kiss. We were very careful and didn't rush. Only when the energy was rising up through the solar plexus did we seal the circle and let it come fully, carrying us into that mind-blowing space of pure existence.
We drifted there, coming down very slowly, and I felt like a limp rag, but very peaceful. The room was full of a deep rose light, Into this holy atmosphere, he murmured,
'I can see it.'
I opened my eyes and looked at him. He was so high, with a blissy smile like a new-born babe's. He was drenched, and his hand fell under my chin heavily, burning. I smiled slowly, and rubbed my cheek against his arm. We did it. We knew we did.
I knew as the days passed, well before I was late, that we had succeeded. My body was suspended in that high juicy open state of fertility. Two late days then passed, then five; at eight days I could say certainly that we had a baby, though I didn't have to. There were plenty of signs, on which George commented with a smile.
'First time lucky,' he said.
'No luck about it,' I rejoined. 'It was craft,,, and pure art.'
He caught that with delight, and swung me around in the common room. 'Wha's like tha?' he murmured, with a kiss.
'Thou be,' I returned. 'All in all.'

I saw Shirley in the co-op the next day and told her, and a little of how we had done it.
'You have to tell this is to the girls,' she said. 'It'll inspire them.'
So I told our story in the Zen quilters' meeting the next night, after Shirley's preamble.
'Leave it to Claire and Geordie to invent a new way of making babies,' Maggie joked.
'Hush up and listen,' Shirley said, 'this is awesome.' She nodded at me. 'Go on, Claire.'
I told them how since we married I had been taking wild carrot, which I had got from my sister; how we had abstained for a week before hand, not our usual practise.
Shirley was nodding. Yes. Yes.
I told them about the presence and the kundalini, our careful pose and sealing the circuit of energy.
And Shirley was nodding. Yes. Yes.
I told them about our resting in the rose light of the room and letting the presence be with us – not getting up and rushing about.
And Shirley was nodding. Yes. Yes.
'Conscious conception,' she murmured. 'It's a girl,' she said, looking at me.
'Because of the pink light?' Betsey asked.
Shirley smirked at her. 'No, that's just the being's energy vibe. No, because they were early in the fertility cycle. To get a boy you have to get it smack on the day.' I nodded in agreement.
Betsey was impressed.
'Claire, you should teach NFP at the community centre and at Wobbly,' Shirley said. 'People would dig it.'
There were lots of question to us then about how wild carrot worked and what other things one cold use, to increase fertility or cure cramps or heavy bleeds.

Later, Shirley gave me a lift to the trailhead, and said while we were sitting in the truck,
'Claire, I'd be very happy to send some of my folk to you for herbal advice and mixtures.'
'I don't know all that much about pregnant women,' I protested.
'I get a lot of other questions too,' she said. 'It would be such a gift to the community. Think about it, won't you? You could put up a notice at the co-op.'
I told her I would think about it. 'But folk would have to come to me, or leave me a message on the board.' I didn't want us to have to get a phone for consulting.
Shirley smiled. 'That's the way my granny did it, back home.'
And that is how I became the village apothecary.