The Chapel of Stars

For the year 2008, I intend to make everyone as happy as I can make them or have them wish to be happy. But I don’t know if it will work. I might have good intentions but the other person might decide to act otherwise. Who knows? If they intend to stay nasty and grumpy, then the obstacle shall lie with them and keep them company.

            But for my new little niece, who was born on January 25th and far too soon, to the great surprise of her parents and her whole family, I will always have the best intentions to be her most beloved Auntie and to show her all the beauty that life can give us. She is very tiny and so small…a premature baby…  a precious  preemie… her weight being only 2 pounds. However, she is a strong little star shining ever so brightly and she flourishes like the Casablanca Lilly, a most expensive and fragrant flower. She thrives like a little tree that is longing to stand firm and let its roots grow solid and strong and let the many green leaves flutter with life. But when she sleeps… then she looks like the tiniest angel… sleeping on a soft halo of shimmering light, which leaves a trail of perfumed pale pink pixie dust behind for everyone to get a whiff of. 

            For 7-8 days, after her birth, or seven month, before her birth she, my dreamy little rose, had no name. Her grandmother called her squishy or ice cream; I called her my little niece or the little precious one. We were all dying to know her name and wished to find out what her parents might call her. Now, she has a name, it is Califia Blanca Cone. A big and strong name for a little girl. Califia ... queen of the Amazon River who was named after California. Blanca…is the color white and short for the Casablanca Lilly. Cone… the name of her daddy who loves her dearly.

            Califia or, Fia for short, loves to wiggle, stretch and, let out fierce little yelps. Her mother says that she can put her fingers in her mouth, has taught herself to suck and, is growing some grams each day. Califia, loves to sleep, loves to drink her mommy’s milk and, loves to be swaddled up in warm blankets covered with pictures of little feet.

            But… why is this short story called the Chapel of Stars? Califia is staying in a place called the NICU center(newborn infant care unit) and every time I, the Auntie, go there to visit my precious rose… my thoughts wander to my heart and tells me to put this on paper:

The room, where the babies live in their incubators, is like a peaceful chapel in which no one talks too loudly as the babies have sensitive ears.

The stars are the many delicate and tiny newborns.

The many nurses, coming and going with their light steps, kind smiles and, gentle voices, resemble the ministering angels. Without them the babies would not know life.

 It is so good for Califia, my costly and sweet one, to be in a place that is like the Chapel of Stars and learns to thrive nicely into a strong and bejeweled star.