On her first birthday I slipped back in time

For the smallest person I know, on your first birthday I slipped back in time, back to a year ago when I walked differently, back to when I was the most important person in someone's life, back to a place where love was tangible and I wandered through the aquarium arm in arm.

In thinking of all the things I could possibly write to you they all meant essentially the same thing. Welcome to this world, we are all so very pleased that you arrived safely, nothing new, nothing new. Fond as I have always been of your parents something unexpected happened to push this into perspective. I'll explain in a slow way the small thing that happened.

Yesterday was a long warm day and by the time I caught the train at Redfern station I was exhausted. At first a sense of friendship and duty propelled me towards Penrith instead of Windsor and home. Artboy met me at Blacktown station where I had been waiting for twenty minutes stamping my feet, spilling my coffee and silently cursing as all the commuters streamed down the stairs and past me into waiting cars and buses.

By the time I was in the car and headed up the M4 I'd smoked way too many cigarettes, spilled half a soy latte down my jacket and generally smelled so bad that I felt worried. This was the first indication that something different was at hand. You see I regularly rock up to anywhere stinking like an ashtray with hair on end and half a muesli bar in my pocket. At the hospital I paid five dollars to park the car.

I walked into the room and positioned like sentries were Ron, my brother and Rhett. Artboy walked over to meet them and there you were in a plastic crate like nuts or taps at a hardware shop, you could have been wheeled in from anywhere.

Rita sat calmly and talked me through the birth. Spinal blocks, septic shock, a violent slashing through of muscles right into the core. How brave, how radiant and strong your beautiful mother. Ron held you easy as a tennis ball like heartache never existed. He said it was frightening when he came upstairs with just you, Rita pinned down by doctors and septic shock. He said frightening in a small flat voice with wide eyes, a half second where even the echo of his fear was unbearable to witness.

My brother sat ensconced in the corner, he is almost incapable of uttering an appropriate emotional response, it was his presence, his very presence, he came straight from work and stayed til visiting hours were over.

Ray came in, sandy-haired boy of a man. All of these men have sat in my house and let off firecrackers and drunk and smoked until dawn. Girlfriends come and hearts break even their friendships have hung by a thread but here they all are. We gather tonight like a pride. You have opened in us all the tribal urge to circle and protect. We stand in the spaces between ritual, searching each other, longing for the collective memory of arms and legs and hearts singing in age old celebration but we have none so we sit and stand and talk about anything but the beating of your heart.

I sit in the corner nearest the door slowing down my breathing, sitting in silent wonder at the fierceness welling in me. Ron passed you gently to Rita and a ripple went round the room, every muscle in every body flexed, all eyes on you, no thought but to ensure your safety in this one small movement. This is when we were more human, passionate, articulate, united than we have ever been. One moment, one movement, one gap between breaths. That was the small thing that happened.