Layers of Life

The Layers of Life

Is life worth living? Is it a race? Perhaps the answer to the questions may differ from each individual. Sometimes the atrocities and challenges that a person faces in life can prepare and transform ones identity. In the poem, "Layers" by Stanley Kunitz, the author develops the idea of taking strength, abandoning the life he used to be in and embraces the transformation that lies ahead. We realize in the poem that the author has acknowledged that he has to walk through many lives to eventually find himself.

When I read the poem, I instantly felt like I could relate to the author's attitude regarding how the journey's one takes in life and the risks taken plays a major part in contributing to a person's fulfillment.

I faced the risk of losing my life by delivering a twelve-pounder baby. Prior to the delivery of this child, I had already naturally given birth to seven other healthy, well-functioned children. Fortunately, I never really had any serious complications with any of my children but this time around was different. The doctors knew from the information they had received and gathered from the ultrasounds that my baby was going to be larger than usual. Typically, the average weight of most newborns is around seven pounds and those that are born weighing more than nine pounds fifteen ounces are considered to be larger than averages or "big babies" as specialists in the world of science like to say.

Therefore, you can imagine that my doctor was worried because he knew that various sorts of complications could arise. I on the other hand, was not that worried, because two of my children before had been just slightly bigger than normal, but both deliveries ran smoothly in the end. The body is a powerful thing and mine had adjusted to this pattern repeatedly, so I felt prepared, despite the doctor's reservations.

Nine months of carrying this child in my womb came and went, and on October 12, 2003, (Thanksgiving Day to be exact), I delivered a stillbirth child. The delivery itself was very serious, it was one of the most difficult ones I had endured. I lost about four pints of blood and laboured for a long while. Words cannot even begin to express the many emotions that came over me in that moment I heard that 'my baby had died' from the lips of my doctor. I felt like I was in a dream, I was in absolute shock and agony upon hearing such news. It may be hard for someone who has not given birth before and endured all the joys, pains, and duties of motherhood to understand just how dire the situation I found myself in was for me. Never before had I ever thought that I would be in the position where I would outlive any one of my kids or have to bury them for that matter! I was in a very dismal state of mind and never thought I would be able to get over