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Welcome, Antone!©


My niece who is also my godchild has just given birth to a lovely little Antone.
This baby is the first of a new generation in our family. As I write this text, Antone is four days old. He is very small, very cute, very wonderful, and above all very mysterious. What will he like? What will his character be? What child will he be? What adult will he become? One thing is for sure: Antone is one of the lucky babies who receive all the love and attention they deserve.

This birth, which made me such a moved great-aunt, gave me food for thought. It seems that there are so many of us on Earth, but we have the means to choose whether or not to bring a new human being into the world. Why do we have children? Why did I have two of them about 20 years ago?
Is it the animal in us that commands us to reproduce in order to preserve the species? Maybe. Just as the newborn finds a way to express his hunger to be satisfied or his discomfort to be washed and changed, we still have instincts that remind us how to live. And maybe we should listen to them more often, but that's another topic...

But there is much more to it, is there? What is so special about the birth of a human baby expected with hope and excitement?
It is special because each newborn is unique! A newborn is not a dog among dogs, nor a flower among flowers. A child is not the reproduction of another human being. A child is different, a child is new.
We want, expect, hope, celebrate her or him because we believe in her or his ability to love, create, innovate. We hope that this new human being will act for himself and others better than what we have done. Above all, we have so much love to give.

Giving birth to a new human being is only producing blank pages. A newborn is the capital and illuminated letter of the first sentence of a new and still unimaginable story. He is the exclamation marks of wonder, he is the question marks of surprise. A newborn is the author of a new novel that will be read all along his life. The new child will have the freedom to write his story and History in his own way. And those who gave him birth will only have the impact he will let them have on him.

A newborn is a random, uncontrollable and wonderful creation. He represents our faith in the human being, despite all his defects and faults. A newborn is the hope for a better world and a greater love. A newborn is the greatest hope in the world.
Welcome, Antone!

Gabrielle Dubois©
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