Raine Fisher Hedstrom

The last week has been an unbelievable one. I hardly know where to begin and in truth I don’t know how I am going to write anything at length about the many events that have happened over the last week as a result of our little one coming into the world.  So I will have to save some of the more philosophical musings that are rambling around my sleep deprived head for another time.

Let me start by saying that our family has been showered with emails and calls and gifts and flowers over the last week and I can’t thank you enough.  The fresh flowers in the house make a world of difference as we make our way through these somewhat sleepless days and nights.  It is wonderful to be surrounded by so much love by so many wonderful people from all over the world.  What an amazing community we find ourselves in the midst of at a time when we most want to share our joy and love for this new person.

As for the name of this new person – some of you have heard but I wanted to make the official announcement that her name is

Raine Fisher Hedstrom

Sherry and I will tell you a more elaborate story in person when we see you but wanted to share a little about some of the origins of the name for those enquiring minds.

As I mentioned Raine was born “in the caul” or also called being born “behind the veil” – children born this way are called Caulbearers.  What this means is that Raine was born still inside her amniotic sac, and when she came out it was like she was covered in a translucent veil. This means that Sherry’s water never broke. Estimates of people born in the caul vary but range as high as 1 in 80000.

There are myths and legends hailing all the way back to ancient Egypt suggesting caulbearers will be psychic, see the future in dreams, have incredible good luck, will be world travelers and never tire and other such good omens.  One particular myth of note is that sailors in Nordic cultures have long purchased cauls from the mothers of caul bearers as in that culture the actual cauls were thought to prevent drowning.  It was also thought that if a person was born in the caul they would never drown.

From Wikipedia

According to some, the following famous people, both real and fictional, were born with a caul: Charles Dickens’ David in "David Copperfield," Alexander the Great, Shakespeare's Hamlet, the mother of the Dionne quintuplets, and Danny in Stephen King's "The Shining." (An illustration of Danny with the caul appeared on one of King's original paperback versions.)

We had heard about being born in the caul in one of our prenatal classes and thought it sounded kind of cool and mystical.  If this were the only thing that had happened to make Raine’s coming a bit serendipidous, we might have stuck with one of our pre chosen names.  Suffice it to say that it wasn’t – I will have to share these stories later but they border on giving goose bumps.

When she came out, Sherry actually said – this isn’t what my baby looks like.  Echoing my own feeling and of course we immediately knew she was not Ruby and that that name would not do.  We decided to wait a bit and see what rose to the surface.  Sherry said maybe we should consider the caulbearer thing and think of something that tapped into that as well as all the other events of the few days leading up to and during her birth.

Early the next morning I jumped online while the ladies were sleeping and began to research.  When I found the bit about the Nordic sailors it made me think about the last name Hedstrom (Swedish for Heather by the Stream) that she would have and thought I should look into names connected with oceans Nordic mythology, etc.  I came across a Norse goddess called Rain (spelled many different ways)  As recent as 1960 sailor from Nordic ports would flip a coin into the sea before a journey for Raine.  Raine is the goddess who collects drowned sailors in a giant net.  Vikings who were killed in battle were allowed into Valhalla but those who died at sea were not.  Raine would scoop them up in her net and bring them to her halls at the bottom of the sea for a giant party it seems.

The Norse Goddess Raine

Also it seems that Raine was the goddess of storms.  For those of you in San Francisco last week you know that the night she was born was stormy –rain, hail, lightening and thunder – pretty cool.

At any rate it all felt good and when I shared it with Sherry upon her waking, we both knew we had found a match for this interesting and beautiful little girl we have already fallen in love with.  Thought we knew we would get more than a few “crazy hippy” looks, we knew it was a great fit for her.

The Fisher part is slightly more straightforward, but equally a convergence of a number of cool things –the chief being that it is the maiden name of Shelby Fisher Shankland – Sherry’s best friend who remained with us through the entire birth from active labor at home all the way until the next morning.  In addition to being there and attending the birth Shelby (through a set of circumstance best saved for another time) actually caught our little Pisces daughter when she came out.  The little tidbit I will give you here is that Sherry gave birth to Raine while standing up with our arms around each other and an amazing group of women friends and health care providers scrambling to catch Raine as she finally burst into the world at 103 pm Feb 26^th.

In addition to honoring Shelby with the naming of our daughter, we are also honoring my father who shares the same initials.

Raine Fisher Hedstrom 

Roger Francis Hedstrom

As many of you know my father is very sick with ALS and could not come to see Raine.  We hope that timing will allow the two of them to meet, but we are happy to at least have the connection in their name’s sake.

I wont get too weird again, but at the moment I suggested the name Sherry had been thinking of it, so once more a little blip on the old psychic woo woo radar for those of you who are into the supernatural and spiritual.

I also like the name Fisher for two other reasons – the first being the connection to our Christian heritage.  Though there is much that I do not connect with in that wisdom tradition these days – the “fisher of men” metaphor has always held meaning for me.  It is a similar calling as the Buddhist Bodhisattva – concerning one’s self with the salvation or enlightenment of your fellow human beings – being passionate about the spiritual lives around you.

The last reason is the old adage “Give a person a fish and he eats for a day.  Teach him to fish and he eats for life”.  One of the things we have talked about a lot is making sure we raise Raine to be able to fish, garden, build, etc. for herself.  I won’t get political here, but you can’t act locally if you have no hands on skills.

So there you have it – a whole lot of water I guess.  Raine Fisher Hedstrom (transl. heather by the stream)

Well this email has taken me all day between diapers, swaddlings, rockings, soothings, breastfeeding (no not me), feeding Sherry while she feeds the kid.  It’s a regular three ring circus and as crazy as it all is, we would do it again just to see this little girl’s face just once. 

I am reminded of a t-shirt one of our midwives was wearing.  It said “Yes, I said yes, I will.  Yes.”  Because whether or not there is an ounce of significance to any mystical “in the caul” earth goddess birth maiden’s serendipity, I know one thing.  When I look at Raine, I know my spirit has found the best possible answer to all of the “why” questions in life.

IMG 3420

Mama and Raine

Peace, Love and Very Good Things,