A few weeks ago I sat in the hospital with my wife as she slowly knitted herself a scarf while in labor. She sat on a birthing ball and would pause her knitting during contractions.

During the time while we waited through the initial labor and before the more dramatic transitional labor and birth, I watched her, using a series of knots, create a lovely scarf. In those few hours I contemplated the process of a gestation and birth with creative endeavor.

Both start with a moment. A twinkle in the eye. Passion. Contemplation, waiting, planning, hoping. Excitement that this will work. Then the gut-wrenching work. Sometimes long, sometimes tedious, sometimes automatic. More planning. Thinking. Doing. Then repeating. Deadline looms and discomfort mounts. The final hours are a flurry of activity and pain and panic. Then the arrival. Beautiful. Pain deadens and fades.

Of course the creative process is a cheap imitation when compared to giving life. But I find the parallels fascinating.