born man

When my nephew was a baby, he was preternaturally calm. He would lie peacefully in his crib or carrier, wide-eyed, simply gazing out at the world. Once he started to talk, he talked about a time when he was "a born man."

Driving with my parents in the farmland surrounding Blackwell, a 4 year old Weylin excitedly pointed out to my parents where he had lived before, when he was a born man. He said that his son had died and he had been very sad. He talked about his tractor and the fields he would plow and how he would work late into the night. He said there was a fire and his house burned and everything in it. Over a period of about a year, this pre-school age child discussed details of farming and farm life that he couldn't possibly have known.

At 30, he still radiates an aura of calm and stillness. He insists that he can sit quietly and think of nothing for 20-30 minutes at a time. He has an unusual generosity of spirit, not a judgmental bone in his body, and a gentle acceptance of human nature. As one in possession of a mind that never quits, a ready ability to judge, and a refusal to accept my own nature, I find that stunning. He naturally has this trait of quiet, a thing that is the holy grail of meditation, and he seems to have been born with it. Or maybe he brought it with him from another life and time.

Tyler is now four months old. He is the most beautiful baby, but beyond that, he has the same remarkable calmness that my nephew had when he was a child. He gazes out into the world through glorious dark eyes: they are bright and shiny and alert and intelligent, and the little man who looks at me appears to be fully aware, far beyond what a baby should be aware of.

His grandmother was holding him this weekend and asking him questions. When she said "Where's mama," Tyler would crane his neck around until he could see his mother, then smile. He showed the same response when asked to find his father. This is not normal baby behavior. The connectedness when he looks at me is not typical for babies. It is like he's all grown up in there, beyond those coffee bean eyes.

We are all convinced that Tyler, too, is "a born man," that he will likely begin telling us as soon as he can talk about the life he had before he came into consciousness this time. I can't wait.

Do you believe in reincarnation? Do you think you've lived other lives, through other times?