{"id":2803,"date":"2013-06-11T10:22:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T15:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/?p=2803"},"modified":"2013-06-11T10:22:12","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T15:22:12","slug":"dannielle-a-symbol-for-serenity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/general\/dannielle-a-symbol-for-serenity\/","title":{"rendered":"Dannielle, a symbol for serenity."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, is a very special day \u2013 it is my favorite middle daughter\u2019s 24<sup>th<\/sup> Birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking back to that joyous day now twenty-four years past, brings to mind a tweet I recently posted, and likely prompted by realization this day dawned:-<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Regardless of our circumstances, our character is our own.<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/thought?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#thought<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; C.G.Ayling (@CGAyling) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CGAyling\/status\/342770606657388544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 6, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h6>Regardless of our circumstances, our character is our own. #thought<\/h6>\n<p>Until Dannielle\u2019s birth, we had assumed that the parents influenced the character of their children.\u00a0 Dannielle gave us clues to her character even before her birth, and those clues pointed toward something entirely different to her decisive elder sister.<\/p>\n<p>Born screaming, her sister Tamryn never stopped to draw breath for the first six weeks of her existence.\u00a0 Once during that dismal time, overcome with exhaustion from the two hours on, two hours off schedule tending our firstborn, I turned to my wife and said, \u201c<em>I can\u2019t believe anyone in their right mind would ever consider having another child<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Our experience with Tamryn led us to believe her behavior was the norm.\u00a0 Oh, how soon we forget\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Three years later, contraception failed us again, and my wife conceived our second \u2013 Dannielle.\u00a0 With Dannielle, everything was different.\u00a0 In-utero, Tamryn had been a kicker whose extended legs would often distend my wife\u2019s tummy into exotic, distorted shapes. \u00a0In contrast, Dannielle proved calm to the point that we worried, unable to find solace in our pediatrician\u2019s promises the pregnancy progressed perfectly to plan.<\/p>\n<p>At the eleventh hour, Dannielle changed her mind and rotated one hundred and eighty degrees from vertex into a breech. \u00a0No amount of cajoling could convince her to return her head to downward.\u00a0 {Two of her character traits, perfectly illustrated before her birth \u2013 indecision, neatly combined with obstinacy.} \u00a0Dannielle\u2019s birth was by emergency Cesarean Section, she exited the womb wide-eyed, and silent.\u00a0 Indeed, when hanging Dannielle upside down by her feet simply granted her a new and even more fascinating view of this new world, the doctor had to beat her first cry from her.<\/p>\n<p>For the most part Dannielle retained her calm, serene nature \u2013 though she occasionally succumbs to what she terms, \u201cinsta-pissed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Enough of this rambling!\u00a0 Like each of her siblings, Dannielle brings us immense joy, spiced with dashes heartache and woe.\u00a0 She has grown from a beautiful, serene baby upon whom I doted, to a beautiful, serene twenty-four year old, upon whom I dote.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re blessed with four unique children \u2013 indeed, they are so different from one another we sometimes find it hard to believe they\u2019re progeny of the same parents.\u00a0 Each owns their character, utterly.\u00a0 Perhaps we\u2019ve managed to modify their behavior somewhat, but their character is entirely theirs \u2013 and has been from the moment of their birth, if not their conception.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Birthday, Dannielle \u2013 may you have many more, and may you remain your wonderful self, always.\u00a0 No other way would I want you to be.<\/p>\n<p>{For those who would know, Dannielle is not only the cover model of my work, <a title=\"Yes, that is Dannielle, right there on the cover, in living shades of gray!\" href=\"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/samples\/malmaxa\/beltamars-war\/\">Beltamar\u2019s War<\/a>, but also takes the role of Daniskira, the Symbologist &#8211; whose character is a poor reflection of hers.}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, is a very special day \u2013 it is my favorite middle daughter\u2019s 24th Birthday. Thinking back to that joyous day now twenty-four years past, brings to mind a tweet I recently posted, and likely prompted by realization this day dawned:- Regardless of our circumstances, our character is our own. #thought Until Dannielle\u2019s birth, we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[47,70,78,102,377,378],"class_list":["post-2803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-birthday","tag-calm","tag-character","tag-dannielle","tag-serene","tag-serenity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}