Mothers
As you are growing up, you ask questions and you hear a lot of "you'll understand once you are a mother." Yeah, whatever. You hear "wait until it's your own kid." Uh huh. You hear "the love of a mother can move mountains." If you say so.
We have a lot of solitary experiences in our lives even as others are going through a similar experience: living through cancer, battling with inner demons, divorce and it's aftermath, physical pain. But one thing I have learned is that motherhood isn't one of those experiences.
There are days when I am in the thick of mothering my children that I'm suddenly struck by the generations upon generations of women who come from far and wide who have done exactly what I am doing at that moment. There were women in eastern Russia hundreds of years ago who fought with the children to get them clean. There were women in Africa who argued with their children over what they will put in their mouths. There were women in the Aztec civilizations in the Americas who worried over their children learning what they need to survive and thrive. There are women down the street, next door, in the next city, the next neighboring country, and across the world who do what I do every single day. I feel them envelop me with their wisdom and shared experiences. I feel those women and I know that we are one. We are all one in our efforts to raise, teach, love, nurture, and cherish our beautiful children.
This is what we do collectively, together, in concert:
We have a lot of solitary experiences in our lives even as others are going through a similar experience: living through cancer, battling with inner demons, divorce and it's aftermath, physical pain. But one thing I have learned is that motherhood isn't one of those experiences.
There are days when I am in the thick of mothering my children that I'm suddenly struck by the generations upon generations of women who come from far and wide who have done exactly what I am doing at that moment. There were women in eastern Russia hundreds of years ago who fought with the children to get them clean. There were women in Africa who argued with their children over what they will put in their mouths. There were women in the Aztec civilizations in the Americas who worried over their children learning what they need to survive and thrive. There are women down the street, next door, in the next city, the next neighboring country, and across the world who do what I do every single day. I feel them envelop me with their wisdom and shared experiences. I feel those women and I know that we are one. We are all one in our efforts to raise, teach, love, nurture, and cherish our beautiful children.
This is what we do collectively, together, in concert:
- Make sure our children are warm enough
- Make sure our children get enough sleep
- Worry that they aren't warm enough
- Worry that they aren't getting enough sleep
- Wonder if that pain the child is complaining about is real or imagined
- Wonder if we should visit a doctor about that pain
- Help with homework
- Try so very hard to keep our patience
- Lose our patience
- Scream and cry on the inside because we are so helpless
- Scream and cry on the outside because we are afraid of failure
- Fail
- Succeed
- Make them sweet treats
- Make them broccoli
- Love them
- Read to them
- Listen while they read to us
- Fight for our children with teeth, claw, pen, anger, resilience and logic
- Let them stand on their own no matter how much it hurts
- Make them stand on their own no matter how much it hurts
- Pick our battles
- Choose the wrong battles
- Choose the right battles
- Intervene
- Let them solve it on their own
- Hug them
- Snuggle them
- Tuck them into bed
- Hold them so tightly they squirm to get away
- Never let go even when we loosen our arms so they can stand on their own
- Give them our hearts to carry around with them forever
This list isn't finished, but to all the moms out there, you move mountains everyday.
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