To Be a Mother

This name, this job, this daily and forever role that is motherhood can be so so hard sometimes. And then it can be so beautiful and simple, and very fulfilling, that I wonder why I ever worry and stress and plan so much. You mamas know what I mean...

Which is why I loved the following passage from this blog written a few weeks ago:

"But no matter who we are...we can all make our little piece of motherhood an "art" in it's own right. We can go about what we do in a day just as a dancer goes about a beautiful dance, with precision and grace. We can keep getting up again, after numerous failures and mistakes, and keep trying. We have the power to choose to meet our challenges in a way that will help us grow and become who God wants us to be. But on that same note, no one else will feel the rewarding heart-swell we will when a child finally makes a much prayed for breakthrough. No one else will quite understand the sweetness of an inside joke shared with a child we've cultivated with time. No one else gets to feel the same joy watching our children love each other as only siblings do, or save money as we have painstakingly tried to teach them. And those things come when we choose to make the way we mother a priority, whether we work outside the home or not, whether we live in a different culture or have different interests outside of mothering. They come when we put our heart into our mothering, no matter how different we may be. Someday, as we look back, we will marvel at the strength and rhythm we were able to develop. Because what we have willingly done with love in our hearts has become our passion. Hopefully we will see that love reflected in the eyes of our children. And that will be our reward."

Here's to being passionate about my mothering and enjoying my small babies (and then my not-so-small babies) in the process. Sounds like a recurring mantra around here but I swear the time is slipping right by me--Bentley was once a round and rolling baby boy and now I can barely fold up his long, long legs for a snuggle on my lap. It actually doesn't really work at all but I still try.