fifty two on fridays | week nineteen

“Sometimes when you pick up your child you can feel the map of your own bones beneath your hands,
or smell the scent of your skin in the nape of his neck.
This is the most extraordinary thing about motherhood -
finding a piece of yourself separate and apart that all the same you could not live without.”
- Jodi Picoult

WEEK 19 - MATERNAL

So often, I feel as though the role of Mother, especially stay-at-home mothers, is cast aside & seen as insignificant, unfulfilling, burdensome, & a life filled with eating bon bons & reading books. While sometimes this feels true, to be a mother is so much more than that! It is a blessing, the raising of the future generation. It is selfless love & sacrifice. It has its ups & downs. Days when I feel like I could curse & cry from frustration, where I feel like an utter failure & fear that my children will grow up to resent me. But then there are other days where the joy & happiness that flows through me because of my children & my role as their mother lifts me off the ground; I feel so alive & full of love, so light that my body threatens to float away. More than anything though, motherhood is the habit of the everydays. It is the simple moments of teaching, observing, encouraging, nurturing, letting your child experience both failure & success. It is patience, endurance, kindness. Time outs, cuddles, bedtime songs, digging in the dirt, dancing. It is a giant reward.

 

My years of infertility taught me to treasure my children when I might otherwise have resented the time & energy it takes to care for them. I know that to be a mother is a miracle. It is the most amazing, powerful thing a woman can do, whether through creating & growing life &/or caring for a life that has been entrusted to you. I am grateful for my role as mother & wouldn't give it up for anything.

Continue the circle by visiting Lisa at Lisa Tarplee Photography.