“The path of motherhood has a beginning but no end. It is constantly changing and constantly challenging. Along the way, we encounter our personal limits over and over. We ride the sharp edge of hope and fear. We fall in love over and over. On this path of discovery, as on any spiritual path, our pretensions are shattered, our minds are blown, and our hearts are opened. We cry, we laugh, we bumble around and make countless mistakes. Through it all we are gently – or abruptly – poked into greater honesty, lovingkindness, and understanding. It is truly a joyful path.
The memory of my child’s birth has become a talisman that I hold in my heart as I journey deeper and deeper into motherhood. For these moments come again in every mother’s life – the times when we are asked to walk straight into our pain and fear, and in doing so, open up to a love that is greater than anything we ever could have imagined: all life’s beauty and wonder, as well as all the ways that things can break and go wrong…
Again and again motherhood demands that we break through our limitations, that we split our hearts open to make room for something that may be more than we thought we could bear. In that sense, the labor with which we give birth is simply a rehearsal for something mothers must do over and over: turn ourselves inside out, and then let go.”
The quote above strikes such a chord in me. Motherhood is so difficult to describe to anyone who is not in it themselves. But these words really get at the heart of the matter and are so eloquently written. I want to read them again and again throughout the rest of my life.
I wrote this quote on a card for my friend and she had the card out at her birth.
One of the most striking things she said during her labor was “This (meaning labor) is SO hard! So hard. But not as hard as raising them” (meaning her children). That also struck such a chord with me.
Such truth, wisdom, and strength.
