Day 2130 | Mother's Day Reflections
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In my long history of momming (9 years), this ranked up right up there as one of the toughest years yet. I’m happy to report sleep-deprivation wasn’t the culprit this time (which seems to have caused most of my angst in those early [crazy hard] years), but it turns out that a worldwide pandemic comes along with its share of challenges as well.
I feel emotionally, physically, and mentally spent but also hopeful, inspired, and motivated as I reflect on the past year of motherhood. I’m so ready to move on and move forward, but as I do that, reflecting on where I’ve been seems just as important. I want to shed the anxiety, guilt, sadness, and fear that enveloped so much of the last year, but I don’t think shoving those emotions into a box and pretending everything is fine now is going to do the trick this time around. I’m actively trying to figure out a way to work through all of that, but in the meantime, focusing on how far I’ve come seems helpful.
Things I hope my boys learned from me this year:
Patience: everything was tougher this year. Everything.
Determination: if we stick to it, things will get better.
Resilience: we can’t fix things we have no control over.
Empathy: if we all just think about how the other person feels, decisions become a lot easier.
Kindness: staying kind when things get bumpy is a life-lesson worth strengthening.
Inclusion: racism is real and takes real work and self-study to overcome
Strength: we’re so much stronger together than as individuals.
Gratitude: so many people gave so much of themselves and for others this past year. So inspiring.
Flexibility: I’m pretty sure this one needs no explanation.
Handling disappointment: I find this to be a particularly tough one to watch your kids go through.
Sacrifice for others: of course I wanted to be traveling, and eating out, and seeing my family…but this challenge was bigger than us and we could only do our part, but that had to be enough.
Hard work: homeschooling wasn’t easy. Remote learning wasn’t easy. Sometimes I expected more out of the boys than even their teachers did. They rose to the challenge and are better for it…I hope!
Compassion: even if from afar, support became such an important crutch.
Love: on the worst of the worst days, love is about the only thing that pulls you back out again.
I’m sure the list could go on and on. This year was tough, but we’re all tougher for it. I’ll take the lessons I learned and continue to weave them into my every day life moving forward. I hope the tiny humans that call me mom will take some of these lessons and make the world a kinder place. I challenge you to do the same.
Happy Mother’s Day.
