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Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life. Sophocles
In difficult times, children anchored me and kept me from drifting too far off course. A child kept me going because he loved me and I loved him. Children needed me and I needed them.
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“When you observe kind and gentle mothers in action, you see women of great strength.”—Margaret D. Nadauld
“There is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood.”— M. Russell Ballard
Around Mother's Day it's easy to find quotes about the nobleness of women and motherhood. Along with those kinds of sentiments I like to hear from women who share the challenges of the motherhood journey.
The following thoughts are based on a blog post in May 2014 by Saydi Eyre Shumway.
Motherhood is hard and is different from what we might have expected. Motherhood isn't about "me, it's about "these lives who have come and merged with mine." I like this thought because my experiences with mothering involve a child I gave birth to and in addition children whose lives "merged" with mine. Our immediate and extended family continue to grow with wonderful people who come into the family.
I don't think of myself as a natural "mothering" person but as I look back from the perspective of 70 years (wow!), I realize I've learned to recognize, nurture, and embrace that aspect of my being. I work at and enjoy learning to be a better mother and grandmother. Over the decades I have "grabbed" the opportunity to mother others who have come into my life. We've been parents and grandparents for persons living far away from family and for people who didn't have family, near or far. These mothering experiences have sometimes broken our hearts but we've also experienced great joy. We have been blessed.
Mothering is motivated by love and compassion. Mothering can help us forget ourselves so we can serve and meet the needs of others. "It is really about swallowing up yourself into something bigger, a family, a child, a little life. [or a big life]. Forgetting yourself. It is truly a refiner's fire. If we surrender to it it will burn us up. But we really do emerge from it changed, new, strong, full, and bright."
When we're able to do this, "surrender to our mother-love," some of our love becomes part of the soul of the person we've mothered. How glorious and awesome is that?!
A mother helps a person feel known, acknowledged, and loved. One of the wonderful mothers in Joe's life was his Grandmother Elizabeth Gilmore Neely, Mamaw. During awkward and stressful periods in his life, she was always there to reassure him, to tell him he was loved and that he could meet any challenge that came his way. Her love is part of Joe's being.
That love for Joe comes through in the message she wrote on the back of a photo of Joe and his Great Grandmother Mary Taylor Neely.
"My Little Lamb and his great grandmother.
This is the cutest child's picture I've ever seen.
Called 'Picking Flowers'"
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