Being a Mother is a big deal. It’s so much more of a big deal than I ever gave it credit, and probably still only know the beginning of it. I have learned that it is referred to as the “Initiation” when women become mother’s. It’s a leaving behind everything that you once knew in order to forge ahead in life as a wholly different person really. To experience such a wild transformation would of course yield major changes. It’s almost like climbing Mt Everest, something I haven’t done, but I imagine it’s similar. Having to battle the elements, with one foot in front of the other, feeling the weight of your bag getting heavier at each turn, then finally reaching the top, only to have to come back down again, exhausted, spent, and with new eyes.

It’s almost like major transformation requires that, it requires you to use every bit of physical and emotional stamina you have, it requires that you give everything, where nothing else is left, then you can make it through to the next stage of life. Being burnt to a crisp is so incredibly challenging, and I am sure that more women go through horrible post natal depression than they let on. I am sure that more women have battles with themselves and their choices than what they talk about. The image of the perfect mother getting back into shape, and carrying on like she wasn’t just broken physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally, like a fast forward button had been pushed and suddenly it’s the same woman but now with a baby, is such a fallacy. It isn’t all rainbows and butterflies, it isn’t this picture perfect image, not for any woman I know whom has actually divulged and truly shared what is happening for her in her life.

Even amongst the sample population within my mother’s group, there have been a myriad of situations including not healing all the way physically, having post natal depression, miscarriage or a pregnancy entirely too soon that did culminate in another child, relationships that were rocky, relationships that then ceased to exist as they once were, the push pull dynamic of needing to have 2 incomes versus having the mum spend these unbelievably important early years with the baby, it’s like every one of the women I know has gone through quite a bit with this. The challenge is real, that’s for damn sure. The perfect image is such bullshit, and I now know this firsthand.

So here’s to all the Mother’s who have made the most out of it. To all the mother’s who have silently dealt with their pain. To all the mother’s who have given of themselves so selflessly and have done it because it’s just what a mother does. Here’s to all the mother’s who nurture, who teach, who live in love every day, it is a special privilege and I am so thankful that I am one of them.