Motherhood - Short post, just thoughts.

 The safest place in the entire world isn't a place, it is you. Youngest had a nightmare last night; husband is away, so he just crawled into bed with me, cuddled in and drifted peacefully back to sleep. Nearly 11 years into motherhood, I still cannot believe the peculiar comfort it brings to know you are the solution. Often, what I hear about motherhood, particularly from those considering it as a possibility, is that they are nervous about sleeplessness, depression, irritation, lack of intimacy with their life partner, change, loss of self. 

Some of those things may happen, and they may be part of the experience of every mother, but they are not what you remember. It says in John: "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." Now, having had two very traumatic births, I can confirm that there is a peculiar fact that when you hold your newborn safe, pain is experienced differently. But, more than this, I suggest that the miracle of motherhood is that all of life's ups and downs are softened when you experience the deep joy of watching your own heart toddle about, grow, walk and talk, develop its own interests. In motherhood you give your whole self up only to discover a new and better you. And, more than that, you have another deep joy  -  you get to be the safest place in the whole world.