I am not the first one to walk this road and I will not be the last. There are grandmas, great grandmas and great great grandmas that have gone before me. There are mamas whose kids are older than mine and who are navigating junior high and high school. There are those who are right where I am and those who have brand new babies.
Whatever stage I find myself at, I will not find myself alone. This is a weathered road we travel.
I’m not the only parent whose kids have thrown tantrums in Target, I’m not the only one to have her kids tell a lie, I’m not the only Mom to lose her temper. I’m not the only one to have a son who struggles with reading, or the only one to have a child scream I HATE YOU. I am not the first and I will not be the last.
We really are a part of a village, a part of something much bigger than just ourselves and there are women all around us who simply get it.
Chance brought me one of my people, a sister I just hadn’t met yet. She is one of the ones in the ring with me, doing messy, but beautiful work. We are both knee deep in motherhood and for a moment our stories crossed and I am grateful.
To me she was beautiful and valiant, a mother holding everything together by a thread. I don’t know how she felt. I don’t know if she felt small, or if she felt tired. I don’t know if she felt undone or defeated…but I hope she felt supported.
I hope that in that moment she did not feel alone.
I hope she felt like I was WITH her.
No judgement.
Just respect.
We are not the first moms and we will not be the last to have a “moment”.
It is messy, it is hard, we will fail often…
But we do none of it alone, and we are never, ever the “only one”.
#solidarity
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This article originally appeared at the WONDEROAK blog. For more like this you can follow me here on Wonderoak, like my page on Facebook, and follow Wonderoak Blog on Instagram!