One morning, in the stillness of the pre-dawn, the song of the very first bird caught my attention. One little trill broke through the darkness, inviting the other birds to join in. Intrigued, I began to listen each morning and sure enough, each day the quiet would be broken by one brave bird who would lead the others. I grabbed on to the song of those birds as they reminded me to rejoice in the beginning of each new day.
I dug out an old notebook a few days after I first heard the birds. I numbered the lines and scribbled out a few words. What could I cherish in such dark days? I noticed the dimples on my son’s elbows, so I wrote it down. Our neighbor delivered a fresh pear pie and the smell filled the house. I wrote that down, too. Line by line, I filled in that notebook and I realized there was still so much to be cherished. The hope hadn’t disappeared; it just took a little extra digging to find it.
The secret to cherishing motherhood is to find joy in the tension of life. We don’t sweep the difficulties under the rug. We can’t wait for the to-do list to be complete or for the unanswered questions to be resolved…. we search for hope in the unfinished scale. We nestle into the middle of the story, determined to treasure the little and big things that come our way. We live our unresolved lives boldly, appreciating the beauty of Motherhood in all its’ glorious dissonance.
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This article originally appeared at SarahDamaska.com.
