The only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a mother.
The lack of any real direction beyond that has allowed me to navigate career and personal ambitions with somewhat less focus, which has been a blessing and a curse.
But with the focus on motherhood at my center, and starting to have children fairly early (I got pregnant with #1 when I was 22) I’ve spent the majority of my life hyper-focused on who I am in relationship to “mother”, where I end and where she begins, how we intersect, and how we coexist.
Since everything I’ve ever done in my life has been engaged with through the lens, and under the microscope, of how it relates to my motherhood. Whether I liked it or not. Whether it was appropriate, or not.
And now, here we are in a time where all of us are thrust into the next level self-examination and self-discovery of ourselves as mother in situations that we could never have predicted. Who could have prepared us for the worlds colliding as they did when Spring Break never ended, and we’re preparing for a Back to School we don’t have any frame of reference for approaching.
Who knew we would be working from home, while managing childcare, while weighing the risks of going to get basic supplies to take care of our families. Who knew we would be snapped from our casual perusal of studies about the effects of food dyes on hyperactivity and intermittent deep dives into the mom’s groups for pediatrician recommendations, into full-time forensic analysts and admins for 6 different COVID response facebook groups.
While the circumstances continue to surprise me on the daily, it does not surprise me that mothers are centered in every single movement for solutions that I’ve seen. Whether you see them or not, mothers are working tirelessly at their jobs or on their passions, while taking care of their children, and advancing real change. They are organizing coalitions, and disseminating information. They are researching, and fact-checking, and showing up. They’re continuing to fight, against all odds, to make it all okay.
This blog is going to explore ways mothers are making moves, and how we can support them. It’s going to talk about ways we can reinforce ourselves as we take care of others. It’s going to investigate ways that we can dig into our intuition, find our true gifts, and use them to benefit our families, our community, and the world.
I have believed for a long time that mothers can get us through this. Rooting into our power, and into each other, is necessary for that to come to pass. Right now, we have a great opportunity to rethink how we operate in our lives, and who we want to show up as. Let’s dive into that journey together.
xoxo,
Diana