Motherhood Matters

Motherhood matters. The longer I live, the more I comprehend this truth: Motherhood Matters.

With all due respect, I'm convinced that raising children is the most significant, the most difficult, and the most fulfilling task in life. It is influence. It is power. It is life.

Motherhood matters in many ways, but one of the most poignant is the influence mothers have on the world. Forever and ever.

Take last week, for example. Day one, we sent our daughter off to college. After 18 years of living at home, she was ready to stretch her wings. We dropped her off at her dorm room—decorated pink and grey, her new backpack hanging from her closet hook, her new laundry detergent and books and school shoes ready for her new life. It was a tender and thrilling moment. I couldn’t help but recall the day I had arrived at the same university, excited and nervous, hugging my family goodbye, looking ahead to a grand adventure. It seemed like just yesterday.

My daughter’s anticipation was so thrilling that I almost wished it was me again, setting my sails for the new world. But then it became clear: I was living life through her. Her experiences would become my experiences. Her success was my success. Her happiness produced my joy. I could go to college again and again and again and have all of the excitement and fulfillment because of and through my children. Motherhood expanded me and who I was. It was an eye opening revelation.

The next day we took our second daughter to get her driver’s license. It was the same déjà vu experience. Thinking back, I clearly remembered the day my dad drove me to take my driving test. The details and feelings and anticipation were still fresh in my mind, though the moment was gone. I passed and became a legal driver. My joyful memories were now reality in my daughter’s success. I was living again through her. She is part of my motherhood. Her life is my life.

As if two big events weren’t enough excitement already, the third day of the week was my twins' 9^th birthday. The evening before the celebrated day my husband and I carefully set out the gifts, the birthday hats, the photo albums, the balloons. When we woke our twins the following morning with our traditional “Happy Birthday” singing, I thought back to my own 9^th birthday—that year that everything mattered: friends, presents, cake, gifts, school. I saw the same calculated anticipation in their eyes that I clearly remembered from my own day. 

Everything that day mattered to them. And it mattered to me. How exciting to celebrate nine years old twice! And to know that I can and will celebrate it multiple times during my parenting journey. Holidays, birthdays, special occasions are all enjoyed again and again and again. Their happiness is my happiness. Their anticipation is my anticipation. Their life is my life. Motherhood matters.

The great events continued through the week and month. My son starting preschool, my daughter learning her back handspring, my children finding success at school, being asked to the dance, making a soccer goal, earning a scholarship, passing a test, winning a race, going on in life. Each experience filled my cup as if it were my own. And it was and is my own. As a mother I live these wonderful moments again and again and again.

These motherhood milestones have stretched my life further and wider than I initially anticipated. All of the sleepless nights and exhausting days are suddenly coming to fruition, and I am more than who I was. I am no longer a mother with diaper bags and toddlers and cheerios.  A frazzled being wondering how to manage a zoo. My seemingly insignificant contributions have taken on new purpose. I have growing children in multiple places—doing good, reaching out, changing the world. The realization is electrifying.

And this is only the beginning. This influence will grow. It will not end with job changes or work transfers. Indeed the turning wheel cannot now or ever be stopped. It is rolling through the earth, pebbles to boulders. I am in awe as I begin to comprehend its scope.

I don't pretend that my influence is matchless. No. In fact, I see the same effect in people's lives all around me. Years of toil and mundane suddenly blossom into real good. A goodness that ripples through life, carrying change and growth and joy. And mothers are on the crest of the wave.

Motherhood is influence. Motherhood is power.

It has been an exhausting month, but in a satisfied, happy way. Growing is one joy, watching others grow is a sweeter joy—a spreading your wings of influence joy. Motherhood is more satisfying and rewarding than I could have imagined or anticipated. It is FULL and RICH and WONDERFUL. Motherhood Matters.