During this week my son celebrates his birthday.
In the wee hours of the morning on that memorable day in August, I became a mother after giving birth to our son, Ben.
I read a lot of books during my pregnancy and listened to many stories from friends, family or acquaintances who wished to regale me with their own experiences of becoming a mother. I never got tired of hearing or learning more. It was my way of discovering and preparing for what lay ahead of me in the remainder of my pregnancy, the labour, birth and first months of parenthood.
What I did not know, however, is that nothing – no words, no books, no stories…NO THING – could have prepared me for the mixture of pain, joy, terror, exhilaration, and love that I would experience in becoming a mother.
Motherhood is a portal. I did not know, before crossing through the threshold of motherhood, that my heart could expand as wide as it did, nor that I was capable of loving as deeply as motherhood let me.
“If I had written the greatest book, composed the greatest symphony, painted the most beautiful painting or carved the most exquisite figure I could not have felt the more exalted creator than I did when they placed my child in my arms.”
~ Dorothy Day
#creativity #portals #motherhood #birthday