05/10/2026
I’m not sure what Mother’s Day is like for you. If we were sitting down over coffee across from each other you could share your story and I could share mine about being a mom or not being a mom... about our growing up. But instead I’m typing this with a cup of coffee in one hand sitting on my porch... jeans stained with dirt because I didn’t feel like changing into work clothes. I walked outside to go on a long walk, but saw today that all the peonies needed cutting to save for our May weddings, so I spent the morning cutting peonies.
I thought about how Mother’s Day looks differently for each of us.
When I worked as a birth doula and a midwife, I sat beside moms in labor as they pushed their babies into the world and transformed into a mom right before my eyes. In the midst of labor and bringing a child into the world there’s a type of surrendering each mom has to come to terms with- to let go of any idea of control.... let the birth process do it’s own thing... let our bodies take over. There’s a giving up...a deep giving in that’s required.
That surrender and letting go at birth only seems to be the beginning...the surrendering continues...they launch and then there’s another kind of surrendering...
Gosh, is it ever hard to let go of our children who we love so much.
So, to all the moms, the soon-to-be moms, the ones who mother other’s kids, to our friend’s moms and those who have stepped in as a mother figure for us and filled in tiny or large holes of brokenness...to the mother-in-laws, the stepmoms, the ones yearning to be moms, the ones who have lost moms, the grandmothers, aunts, and mentor-moms. Adoptive moms. Spiritual moms. You are all heros and we are all in this together as we each walk this path of loving deeply and letting go all at the same time.
