To The Mothers
Happy Mother’s Day.
To the mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, mother figures, women longing to be mothers, women missing their mothers, and everyone who holds someone else with deep love and tenderness today, I hope this day meets you gently.
Motherhood has been one of the most beautiful and humbling experiences of my life. It has softened me, stretched me, challenged me, and changed me in ways I could never have fully understood before becoming a mother.
It is not always simple. It is not always graceful. Some days feel full and joyful, while others feel messy, exhausting, and impossible to hold all at once. But underneath it all, there is this steady thread of love. Most days, anyway. The kind of love that rearranges your heart. The kind of love that makes you want to become more present, more patient, more awake to the life right in front of you.
And then there are the days that knock you so low you wonder if you can get back up again. The days when you feel stretched too thin, when you question everything, when you think, even for a moment, maybe I am not made for this. We have all been there in some form. There is no shame in admitting that motherhood can feel like too much sometimes. We are human. We are not perfect. We were never meant to be.
As I get older, I find myself thinking more about the real parts of motherhood. The millions of things that do not always get seen. The making of meals, the remembering, the worrying, the arguments, the stress, the planning, the comforting, the driving, the listening, the carrying, the patience, the lack of patience, the meltdowns. The way mothers are often holding so much, even when everything looks simple from the outside. It is all still there, hovering just below the surface. Always.
I also think about how beautiful it is to have a village. The friends who check in. The mothers who came before us. The women who show us what strength, softness, humor, resilience, and grace can look like in real life. Not just the pretty parts we see on social media, but the honest parts too.
Today feels like a good day to slow down and notice all of it.
The flowers on the table. The coffee in the morning. The small hands, the handwritten cards, the phone calls, the memories, the ache, the gratitude, the beauty of another ordinary day with the people we love.
I hope you feel celebrated today. I hope you feel appreciated in the big ways and the small ways. I hope you get a moment to breathe, to rest, to feel the sun on your face, to pour something lovely in your glass, and to remember that what you do matters.
So much of motherhood is invisible work, but the love is not invisible. It is everywhere.
Happy Mother’s Day.
xx,
Emily