Brave Enough To Be Bliss

Break down here… (gingerbliss.life)

I know I could have survived with less help, but the point was, I didn’t have to. I had all these people who not only were willing to but wanted to help me. I heard over and over again how much joy it brought them to give to me after all the years I had only been willing to give to them, never receive.

I saw the following poem on Facebook and share it in honor of these two beautiful ladies, Sherri Miller and Kathryn Bliss. As a former stepmother and former mother-in-law, respectively, they taught me so much about how to be a great mom to Kylee. Perhaps even more importantly, they made me feel “mothered” while they cared for me following my surgeries. I used to think I couldn’t miss what I hadn ’ t experienced. Now I believe it was always missed, it simply wa sn’t acknowledged in order to avoid pain. While I’ve known them for decades, it took all the work with Ginger and surgery on my knee for me to open my heart enough to fully experience the mothering they had always offered but I was too scared to receive. All mothers are human, and some simply cannot provide mothering for a variety of heartbreaking reasons. That doesn’t mean we can’t open our hearts to the many others willing to.

Mother. One word, a myriad meanings … To mother is not just to create life, it is to sustain life, to save life, to enrich life, to nurture life, to protect and

shelter that life. It is complicated, eternal, instinctive and ancient. Not all mothers are mothers and that statement works both ways.

Some mothers are unable to nurture the child they have for many heartbreaking reasons and some mothers would love nothing more than to have this child they so long for. So they walk through this life nurturing and sharing that motherly love with whomever needs it. They are mothers without children of their own. But mothers they very much are. If you are a mother in the traditional sense today, be loved. You are someone’s whole world, what a thing. If you are without your own mother today, be loved. Just as she spent her entire life hoping you would. She lived for your happiness, let her see it if you can. If you are a mother without children today, be loved. You deserve this more than we know and we see your brave heart opening still to let in those who need. If you are someone who chose to love another’s child today, be loved. This world exists more beautifully because of your selfless and boundless light. If you have never known a mother’s love, be the start of it, make it anew. And show the world what it should look like. The legacy you leave will change history.

Find a way today, if you can, to celebrate ‘creation’. To celebrate your existence, to celebrate love itself. Mother, one word, a myriad meanings… complicated, eternal, primal, and without us, there would be nothing. Donna Ashworth From Mother’s Day in Wild Hope

“The inability to receive support from others is a trauma response. Your ‘I don’t need anyone, I’ll just do it all myself’ conditioning is a survival tactic. And you needed it to shield your heart from abuse, neglect, betrayal, and disappointment from those who could not or would not be there for you. From the parent who was absent and abandoned you by choice or the parent who was never home from working three jobs to feed and house you. From the lovers who offered sexual intimacy but never offered a safe haven that honored your heart. From the friendships

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