Surrendering to motherhood

I remember being asked in grade 3 to draw a picture of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I immediately got stuck into it, as I drew a large stage, with myself at the podium, addressing a large audience as Australia’s first female Prime Minister. I had big dreams, let’s put it that way!

So, it happened that my dream was thwarted with Julia Gillard’s appointment to office. Plus I am way too alternative in my views for parliament I’m sure! However, I never gave up the goal that I would one day enjoy a highly successful career, in an influential position of leadership and power, maybe choosing to have a child around 30 with or without a partner- and that was only once I had succeeded in saving the world!

Forward the clock 15 years…

It is 11pm and I’m reclined in bed, revelling in the day’s first moment of sweet, sweet peace. Squished between a snoring toddler and a smelly foster dog, too afraid to move in fear of waking either one. The marriage bed has been forsaken as our abode for lovemaking, and has transformed into a comforting haven for little people and rescued animals. And as for the husband, well he gave up the battle for space and sleep in this bed long ago, and abandoned the fort to seek refuge in other, more silent realms of the house. And I don’t blame him!

To put it bluntly, motherhood is far from glamorous. It does not care for your personal space, physical sentimentalities or past-life joys. Motherhood distorts muscles and bones, adds wrinkles to your face, bags under your eyes and stretch marks to your body. Motherhood gives you acne, saggy boobs and cankles. It creates an amazing ability to forget things and lose important items, while creating a new-found acceptance for hairy legs and overgrown eyebrows.

And yet, as I stare at myself in the mirror, I am overwhelmed with love for this new and beautiful version of myself that I see.

I see a woman in peace. A woman unashamedly revealing all the raw and brutal realities that bearing, birthing and raising a child creates. Manifesting the realities of motherhood through every wrinkle and blotch marking her face; a mother proud of the achievement of nourishing her child, of which is evident through the loving sag of her breasts.

For the first time in my life, I feel free. I stand unshackled by societal and self-imposed pressures and expectations, and surrender to drowning myself in the most primal of instincts- those being to protect, nourish and nurture my little one.

Surrendering to motherhood is not a sacrifice of oneself. But rather a discovery of the person you have been destined to become all along. Motherhood strips you of superficiality, and blankets you with security. You are living your purpose, when you are a living as a mother. And that is enough.

Surrendering equals empowerment. It rejuvenates mind, body and soul, as we embrace the present and awaken consciousness.

We may be university graduates, we may have travelled the world, we may have enjoyed successful careers, or achieved impressive accomplishments.

But there will be no greater contribution we can offer the world, than by surrendering ego, minds and bodies, to the immense task of raising conscious children. Each child birthed, is another glimmer of hope for a brighter future that is so significant for the shaping of society to come.

Surrendering to motherhood, removes any doubt that there is anything else we can and should be doing at this moment. We are fulfilling our destiny, and rewarding our bodies that have prepared us from conception for this specific purpose of creating, carrying and birthing new life into the world.

Surrendering to motherhood, means embracing change- letting former life fade, to allow new life to shine. It involves accepting past failures and disappointments and rather seeing them as opportunities to better our judgement in our new roles.

Motherhood needs us to be present, conscious and available to our children all the time, when they desire and on their terms.

Above all things, we are mothers: The guardians of sensitive, impressionable souls and providers of comfort, nurture and nourishment to the most worthy of beings. 
We are the influencers of values, beliefs, standards and culture, and through our position, we have the potential to create or break peace for the future, by establishing or diminishing peace in their little hearts and minds.

So surrender, enjoy, relax and discover. You are enough and you are where you were always meant to be.