–For my friend who wondered if she was enough.
Fanfare to the Common Mom
You lent your body to grow another.
You are the kisser of wrinkled, newborn lips.
Pillow fluffer, brow – temp – tester, nail clipper, Band-Aid smoother, nurse.
Pancake flipper, apple slicer, crust cutter.
You smile and coax green things onto their forks and into their bodies.
You are barber and fashion consultant, therapist and tutor, moral counselor, protector.
You teach them to pray.
Do you see how you add up? How indeed it is by small and simple things that great things (let’s say human beings) are brought to pass?
If you ever wonder if your foot makes a big enough print or even makes a sound on this road of life –
Take heart Mama.
You crack the ground you stand on; you shake the earth beneath your feet.
Your little people walk on after you’re gone.
It will be the drops you shed into the buckets of their being that fill them up so full they will spill it.
They will have enough to share and they will share it.
They will have enough and their children’s children will have enough because your Love Bell will ring out through the annals of time.
It’s true.
And you wondered if what you did mattered.
It does.
You wondered if you were interesting enough.
You are.
You wondered if your energy was well spent.
It is.
So you hold your shoulders square and keep toasting toast. You match those socks and let your smiles reach your eyes.
Hear them.
See them.
Hold them tight.
Mold them and feed them and steer them right.
Fight the good fight.
Fight.
Fight any thought that tells you you’re nothing. That you don’t shine bright.
Have you seen the stars in your child’s eyes?
They shine!
You did that.
You are more than enough.
