Oh My Mother

The transition to becoming a mother has taken some time for me to adjust. I have gotten the hang of things: joggling, full time work, home, baby and being happily married. But, sometimes I feel the pressure that I'm not doing what I should be doing or I could be doing more.  I often think that there must be something wrong with me that drinking coffee and eating chocolate takes away my time from praying and reading the Bible. I also tend to look at others in an elavated way and want to be more like them because from the outside everyone has it so together while at home I'm running around with my big crazy hair and sometimes go to bed with my make up on because I'm just too tired to wash my face 

Today, I read the perfect article that I wanted to share a part from.

Miller-McLemore quotes medievalist scholar Elizabeth Dreyer. Parenting, Dreyer says, “is the ‘ascetic opportunity’ par excellence….A full night’s sleep, time to oneself, the freedom to come and go as one pleases – all this must be given up.”  The sacrifice of parenting is a no-brainer, but I have to admit: it leaves me feeling a little defeated.  This whiney, poopy, chaotic quotidian life is the field in which our spirituality grows and matures?  There’s not some glorious mountaintop waiting for me?

It’s still a little shocking, but perhaps the most spiritual thing I can do may be to embrace my life as a mother. Not a spiritual, metaphorical mother, but a snot-wiping, baby-chasing, diaper bag-toting mother. Because sometimes it’s not the bible stories or the lectio divina, but the Help! and thank you that a relationship is built on.

I love you all my mother friends, do you feel me?

EC