Motherhood is a Poem in the Dark

I know. I've lived it.

I started writing publicly on the internet when I was drowning neck deep in motherhood. Back then I couldn’t have told you there I ended and my babies began. I survived post partum depression. Twice. I watched my body swell and strain and shrink and stretch. I’d never been more tired. I’d never felt so alone.

But I kept writing; holding on to my pen like a lifeline that could pull me back to the shoreline of myself. And it did. I may have washed up more cut and battered and weary than I was before, but I made it.

I don’t write about motherhood that much anymore. I don’t need to in the way I did before. But I still look back on what God brought me through and see the thread of His faithfulness woven in everything. I was still creating even then. I was still seeking beauty and putting it out into the world.

In honor of Mother’s Day I’ve collected some of the poems I wrote while running the gauntlet of new motherhood. Though I haven’t revisited them in a long time reading them brought back so much of who I used to be and showed me how far I’ve come as a mom. I’m proud of these words. I’m proud of the woman who wrote them. She had to happen so I could be who I am now.

The dark didn’t win. We made it.

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Happy Mother’s Day to all who are mothers, to all who have known mothers and to all who are still working to heal in motherhood.

You are seen and loved.

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