Mother's Day - Part 2

So it was tough yesterday. We went to Dim Sum with Gerry's side of the family at the same restaurant we announced our pregnancy two years ago. I was the woman who did not get flowers or a greeting....A few years ago I got home made Happy Auntie's Day cards and paper bracelets but the kids are growing up now.

Dinner with my mom will be next week as we had a wedding reception in the evening. It was so wonderful to see the couple so happy, now going to start a family. The bride and groom both came from families with five children. All the siblings gave heartfelt and funny speeches. I said to Gerry that I want five kids! (I had always wanted four kids but knew financially it would be tough and that was pre-infertility!). He looked at me like I was on crack. I said "okay - let's just aim for one right now, but we can always adopt like Brangelina if we win the lottery!".  I want our kids to have a strong relationship with their siblings. Things we still somewhat wish for, like icing on top of the cake.


Thank you to Scarlett's mom for this posting which helped me feel not so alone.

http://hopefulworld.org/blog/in-case-mothers-day-is-hard-for-you/

in case mother's day is hard for you

written by admin may 12, 2013

(with my mom, who understood so deeply the pain and beauty of mother’s day)

Let’s be real. Mother’s Day can completely blow sometimes.

You want to be cheerful. You want to be with the program. But some years there are all these little points of pain that will not go away.

The baby you never had.
The one you gave up.
The kid you lost to something bigger than you.
The child that slipped away before you ever held her.
The one that was never born.
The one you worry you’re failing.
The one that failed you.

The mother who’s so close and yet so far.
The one you loved so much who couldn’t love you back.
The one you could never love because it hurt too much.
The one you lost too soon.
The one who is slipping away.
The one you can never please.
The one you wish you could live up to.

There are no cards to honor these children or these mothers. There are no holidays to contain all the parts of you that fall outside the lines of generally understood sorrow or celebration.

But there is this moment, this incredible moment, where you can feel it all. Where for once you can’t stuff it down or forget it. Where you have to be with it, because it is not going away.

And here, my friends, is where something important happens. This is where we connect, where we understand we are frail, where we are human. Where we see in new ways what life means. Where we are issued a compelling and persistent invitation to mother ourselves. To cut ourselves the breaks we didn’t get. To ask for the help we always needed. To let tears come and say, This is how it is. I’ll ask in this one tiny moment, for the courage I need to let everything just be.

No matter what your point of pain or challenge today, I want you to know that you are not the only one. Somewhere over a silly Mother’s Day breakfast, there is a woman faking a smile who feels just like you do. Somewhere in a very silent house with no one to call, there is a woman who is tending the ache of her loss, just like you. Somewhere standing in a shower there is a woman who is feeling it all and letting the tears come, just like you.

As you go about this day, know that over here, Ria and I have candles lit for all these unspoken things, and that we are holding the space and thinking of you. You — the faraway, soulful you — will be in our meditation and in our warmest thoughts. We are sending you light and love and the deep wish that you would know today of all days, nothing is wasted and we are together in ways we cannot always see but are just as true. That the night can never last. That even in our darkest moments, there will be someday, the surprise of a laugh, a comfort, a dawn.

With so much love, hope and light,
Jen

P.S. Will you share this around? We know there are so many women who are feeling it today. And if you know you appreciate things like this, please sign up for our weekly messages athopefulworld.org/join. Our hope is that everything we send out brings radical acceptance for who you are and relieves your suffering. Thanks!