A defining moment for me in this Ever Upward journey was during Elizabeth Gilbert’s keynote speech at the Emerging Women Live 2013 Conference in Boulder. She told her story of how she first lost three other versions of her current bestselling novel The Signature of All Things before finding what is the magic on bookshelves now; much like losing my three babies in our IVF journey. Elizabeth spoke about these losses in the sense, that they were never her magic to grasp. She further described how magic will float around asking the universe, “Are you my mother? Are you my mother?”, finally, settling in the space where it is meant to be nurtured and grown. “Are you my mother?”
This question has developed so many meanings to me over the last year or so, especially as I feel like I have found a major spark of my magic through this journey.
Which means, I know, I am a mother in many ways.
As I have written before, I will never be the traditional mother, raising my own children, biological or not. However, I have learned, and even continue to cultivate, my broader definition of mother. This definition made even clearer by my peers. One who assured me I would have a lifetime of meaningful relationships with my friends’ children and family’s children, maybe even more influential than their relationships with their own parents. One who assured me that my mothering skills would find their outlet through my dogs but, even more so, in helping my clients and others. And finally, one who wrote this comment on my Taking Off the Armor post, “For what it is worth, in my view you chose to be and are a mother even though you suffered the injustice of not being able to raise any of the babies that ought to have come from your transferred embryos.” She has helped me to see, that I am a mother, just not one who was meant to carry out the job here on the physical earth.
Family and mother, has many definitions. I have no doubt, these definitions will be the topics of future posts, as I continue to discover and nurture the magic of my Ever Upward journey.
I am a mother, but not in your conventional sense of the word.
I am a mother because…
I am a nurturer.
I am a helper.
I am a mentor.
I am a healer.
I am an advisor.
I am a coach.
I am a teacher.
Most of all, I am mydefinition of a mother. One that the people who know and love me understand and root for.
One where my magic grows.
What magic are you a mother to?