On Being a Mother

The day I became a mother was the most exciting, exhilarating, important day of my life. 

Well, next to the day that I took a pregnancy test and confirmed what I'd been hoping and dreaming of for nearly a decade. 

But really, that's the day I truly became a mother anyway, isn't it?  That moment of understanding that my life was no longer about me.  That something so much BIGGER, so much more HUGE, so much more WONDROUS than anything I could possibly have ever imagined in my wildest dreams was growing within me, removing all of the narcissistic, selfish and completely unimportant aspects of my being, and replacing them with the overwhelming desire to care about another in a way that was so, so foreign to me. 

That extra heartbeat, those dividing cells, that new bloodline, that whole new little life that we'd created, that I'd been given the awesome responsibility of carrying, nurturing, nourishing, from that moment forward, for the rest of my life. 

Motherhood is a gift, not to be taken lightly, not to be taken for granted.  Motherhood is something to be cherished and to stand tall and firm through thick and through thin until the end of days. 

I wish everyone could understand that. 

Motherhood is not just the base act of conceiving and giving birth.  Motherhood is not a right by gender.  One doesn't need to have conceived or given birth to be a mother.

Motherhood is just so much more.

Nothing else matters more than the welfare and well-being of my child, my heart.  My purpose in life is to love, care for and provide for this beautiful creature entrusted to me. 

To ME.

How did I get so lucky?

And with that, I wish all of the mothers in the world a very Happy Mother's Day.  May you all feel as lucky as I do each and every day.