If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world in one generation. - Dalai Lama.
You don’t stub your toe and say “oh f*ck ... hey at least I have toes”.
Why should motherhood be any different? Without the guilt of saying at the end “but I wouldn’t have it any other way”. Of course you wouldn’t!!! You bloody love those little guys!
By Jess Urlichs
It’s still me.
Well sort of.
I’m here, but another version entirely.
I’m in a bubble of longing and love.
By Jess Urlichs
You are not alone in your aloneness.
There are loads of us. That followed the partner. Or followed the job. Whose heart will always partially belong elsewhere.
There will be people in her life that won’t show up for her, I don’t want to be the first.
In those precious first moments, after your body left mine, a hazy cloud shifted instantly. One I didn’t realise was smothering me.
By Lacey Owen.
Bed time is the hardest because once your child is asleep you don’t have to be brave anymore. Bed time is for the tears.
Does the two year journey to her conception become just a blip not the monthly breakdown it once was?
Are you allowed to still hurt even though you've been blessed with a miracle?
By Han Findlay.
When it’s an hour before bed
And I wonder how I will do it
And I think how much I wish
I had more energy to get through it
By Hayley Fuller.
She walks slowly toward labour and delivery cradling her tight swollen belly. A loving gesture she doesn’t even realise she’s making and soon it’ll be gone.
By Lacey Owen.
I’m beginning to forget the earliest version of you.
Finer details that once took pride of place in my mind are slipping through my fingers like tiny
grains of sand.
Memories of you, of us, lie in wait as attempts to clench my brain shut all end in vain.
And it scares me.
By Lacey Owen.
I'd love to go back and mother that version of you, but as this version of me; the mum I am today.
Written by Karen McMillan from Mother Truths.
These sleepless nights, in our little bubble.
While the world is heavy with so many worries.
Your only worry is a world in which I am not there.
By Jess Urlichs.
That perfect home, remembering clean
Realising now, this is a what a home means
The longest nights as I stroke your hair
Your eyes flutter closed just knowing I’m there
By Jess Urlichs
I’ve never been a cryer, but ohhhh motherhood got me good.
By Jess Urlichs, Writer.
https://www.instagram.com/jessurlichs_writer
In life, if someone was screaming at at you, shouting, whining, hitting. If there was constant noise that was stressing your body. If you needed space but there wasn’t any...your body and your mind would tell you to walk away. You’d leave. You’d go, you’d breathe. You’d walk, talk, calm, ground, focus, refuel, recover. It’s an inbuilt, self-protective drive.
’m working on forgiveness, I’m working on myself, I’m trying to locate her, high up on a shelf.
THEY SAID, you're helping him too much, you'll regret that, they said. They denied us of our rods, and filled our hearts with dread.
If you ever see a mum, pacing with a pram nearby, with her head bowed down, can't quite look you in the eye…
We hang onto the looseness, cry over the leakage and break ourselves over what we ‘should be’.
But they know of no comparison, only the you of yesterday and the you of today.
The only second you are to me is my second language, the one I had to learn because you were so different to my first.
I know you think I never see
All those little things you do
And I know how you hate poetry
But this one's just for you.
By Karen McMillian @mother_truths
Please, please, PLEASE - I will do anything if you just LET ME SLEEP! I’m at my wits end and would do almost anything for a few hours in a row.
The congratulatory messages flood in, “You must be overwhelmed with happiness”, “enjoy every minute”.
It’s not their fault, I’ve said it too, it’s what we say to new Mothers isn’t it? “Mama, wipe away those tears”
Look at what I have! I don’t deserve to feel sad, let’s throw that emotion in the corner, with the postpartum underwear.
Nothing to see here. “Mama, wipe away those tears”
Today I'm tired, you have been on me since 5am and it doesn't seem like you will be moving anytime soon. So instead of getting angry or upset I just sat here thinking how special this actually is...
If only you could see yourself through my eyes, I think you’d be rather surprised.
I see beauty and bravery and so much glow.
By Lou Marx
I get it, I get all of it.
The screams, the tears, the tantrums.
Your bottom lip drops and your eyes brim with emotions.
Sometimes you even turn away from me.
That one rips my heart in two.
There’s more than one way to raise a baby and we’re all doing the best we can.
If you do it with love, then well done you x
By Jess Urlichs.