Kelly Corrigan’s short memoir, Lift, is a great description of the holiness a mother feels at one moment and her sheer terror in the next. The quote below should give my kids a sense of the fear and trepidation I sometimes get as their mother. The what-have-I-done worry when those tables turned and I was no longer the child. Suddenly with no license, no requirements or qualifications, instantaneously I became a mother. Their mother. For life. Yikes!
My first realization was that, for better or worse, my kids were stuck with a mother who was clueless and winging it as I went along. There is no exact science to parenting and even if there was, science is not my strong suit anyway.
So, on this occasion of Mother’s Day, I’m grateful that my kids have become such wonderful adults despite my shortcomings. One reason I blog is to keep on imparting thoughts since I still take my mothering job quite seriously, even with adult children. If nothing else, at least my blog should give them a sense of who their mother is and what she believes in. Mainly them!
“This tug-of-war often obscures what’s happening between us. I am your mother, the first mile of your road. Me and all my obvious and hidden limitations.
That means that in addition to possibly wrecking you, I have the chance to give to you what was given to me: a decent childhood, more good memories than bad, some values, a sense of tribe, a run at happiness.
You can’t imagine how seriously I take that - even as I fail you. Mothering you is the first thing of consequence that I have ever done.” -Kelly Corrigan, Lift
