Giving into a powerful emotion or influence is defined as surrendering. There's another word that fits this description, one that encompasses this release, mothering.
We come into mothering in a multitude of ways; adoption, step-parenting, planned and unplanned, in vitro, inner child healing, fur babes, mentoring and birthing. Whatever the paradigm, we all relinquish ourselves to the emotion and influence that mothering requires, we all surrender.
We surrender; to what our bodies will or won't do, to the unexpected twists and turns of relationships, to our wounds, to harvesting fertility, to healing our childhood traumas, to animal care, to yielding our bodies in the creation and delivery of human life.
And it's personal.
No two mothers capitulate in the same exact way to the ubiquitous surrender of mothering. We all get there; we all become overloaded, overcome, overwhelmed, emboldened, emancipated, and enriched by all that mothering delivers.
Mothering will hit a reef allowing the ship to take on water heralding the end of all security and sanity in one moment and fill the sail with tradewinds of hope righting the vessel and saving everyone in the next moment.
Mothering will drain precious energy only to replace it with a mega-watt light that illuminates life's most valuable gift; time with those we cherish.
Mothering hearts break over and over again with every injury, set-back, and illness suffered by the souls they nurture. The fissures fill with the successes, confidences, healing, and earned empowerment. The mothering heart becomes a kaleidoscopic work of art detailing the trajectory of the sweetest surrender. It is variegated, colorful, organic and fragmented. In its entirety, it is both stunning and glorious as it illuminates the greatest surrender of all, love.
It's this love that we yield to, releasing expectations to hold space for expansion. This love enables us to surrender to the needs of those we nurture; to embrace the inherent change and impact in how we perceive ourselves and our worlds and to release them when they are ready to take their flight.
This love never ceases, even when they leave. It remains within, illuminating memories and inspiriting the future.
This love is worthy of all surrender.