It’s a tad bit nuts to me that May 13th will be my third Mother’s Day as a mom (actually “mama” according to my two-year old). While I haven’t donned the “motherhood” cape for very long, it’s really hard for me to imagine my “pre-mama” life.
What I do remember is that pre-baby, the “old me” was pretty anxious about how I’d do in this new role… Would I make the right decisions? Would I make lots of mistakes? Clearly, I was approaching this motherhood thing like I was getting a new job for which I felt completely unqualified. As an Aries, a perfectionist, and a control freak, this was was a pretty daunting prospect for me!
As it turns out, once my son was born, I seemed to completely forget about the concerns of “pre-mama-me”. Somehow, a powerful mothering instinct and intuition kicked in and completely took over. I was – in effect – reborn too… as a mother. It’s a rebirth I’ve come to fully embrace in these short two and a quarter years. Yes – the perfectionist in me still freaks out when the apartment is a mess; the control freak in me gets shaken when I realize there’s only so much I can actually plan in advance… but the mom in me cherishes the warmth and cosiness of our new family life together; how much better I’ve gotten at prioritizing what really matters; how much easier it’s become to quiet anxious thoughts (there’s too much going on to take any of that seriously!) and live in the present moment.
And – most surprisingly – I’ve started to experience time as a more fluid concept. As many a wise parent has said, “the days are long but the years are short”. In this short “time”, my tiny baby has become a sweet, chatty, and inquisitive little boy. And one day soon, stars-willing, he will be a big boy, and (gasp!) grow into a man. If I think about it too much (sob!), I can already see him moving away from me and on into his own adult life. But that’s because I’m busy thinking, and not paying attention to this sweet little boy still in front of me. All we really ever “have” is this present, precious moment. And with an extra dose of our attention and “presence” (deep breathing also helps!), we can make the precious seconds feel like minutes; the minutes feel like hours.
So this Mother’s Day, why not take a big item off your family’s (or a busy mom’s) to-do list and give the gift of time? Let The Baby Mini Doc Project capture these precious moments with your littlest ones and create a beautiful original work of art that will serve as a time capsule of these wondrous first years together, and be shared within your family for generations to come. With one less thing to think about, you can spend that much more time savoring and “being” (a pretty sweet Mother’s Day gift if you ask me!).
With love & gratitude for all the incredible mamas out there this Mother’s Day!
Melissa
Founder / Director, The Baby Mini Doc Project
