Hey Mama

 

Hey Mama? You with the sleepy circles under her eyes. You with the baby on your hip and the cold coffee in your hand. You with the draining bank account and the worries that keep you up at night. I see you.

 

 

 

I see you waking before the sun most days. I see you tiptoe through the hallway half-awake begging for just one cup of coffee before the chaos begins.

 

 

 

I see you load the bags with diapers and bottles and snacks for the day. As you check car seats and sippy cups and answer to “mommy?” For the hundredth time this very morning.

 

 

 

I see you calm tantrums and pacify with songs. I hear you speak softly more often than not. I know it gets hard when you beg and you plead and you feel like a failure when you don’t get to sleep.

 

 

 

Hey Mama? With the packed lunches and the kids in school? I see you keep up with the schedules in tow. I hear you reminding your kids to be nice, to not be a bully and stick up for your rights.

 

 

 

I see you struggle when the bus pulls away. Your last baby waving goodbye as you choke back the tears. When did he get so big to be gone? It was only just yesterday that you brought him home.

 

 

 

I see you as you head back to work. You try to find ‘you’ again and forget who she was. I see you spread yourself thin and run from place to place. Parent conferences and board meetings fill your calendar space.

 

 

 

Hey Mama, with the growing kids? I see you worry when they make wrong friends. I notice you fill your pantry with hopes that your home will be the safe haven for the kids to go. I wonder how you did it and got to this place. Your hair is done nicely your clothes are in place.

 

 

 

Hey Mama, in every season of life, I see you walking this path like mine. We’re all so very different in our choices and decisions, but together we make up the world’s new beginnings. We love and we nurture we hug and we kiss, we pray and we bundle and wonder if? Are we ruining them? Am I doing my best? Can I start this day over? Will I ever get rest?

 

 

 

Hey Mama? I see you doing your best day to day. As the sun rises and the day fades away. Remember this, you are not alone. When you look around you will be sure to see, mothers around you in the same destiny.  We all need each other we all struggle hard, we all do our best to put love in their hearts. And when the days are long and the years are short and the memories are what’s left inside our hearts? I’ll remember the moments that got us to here, because I am the woman I see in the mirror.