Every morning I wake up between 5 and 530.
Yep it’s early but when I wake up (sometimes by my own internal clock and others by my babies hungry cries) I look forward to going down the stairs, pouring my hot cup of coffee, making my bowl of yogurt and granola and sitting on the couch with the fire going in silence and most importantly – alone.
I need that time, desperately need that time. It doesn’t matter how many times I had to wake up in the night to give the baby her soother or feed her (typically it’s only twice but sometimes 3 or 4 times). It doesn’t matter how tired I am, replacing that morning ritual with more sleep inevitably leads to my patience only lasting until 8 am instead of 6 pm.
It’s amazing to me how much I need that time in the morning. That start to my day is the cornerstone of my sanity as a mother.
Sure there’s the odd day every so often, maybe once a month or once every 6 weeks, that the kids wake up abnormally early (6 am instead of 7 or 8) and I miss out on my morning time but we make it through those days. I do a lot of deep breathing, a lot of reviewing my thoughts before they become words, maybe we watch an extra episode of a favourite show or maybe we just go out and have some fun instead of the doing the housework that was on the agenda. Regardless, when the day is done so am I and I pray for more time the next morning to refill my introverted gas tank.
I often get asked how I do so many things, how am I so motivated?
This is my secret – I make sure I have some time alone, to recharge, to reflect, to journal, to read, to write, to listen, to pray, to meditate. I start the day by setting my intentions and I end the day by reviewing how it went and what I can do better tomorrow.
Some people don’t thrive like this, they don’t crave an orderly, organized, routined environment, that helps them accomplish tasks at home. Those people have different secrets to their motherhood successes and their successes are usually much different than mine. Usually they are out on adventures, doing crafts, running errands and looking perfect while doing it.
The truth is they look at me and wish they could accomplish more at home and I look at them and wish I could provide more carefree adventures for my children (and look good doing it).
The other truth is even if both of us were granted our wishes we would feel no less fulfilled or happy, in fact we would probably feel frazzled and very unsatisfied.
Still more truth: though our lives look different we are both amazing mothers doing the best we can.
The secret to every mothers success?
Mothering from the deepest parts of who we are and being true to that person, forgetting about every voice that tries to push us down and make us feel guilty for who we are or what we don’t accomplish that day. Our success lies in the ability to understand that we are who we are and we were created to be the mother of these tiny little miracles.
