Motherhood

I observe and learn from my mother in ways she didn’t even notice. And to my pleasant surprise, she once confessed to me that through motherhood I changed her worldview too. This sweet child of hers inherited a lens to perceive and understand the world — and since this world is constantly changing, she too participates in that change through this continuity of life.

It is beautiful to witness how shared values, culture, and knowledge are enacted, preserved and sometimes even altered in our daily interactions. For this reason, I know that one day I too will become a mother — to experience and cultivate a deeper reverence for life. And selfishly, I admit that for many reasons, motherhood will be a profound learning experience I long to be surprised by.

I see and sense love — a rather vague and imaginative feeling — which sometimes transforms into responsibility through my relationship with my mother. Of course, this relationship has not always been smooth. As with any meaningful bond, you must learn to tango to a complex harmony, often navigating unusual degrees of dissonance. But what keeps the music going is a shared history, internalized values, familiar dispositions, and a deep, even if unspoken, faith in life.

Life is full of wonders - does living within a unit help us understand it better? The answer for both me and my mother is yes. She may not always have the words to conceptualize this, but she has done more than support a child. She has passed on culture, emotional knowledge, and a way of seeing the world. Of course, she has made mistakes — but that does not take away her power to inspire.

Being a mother — not merely in bearing a child, but in nurturing a life — holds meanings far beyond biology. Those meanings are created and reconfigured, day by day, in every interaction.

I love you mum, for the courage you had in becoming a mother — a decision that came with intense, lifelong commitments to another being. Through you, I have learned about the complexities of life, the quiet constitution of mothering, and something of the unfathomable beauty of destiny.

Thank you for being my mother.