12 Comments

Sometimes substack does magic and hits me hardest in the softest spot. Thank you. Beautiful.

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Thanks Ani! Been feeling tender lately too?

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Ooooh yes. Today in particular. Especially in terms of people believing their moral judgement is better than mine or more sound, something like that.

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I flop between thinking that I am right and I am always wrong to I have zero idea what reality is...

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I remember when my son was a baby, he was my first, I would have dreams about him the night before he got sick. It was so strange. I also remember my daughter at 3 who would come home from day care and on Thursdays would cry in my arms. I really wished I could be at home when they were little.

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without sounding preachy like that is what all women should do, I 100% agree. I would love to be at home with M and when I leave her I feel it in my heart. Sometimes I wish we could have multiple lifetimes. But would that make us all take what we have for granted? IDK.

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Left eye leaking a bit. This was beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I relate to the feeling of growing apart from your child. It’s good and necessary yet hard and I find myself contemplating it. It’s nice to read someone else’s thoughts on the same feeling. I hadn’t applied it to others but I think you are on to something there. We try to conform as teenagers, but by the time we are seniors, if all goes to plan, we become highly individualized people who don’t give a hairy rat butt what others think of us and are unabashedly ourselves. I like that. So maybe it is still bittersweet but a little less so.

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I feel like what you say is true, but I feel like I don't want it to be. I want us all to always be this close. The thought of anything else is heartbreaking, tho I know it is what is going to happen.

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Very interesting topic!

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Thanks Lee! Being a child/mom/human is so weird. Thanks for being here!

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WOW. I had no idea it would be confirmed that most people think they are right all of the time. This is sooooo interesting. It is like the whole idea that we know (I feel this way too, so I am in it with you) better for other people is tricky, but admittedly, what we are doing. I don't want to think I know better, I want to trust that people know what is best for themselves. Why is this so hard???

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Your encounter with your mother moved me. I may have assumed that I know my child’s feelings clearly but you’re right, what do I know. I must make the conscious resolve to acknowledge his perspective in his own feelings.

But the magic of motherhood that you talked about with Margaret! That kind of magic gets me every time. And I understand how we must muster all of our strength to keep going.

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