Since becoming a mother, I’ve been in absolute awe of women and what we are capable of. For nearly a year, our bodies craft hearts, brains and tiny fingernails - built from our own blood, bone and being. We throw up, we fatigue, we stretch, we swell, we ache. Then birth - raw, primal, sacred. We tear, we bleed, we cry, we experience unbelievable pain. “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” - John 16:21 Then we breastfed. We have sore nipples, we are hormonal, we are sleep deprived, we worry endlessly for our babies - their warmth, their safety, their future. We are a thousand emotions at once, but we keep going. Because we are women, we are mothers. It’s clear to me that the catty men who say things like “women have life on easy mode” have never experienced a woman move through pregnancy, birth and motherhood. If they had, they’d know: this is not easy, it is the hardest, most selfless, most important work in the world. The journey of maiden to mother is the ultimate surrender. The ultimate sacrifice that somehow doesn’t even feel like sacrifice. We birth. We bleed. We feed. We endure. We love. I am in awe of women, and what we are capable of. I love being a mother. I did not know I had this all in me…this ancient wisdom, this strength, patience, stamina and perseverance. It is all just so deeply beautiful. #momstr