58. Celebrating Mothers and the Good Work They Do

It’s Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday here in the United States…so this episode is dedicated to all the good women out there and the good service they do with their own families and those around them.

First, I'm sharing some pretty personal thoughts about a conversation I had years ago that gave me a shift on my motherhood and navigating the challenges of life. And I’m also sharing a fun poem I wrote a few years ago that highlights all the good daily work Mother’s do. My goal is that when you hear it, it makes you smile.

Listen to the podcast to hear more and don't forget to share it with a good mother you know!

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Transcript

Melissa: This episode is dropping right before Mother's Day. Mother's Day is coming up this Sunday here in the United States. So this podcast episode is dedicated to all the good women out there and the good service they do with their own families and those around them. I'm first sharing some pretty personal thoughts about a conversation I had years ago that gave me a shift on how I thought about my own motherhood and navigating the challenges of life. And I'm also sharing a fun poem I wrote a few years ago that highlights all the good daily work mothers do. My goal is that when you hear it, it makes you smile. So welcome to this Mother's Day episode.

Melissa: Welcome to the do something more podcast, a service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here.

Melissa: Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast. Today, it's just going to be Melissa Draper sharing some thoughts with you on mothers and motherhood and all of those good things. Because coming up this Sunday here in the United States on May 12, we're celebrating Mother's Day. So thank you so much for being here. First. Before I get into the show, I just want to leave a friendly reminder that if you'd like to show the podcast some love, always appreciate following the show or sharing an episode with a friend that you really enjoyed or even leaving a review. So if you want to do any of those things, that means so much to me and helps the podcast be found by other people looking for this kind of content. So, as I said, Mother's Day is coming up here in the United States this Sunday, May 12. I know some people have mixed feelings about Mother's Day for a variety of reasons. I don't want to minimize that. In fact, I might even be talking a little bit about some of those reasons in this episode. But I've also always been a person that truly likes to see the bright side of things. And I do personally think Mother's Day is also a beautiful day to recognize all women and the good things, and yes, even the good mothering that they do to their own children, their families, and also to so many around them. So this episode is a thank you and recognition of that good service that many women in the world do. In this episode, I have two things that I wanted to share. First, a story of a conversation I had with my therapist many years ago that helped me change my own perspective of motherhood, especially as we walk through challenges on our own or with our families. And second, I also wanted to share a fun poem I wrote a few years ago looking at the daily work mothers do in a new way, and I hope it will make you smile. It's a fun poem and it was really fun for me to write it. But first, I wanted to get into this topic I've shared on this podcast. Before that for a time I struggled with anxiety and depression in a very real way. I still navigate anxiety now. It still likes to pop its head up into my life here and there, but I feel like I do a pretty decent job of managing it and I'm really thankful for the progress I've made. But because of those experiences, I am very much aware of those very real hurdles individuals, and especially mothers, are navigating every day because of the reality mental health challenges are for them. And I wanted to share this experience that I had many years ago when, like I said, I was navigating that reality for myself just day by day. I had a conversation with my therapist. I told him I was afraid that because of my struggles, I was ruining my kids and I couldn't be the mother they really needed. I was also worried I couldn't be the mother I always thought I would be or had always wanted to be. And because of this, my kids would forever have to bear the weight of a mother who struggled with mental illness. I remember how he responded so lovingly as he told me that I needed to start seeing things in a different way. I needed to see that it was possible my children would be okay, and they would be okay, not in spite of my challenges, but maybe even because of them, that these things I was navigating had made me a more compassionate, loving person. And I was passing that on to my children and in the way I mothered them. And because I was there, I was willing to do the work and keep working through my struggles and keep showing up day by day. All of it could eventually actually benefit our family and give us gifts and experiences we could use for our own benefit as we navigated other things in life, or even share and pass on to others. I never forgot that conversation and the mental shift it gave me. Of course, life isn't perfect. None of us are going to be perfect parents to our kids. And unfortunately, challenges and trials do pop up that we have absolutely no control over. But I have learned that we do not have to be afraid that the poopy experiences that come our way will mess up our families forever. We can see and have faith that it is because of those very challenges we gain experiences and tools to help us navigate this life and also help others. Hard experiences can give our children resilience and even real empathy. I also want to make sure I clarify that I'm not saying all of those hard things should have happened or they were supposed to happen, because sometimes they absolutely should not have happened. They come because we live in a fallen world, because people can make choices, sometimes choices that unfortunately affect ourselves or our families. But whatever challenges your family is navigating, I truly believe that those challenges can give you experience and even eventually be for your good and your family's good. I wanted to share that for anyone that may be listening today and needed to hear those words. And I don't always talk about my religious faith on this podcast, but I do need to share with a tender topic like this that the reason I have absolute faith that our hard experiences can eventually be used for our good, and the reason I have faith as a mother that things will work out for me and my kids is because of my belief in my savior Jesus Christ. I believe he experienced it all, and through his atonement, we can find real healing and relief from our challenges. So thank you for letting me share that and get a little more personal with you today. This podcast means a lot to me. I've grown so much by doing it, I gotta get a little personal sometimes. So I hope that was okay. But second, if you're still here with me, I want to make you smile now. Because I wrote this poem a few years ago. It was so fun to write it. The little thoughts of it had come to me for a while, and when I actually sat down to do it, to put it together, I was really just trying to put in just a few simple words. All the daily to dos that motherhood encompasses. The daily work that motherhood is, the good daily work that motherhood is. So it's supposed to make you smile. It's kind of a fun little poem. That's my goal here today. So here you go. It's called ode to the fingernail by Melissa Draper. It's pulled apart two stubborn legos and picked a lock on the bathroom door. And of course, it helped get rid of that dried up food on the kitchen floor. It scraped up play doh on the table, caught a booger dangling from a child's nose, and it can always find the wads of lint stuck between a baby's toes. I never thought I'd see it used to pop someone else's zit besides my own or watch it masterfully untangle the cord on a toddler's fisher price telephone. It delivers the greatest back scratches and unties, tricky laces on big and little shoes. It's even peeled off all the crusting puddles left from a project made of Elmer's glue. It's removed the remnants of invisible tape holding up a budding artist's drawing on the wall. If I kept going, you would understand that really, it's almost done at all. It's been so very busy all these years, and I'm so grateful that I now can see. It wasn't until I became a mother I learned how much my fingernail meant to me. There you go. That's my little tribute to my fingernail, but really a tribute to all the good, good daily work and service that mothers do. So if there's a woman or mother in your life that could benefit from the message I shared at the beginning of this episode or could use a smile from my poem, please share this episode with her. Thank you so much for being here. I hope this week you can find a way to do something more to lift, help inspire, or make a difference.