The alchemy behind becoming a mother

Today, as I celebrated my first born’s birthday, my words resonated with me, and I wanted to share a couple of paragraphs from this letter here, as a window into that part of my journey, which I don’t share as often because the right words are often still hard to find.
To whom it might concern, this is what I have to say:

Motherhood is the most courageous act, and yet the most rewarding. It’s not innate, it’s learned. No one is born a mother, you become one. It’s an act of alchemy.

There will be a lot of confusion, that eventually transform into growth.

There will be days where you will need a mirror to remember you are still there, those days will transform into confidence.

There will be unfulfilled expectations on how you believe others should behave, those will turn into empathy and kindness.

You will make lots of mistakes, that will transform into forgiveness towards your own past, and those friends and family involved in it.
There will be movie-like moments, when your throat will hurt as you contain tears of joy, that will become the force that keeps you going through the routine and the mundane.

A child becomes your legacy, and will be your greatest mirror. The good and the bad; the past and the future.

And when the night is over, and the constant heartbreak that relationships bring aches, you realize that that is the only pure love, the one that transcends everything…

And the journey continues.