Becoming a mother is the biggest change a woman can go through, both physically and emotionally. Pregnancy changes us, and we have to learn to live with a new body. The body that we placed at the mercy of the gestation of a living being, the intensity of labour, and a postnatal period of overwhelming emotions…
I am no longer the same person. My essence remains but, without a doubt, motherhood has changed the way I feel. It has taught me and forces me to be more generous, to keep things in perspective, to give less importance to many things that beforehand would give me headaches, to place my children’s needs before my own. Although you are truly exhausted and are ready to drop, without knowing where you find the strength you get up to respond to your children’s whines. At times, it is as if you had an astronomical sensor that wakes you up before your child even calls you. The animal instinct…
Education is a responsibility that goes far beyond the school walls and the walls of your house. As parents, it is an individual responsibility that affects society as a whole, the future of our children. Since having my two girls, I understand education as a vitally important matter and my empathy has grown. Because one of the foundations to build a society that lives in harmony is empathy.
I feel others’ suffering much more. I am deeply moved by the injustices and misfortunes of others, the violations of human rights, and situations of poverty. My feelings are much closer to the surface since becoming a mother and I feel like I am more capable of understanding and empathising with the suffering of others. My social responsibility is accentuated because I know we live in a privileged situation, something that I try to convey to my daughters as best I can so they can understand how fortunate they are. That is why I collaborate with causes that fit with my day-to-day life, and I apologise for declining other charity requests that reach me and to which I cannot respond.
With this post I want to write an ode to us, mothers. Those beings who dedicate their time, effort, thoughts and soul to their loved ones. For those women who look after others, who put others’ needs before our own, who give our life for the loved ones who we brought into the world, or who we welcome as our children, whom we are there for, and who we will always be there for, for better and for worse.
Happy Mother’s Day,
V
Photo by Jonathan Miller
