Nothing extraordinary, but extraordinarily beautiful.
Simple: I don't have to be the best at everything, every single day. Say it louder, again and again, until you believe it. Here I am, trying to learn new things, create new habits, provide for my family, be a nurturing mother, a valuable employee, and an exemplary wife. I am trying to harbor an identity for myself beyond what I already am. I am trying to be many things. I am trying, and with that, I am vulnerable.
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She looked out the window and saw her reflection staring back, unrecognizable. The way her cheeks have filled and a permanent look of tiredness frame her eyes. She has tunneled down into a hole of gloom where the flowers no longer bloom. Her mind has been darkened by unimportant things, though her reflection constantly tells her otherwise. It doesn’t see beyond the stretch marks, scars, loose skin, or body that is much larger than before. The silent justification of her food and the weight that stares so harshly back at her. She isn't broken, but she is clouded. This is the season of her life where she battles the ability to embrace her body's strength, beauty, and resilience, when her mind is telling her the exact opposite. She is mourning a body that once existed, but with time she will grow to love this body.
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Becoming a mother has shifted my entire life. I am not the person that I used to be. I am new, I am renewed. Though unrecognizable, I am better than I once was. I am beaming with a beauty that I never harbored before. Even now, my body works hard to continue nourishing my baby, and with that, I will give her grace. And when she tells me she is tired, weathered, and no longer able, I will listen. I will listen because she deserves to be heard. And while she isn't always loved, she is always worthy of being loved.
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If you take anything away from this blog let it be this: you are valuable, beyond your appearance and you deserve to feel beautiful, because you are.
Moonlit Mama, LLC
