New beginnings: Motherhood

This is my third post on the theme of my new beginnings at times of change in my life.

Motherhood

I had planned to be a career woman. That idea came completely unstuck in 1980 when my first baby was born. From the moment I first held him, and for the next eighteen years until 1998 when my first child left home, my focus and drive became my family. I wrote a poem about this in 2013. I am not much of a poet but to me it captures the essence of this next phase of my life – motherhood.

At the same time as my life was growing in care and compassion as a mother, I was laying down foundations of comfort in my home and community life.

My roots were also taking new form as my mother once again found her niche, became active in her own community, and gradually became the matriarch of our new extended family. This extended family now branched two ways, back to her siblings and their families, and out to my mother’s new branches of her own children. Many happy family occasions were held for births, weddings; and the celebrations of the older generations’ milestones of 60th, 70th, and 80th birthdays; and wedding anniversaries.

I expanded my expertise in my area of work by doing a post-graduate degree. Having set up a business in 1979, my husband and I, gradually expanded the business from 1984. We became identified within the community.

This was a phase of my life where I was growing in strength and stability.
I felt much loved, protected and secure.
At the same time I was providing much love, protection and security to those I cared for.

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Written by Leonie Elizabeth 21 June, 2015.
Updated December 2017.