Baby Thighs + The Things I'll Never Regret
After dinner the other night we were all playing on the floor reflecting on the day...
Our girl in her undies running around the living room with a wand held over her head while the Moana soundtrack played in the background.
Anni instructing us to build her a boat while the dog chased a tennis ball around the house.
I've felt especially tender these last few days as I'm coming off an emotional week with Anni graduating up to full days at her preschool.
If I am being totally honest, this moment I had been thinking would feel like pure exhilaration and freedom hit me like a ton of bricks.
I cried on and off for most of her first full day and spent a lot of time reflecting on how my life as a mamapreneur had been built upon the foundation of me working in the actual nooks (and naps) of our days.
I thought about my own mother and marveled at how in the heck she survived the emotional minefield that is parenting...
Watching her little birds try out their wings, leave the nest, create their own lives, have babies of their own....
How on earth do we do this mamas?
The milestones of childhood silently sneaking up on us until we're sitting on the living room floor playing My Little Ponies realizing that that her once thick and delectable little baby thighs are now stretched out in to girl legs and the last little crease is so faint that only her mama could detect where it once was.
The ache and the love explosion I feel for this tiny person is so intense I can hardly bear it some days.
But the truth is...
She's forging her own path in the world now.
She may just be 3-years-old, but she's writing her own story and making choices about what's right for her and what's not.
She's her own person...this life we're watching her build belongs to her, not to us.
And from what I've learned from the brave mamas that have come before me, there is no stopping this train now.
All of this makes my heart infinitely proud and nostalgic all at once.
It also makes me eternally grateful for the life I have consciously crafted for this ever-expanding mama heart of mine.
When I launched my business almost 3 years ago, I did it with a deep burning purpose that aligned with the bedrock of my being.
It matched up with my why...the reason beneath every choice I had made in my life up until this moment.
I chose this path because I didn't want to look back on days like these and regret the things I couldn't get a do over on.
Like watching our girl's baby thighs stretch out over the days and months or getting to spend as many moments as possible with Ben's mom before she passed last June after her courageous battle with cancer.
I chose this path for so many reasons, but the central, most important one points right back to what I am here to do....
Be fully present for this one precious life I get to live the hell out of.
Our why is what propels us forward when the road gets bumpy.
It's our North Star helping us get back up again as we sit in the rubble of our lives.
It's what leads us through the breakdown to land on our greatest breakthrough yet.
What is your why?
I'd like to extend a personal invitation to you, Friend, to join us in my free community calledThe Why Warrior Tribe.
We're a power posse of passionate souls on a mission with a deep purpose in our hearts and a big vision for our lives.