On mornings that are slow.

Mornings like this morning are so many things all at once.

To be a mother and to have a slow, restful, ‘nothing’ morning when you need it is beautiful, healing and also a lot of work.

It’s work to not get up and get straight into all the things that need to be done. To not react to all of the asking, needing, wanting that flies at you the minute you are awake, quiet and still.

It’s work to say ‘No, I can’t, not now, do what you can, for yourself or come back later, please wait and let me have this moment and this space for me. Please.’ To communicate this need in a healthy, calm and respectful way when there is so much underneath it.

There’s conflict, wanting and not wanting, needing and also feeling all of the shoulds that go against that need. It’s work to feel the conflict and the frustration of the ‘so many things and feelings’ all at once. To stay with it between the push to throw our hands up in the air and give up on ourselves to make the asking, wanting, needing, pleas stop and the pull to bite back with all of the force of resenting how much energy it takes to resist, protect and plea to just be able to be.

To watch something you want to watch for an hour, to have two cups of hot tea before breakfast, to not make a single plan or decision or snack for a whole morning.

To know that nobody wants to deny me of any of that but also that nobody will ever hand it to me with a smile on an ordinary Sunday in April.

If I need space in my week, consistently, if I want to keep some space for me, an empty drawer in my life to balance out the full, hectic, often chaotic clutter of the ‘working Mum who can have it all as a woman in the twenty first century’ life…I have to create it. I have to own it, believe that I deserve it and I have to protect it.

I have to resist the things that see it when I have it and come screeching at me for a piece. I have to resist even harder the temptation to fill the space with resentment and frustration about how hard I have to fight to have it and to keep it because what makes things most interesting is that I love most of these ‘screeching things’ with all of my heart! I don’t want to shut them out or down in the process of protecting a little bit of space in my life for me.

The space I’m talking about isn’t just for me though, it’s crucial for my little ‘screechers’ too, it’s crucial for me to have it if I want to be able to show up as my best self for my family, my friends and my work. It’s where I grow, where I come to know how and why the learning that’s coming up for me in my life matters. Where I spend a moment with myself to ask and listen for where the new pieces fit for me and within me, almost always for them. It’s where I adjust and adapt in order to always be able to be what they need me to be, for them as they grow and change.

Read the books, watch the content, listen to the podcasts, sign up for the courses. Even once you are able to follow your inner knowing to the right versions of all of this for you- learning and consuming is only the first part of growth. It will all just pile up into a mountain of information until we give ourselves the space to feel into what we have consumed. The time and intention to embody what we know, to integrate what has changed and what it means to us and our lives going forward.

We are entering into the last week of April. We have lived almost a third of this year already. In May, the month of Mother’s Day, we are offering a powerful gift to all Little Wildflower parents. Book an initial support session in the month of May and receive a free month of ‘All About You’ mentoring. Three additional calls and all the in between support you need to build a practice of focussing on you while also taking care of everyone around you.

A chance to communicate your needs as a parent and a person in a safe and supportive space. Clarify the challenges you have grown accustomed to in your days and explore options for more ease. Carve out the time to integrate new beliefs, understanding and inner knowing into your being and your way of being with your child and their challenges.

The remaining two thirds of this year could be so different and so much more what you want it to be, if you make the space for it now.