TREASURES OF THE HEART

 

Before I was a mother

I thought I knew

myself and who I was.

I took long baths,

I finished sentences,

books and thoughts.

 

Then God sent children to me,

Two at birth and one at five,

And through loving them

I came to know

myself and who I was.

 

I was encourager, teacher,

nurse and more important

than any other.

I was myself,

I was their mother.

 

With dreams for them

Of all that they would be,

I shared their childish world

and watched them run

On chubby legs with happy shouts,

I had more joy than any other

I was myself,

I was their mother.

 

Time went by

My children grew

Away sometimes

Yet we were close,

And bit by bit as I stepped back

They became themselves.

 

I tried to gracefully support

With love and dreams and prayers

Their flight upon the sea of life

As I was left with memories

for myself,

Their loving mother.

Now on their own they rush to meet

Their dreams becoming real,

I stay behind and struggle

to remember

Myself before I was

their mother.

 

I can’t go back,

I don’t remember

Life without their smiles.

Was I ever someone else

Before I was their mother?

 

I decide there is no higher calling

Or more important part

Than being  just myself,

A mother to these

“Treasures of my heart”.

 

 

Judee Stapp ~ May 5, 2007