Mood music for this post:
Have you ever had a dream, something that you want to do more than life itself, and the idea of admitting it out loud is terrifying? I can honestly say that has never happened to me in my life until now. When I have big dreams and big ideas and I’m excited about them, normally you can’t get me to shut up about them, bless my heart. But this dream I have right now, this dream I’m about to put out there with this post, I find myself SCARED of speaking it out loud.
But I have to talk about it. I need to admit to it, give voice to it, and put it out there. First of all, because speaking it gives me something to chase and it gives my journey shape. Also because i’m going to need other people on this journey, people to get behind me, people to lead me and HOPEFULLY at some point in the future, people to give me opportunities and nobody is going to know I need or want any of those things if I’m sitting on the sidelines with my hands quietly folded in my lap, trying not to stare or look too interested.
So here it is, my big dream: What I want more than anything else on this planet is to have a platform to encourage and empower other moms.
There. I said it. Out loud. Or at least wrote it down. I want to encourage and empower other moms. And I’m not just talking about your quintessential minivan-driving American soccer mom, I am talking about ALL! KINDS! OF! MOMS!
Being a mom is a uniquely and universally heart-riving experience. That is NOT a typo, I promise. “Riving,” or the verb “to rive,” is an actual thing. I have mostly heard it in dramatic, old-fashioned writing…, “And the stone was riven in two under the weight of Mjolnir, the mighty hammer of Thor” type of thing. It means to splinter, split open, crack- and that’s exactly what motherhood does to our hearts, doesn’t it? Cracks the suckers wide open AND LEAVES THEM THAT WAY! I mean, it comes and goes and some moments are more vulnerable than others, but they are ALWAYS cracked wide open. It leaves each of us so vulnerable to things we encounter. For those of us in middle class America, that can mean being criticized for our parenting choices, ostracized by mean girl moms, lying awake at night worrying that our perceived shortcomings are somehow going to ruin our kids’ lives. For moms in other parts of the world (and some here at home), though, that means worrying whether or not you will be able to feed your kids or even keep them with you. But it’s all just uniquely heavy on a heart split wide open. And it’s those hearts I want to minister to.
So what does that look like? Heck if I know. Right now it means writing to other moms here on my blog and selling the crap out of some Noonday Collection to ensure that the mamas who are connected with our artisan partners can keep food on the table for their kids, keep those kids at home with them, and that our artisan partners can broaden their reach and affect the lives of even more mommies and daddies and kiddos.
My hope and my prayer is that going forward, it will mean much, much more. when I say that I want a PLATFORM, I mean that I want a PLATFORM. Which means I’m going to need readership and followers and people who will partner with me and believe in me and share what they are doing with me so that I can get behind them. Because I want to do this. I cannot even TELL you how much I want to do this. I want to make the lives of other moms better so that they can make their kids’ lives better and together, we can make the world just a little bit easier of a place to walk around with your heart cracked wide open.
That is all.
