how barnes and noble reminded me of motherhood.

It was just Barnes and Noble.

Overly crowded with eager shoppers scoping out the deals on the table marked with big red 50% off dots. People huddled around the NOOK counter waiting and wanting one of their own.

I made my way through the mass of people, with a heart feeling a bit heavy, and pushed my way into the Barnes and Noble Cafe.

Coffee.

But, it wasn’t the coffee that greeted me. Instead it was this flood of memories. Nostalgia. There was something about the smell, the mood, and the music that brought me back to me when I was in college. I’d study at the coffee shop {Borders, I believe} and pull out those architecture history books while sipping my coffee and eating a huge slab of bread and cheese. Life felt so full of opportunity. Adventure, I guess.

I wondered.

I wondered as I walked to the counter staffed with two college looking gals. I wondered about the me that used to come to a place just like this. I wondered if that me would have recognized this me.

The mom .

I ordered my half-calf caramel macchiato and listened while I waited as the two gals chatted about their weekend — where they went, and what they got, and what they’ll be doing. I wondered what they thought of their future. I wondered what they thought of me. Or if they knew I was a mom.

The piping hot coffee was placed on the worn counter. As I walked out of the cafe area, where all those memories came flooding back, I didn’t leave wishing things were different. Or wanting to be that person who studied so hard trying to remember which kind of flying buttresses were in each cathedral. No, instead I walked out grateful for who I am today even though it doesn’t come close to who I ever imagined that I would be on those coffee studying days of my past.

I like me.

And I love being a mom.

(Most days. Ahem.)

Being a mom is a great thing.

An excellent thing. So often it’s easy to take what I do, what you do, and dismiss it as just being a mom. But there’s more to it. Just being a mom takes passion, determination, perseverance, diligence, lack-of-sleep, coordinating, wearing your heart on your sleeve, toughing it out, meal planning, budgeting, not trying to worrying, nursing, teaching, cuddling, cooking, cleaning, praying, and so much more.

It should not be dismissed.

I’ll hold my mom head high in that coffee shop.

And you know what?

You should too.

~Rachel