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
12 comments
Thanks for the reminder, Rachel! =) Have a great day! ~Sally
Rachel, I finished reading this post and had tears in my eyes. You hit my soft spot – the bookstore and coffee shops were my home away from home before I had children. Now when I go in, before we head to the children’s corner, I try to savor the memories as they flood me. It gets me every time! My love for the bookstore and cafe has changed now that I’m a mom…which is where Gorbella’s came from…but i definitely have a soft spot in my heart for the time spent there. Thanks for sharing this 🙂 And YES to holding our “mom head” high!
A week or so ago, after reading a post my mind drifted back. To 8th grade. Thinking that this Rachel, who I had just met that year was goin to be a great architect someday. As I reflected, I thought how much more of an impact are you leaving on this world? 7 beautiful God loving children. That’s huge. More than any building design ever could have. And I, only with 2, will nevermore say when asked what I do “oh, I’m just a mom”. Yes. Mom head held high. I left a career I loved for a job i’d never give up for the world. Thank you for your daily insights and wisdom.
reminds me of this post I wrote last summer http://www.ourgoodwinjourney.com/2011/06/wednesdays-walk-observation-to-remember.html
I watched these amazingly dressed women walking in to a restaurant while I sat outside with my girls at the fountains wondering if they remembered sitting with their children. If they missed those moments.
great post!
I have been feeling this way a lot lately! Thank you for posting this – its nice to know I’m not alone.
Thank you, Rachel. This was helpful to read this morning.
Thank you for this morning’s post. It really hit home for me! 😉
Excellent post – and a question that I ponder often when I’m out and about without my girls {which doesn’t happen often}. I love being a mom, and I wouldn’t change a bit of my messy, crazy, glitter filled life. Well….maybe I could do with a *little* less glitter 🙂
Perfect. That was me, too – and even though I’ve only got one child (so far…!) I’m in a place I NEVER thought I would be. After 34 days in Ukraine, we just brought home our first child – a 3 year old with Down syndrome. NEVER in a million coffee study dates did I think this would be me.
But…do you know what?! I like me, too.
Great post!!
Thanks, Rachel! I needed to hear that!
Wouldn’t ever, EVER want to do anything else with my life than being a mom and now a grams! Oh Rachel! It gets even better!!!!!!!!!!
Stopping by to let you know I’m still here praying!
Psalms 61:1-4 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
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I like being just me a mom too. Thank you for sharing. Being a mom is such a beautiful calling, hard yes, but so worth it.