I see myself here and I think, `I look so young, and by comparison, now, when did I get so old?’

But here I sit suckling my first born and I don’t know where we are or who took the photo.  Shola seems unaware, contended and focusing on her nourishment.  She loved the breast and she was over 2 years old when I weaned her.

I loved being pregnant with Shola and I loved being her mother.  I still love being her mother, even though we disagree on some things. But she truly made me understand my power and what it meant to be fierce in a way I had not been or known  before.

I was determined to make sure she had more than her needs met.  I knew from the moment I laid eyes on her that she was a special gift to be treasured and guided. I wanted to gift her the world and herself.

Motherhood ties and binds you, and you are never free again. It takes you places you never knew existed and it shows you all of you raw and beautiful, raw and frightening, raw and blessed.  Thanks for naming me Mother.