Tall Glass of Cool Water
You know the feeling. You’re thirsty. But you’ve pushed the sensation aside in favour of making school lunches or just one more chapter of a good book. By the time you get around to having a drink you are parched, and find yourself guzzling rather than sipping.
We’ve been working with mothers long enough to know that moms are really, really good at delaying that metaphorical sip of water. We’re good at talking about our desire for self-care, our longing for balance, and the challenges we’re facing, and not always so good at taking steps towards change. The busy nature of family life too often takes precedence, and our needs are set aside.
We got a registration the other day from a mother wanting to join one of our Mama Renew groups. She described her eager anticipation of the group, “My spirit feels like its about to drink a big, needed glass of water.” She captured the essence of Mama Renew perfectly.
Many mothers are doing great things with their free time – yoga classes, book clubs, choirs and more. Each of these has the potential to nurture and inspire, and build a community of support. There’s something different, however, about the Mama Renew journey. When we go beyond sips and take the time to enjoy a long cool class of water, we experience a deeper level of nourishing and growth.
Whether you’re enjoying our blog, or taking a Mama Renew group, we hope you’re taking some great big gulps along the way.
For some reason I find myself thinking about what might be considered my “solution” to the challenge of finding time to pause for water, which is to drink tea! When I was on parental leave with my daughter during her first year, it was that morning cup of tea that became such a challenge. I am not a coffee drinker, so one would think the desire for tea would not be quite as intense as what coffee drinkers describe as their need for a caffeine fix. But during that year, what “poked” at me was that my tea got cold, that I left it somewhere, or that I forgot to make it until almost noon.
So I pulled out my insulated travel mug. And I made my tea to travel at home. I picked it up and put it down again all over the house and beyond, sometimes misplacing it, but never losing it. Sometimes I closed the seal on the opening, because I felt it was a danger to my daughter. And sometimes there were days when I was able to make a second cup! But most often the insulation factor allowed me to drink off and on all day, that cup quenching my thirst for a prolonged period.
And so after writing the above, I find myself wondering if this is not a metaphor for my own journey toward self-care . . . Now I make whole pots of tea!
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“Gimme a cool glass of water ‘fore I die!”
- or “‘fore I live”, in this case
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