I'm a mush

Somehow I forgot to mention in my "about me" post that I am the world's biggest mush when it comes to anything wedding-baby-heartwarming related. Let's get this straight - I am not a baby. I don't cry at the drop of a hat, and in fact I consider myself quite the tough cookie. But catch me reading "On The Night You Were Born" to The Goose at any given time, and you will find a sobbing mess of a woman who can barely get her words out. (I kid you not, the very first time I picked the book up, I had to close it immediately out of sheer terror that I would lose it - I was at work people! Just looking at the cover had me tearing up. Paaaathetic. Moving on . . .)
So, I'm sitting here at work (tisk-tisk, blogging at work) and while looking for another file on my computer, I came across a small collection of quotes I've stashed away that are all related to motherhood and a mother's love. Again, I'm scared to even start reading because I know what looking at a computer screen through tear-filled eyes is like, and it ain't pretty (or easy to hide from passerby's).

. . . but then again, I love to torture my soul in that good-for-the-heart kind of way. So for my "pleasure", and yours (questionable) here are some of them. Mind you that I'm horrible at keeping track of authors and probably accuracy so don't consider them verbatim, for safety.

"If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been."

-Robert Brault 

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

-Elizabeth Stone

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in this world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things, and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in it's path."

-Agatha Christie (I think?)

"No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all, YOU are the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside."

-anonymous

"PROMISE TO MY CHILDREN: I will stalk you, freak you out, lecture you, drive you crazy, be your worst nightmare, embarrass you in front of your friends, hunt you down like a bloodhound...all until the day you understand why I do it. Then I'll know you are a responsible adult. All because I LOVE YOU. You will never find ANYONE who loves you and cares about you more than ME......your Mom"

-found on the internet, no source

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

-        Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

these quotes are not from traditional sources, but I just fell in love with them...

from Enjoying the Small Things by Kelle Hampton

(My GOD, this woman has a way with words...and a camera)

“You feed. You change. You snuggle. You pour your soul into them, hoping every internal thought and feeling of goodness and love seeps into every bone in their body, every cell in their frame so that they feel it...so that they know it...so that someday, when they are three and they are big and they are beginning the journey down the new road, they will be equipped with everything they could possibly need to thrive."

 "With all that said, do you know how many baby showers I've been to where I've had to quickly come up with my best advice to a new mama and write it down on an index card? Never having time to think, I write the predictable. Get some sleep. Enjoy it. Take tons of pictures.
You know what? I have a well thought-out answer now. I know the best advice to write on the next card.
You have everything it takes. You just don't know it yet. Whenever you feel exhausted, confused, incapable or at your wit's end...look within. Trust your instincts."

And this last one is somewhere from within a new magazine called "Mamalode" (I would love to subscribe, but I don't get enough time to read magazines to justify the price)

"Motherhood can be very shattering, both from the pressures on the outside and the love from the inside. But there are bits that remain yours - pieces that come from your own childhood, your own adventures and your own growth. They are still there, mixed in with your family, relationships, time, money, health, passions, dreams, work, and creativity."

That wraps up the quotes. Now for the big dog. It is a poem, well known and extremely beautiful. I cannot even begin what it does to my soul. Magical. (even the most sarcastic bloggers can bring out the serious once in a while)

 

I Carry Your Heart - EE Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

I say that last line to Goose EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT when I'm putting him to bed. I've literally missed a total of 3 nights of bedtime since he was born. And every night, he gets a near teared mommy whispering those words into his ear as he's falling asleep.

waterworks, people. WATERWORKS!