Mothers

“A sword will pierce your heart.”

Those words, spoken to Mary by the aged Simeon, ring true for all mothers. With the discomforts of pregnancy, when features swell with gained weight, a once graceful walk becomes a waddle, and the excruciating pain of the last stages of labor make her scream in agony, a mother takes a look at her bloody, mucous filled infant, the cause of all her recent sorrows. She presses him to her breasts and feels nothing but comfort and joy.

Then she takes home her bundle of joy and says goodbye to rest and sleep. Even when the baby is sleeping soundly, she worries about forgetting to breathe and crib death and so she gets up every so often and lays hands gently on him just to make sure that he is still breathing… still alive.