I have found it.
My pastor recently encouraged us to find our “sweet spot”…that place in life where what you are really passionate about comes together with what you are really good at.
I think I spent most of my life believing that motherhood would be that sweet spot for me. Frankly, it hasn’t been as sweet as I’d hoped. There are certainly parts of it that I excel at (being involved in my kid’s educations) and way more that I don’t (laundry). While motherhood will always be my calling and what drives me, I realized that it wasn’t my sweet spot. It’s a prime example of something I am passionate about but I will never be “Super Mom”. My children are everything to me but…well…we do the drive-through at McDonald’s on the way home from picking up our organic produce.
Parallel Parking. My gift. Give me a tiny little space and a great big box truck. No problem. Am I passionate about parking? Not on your life.
But being with other moms is that place. Spending time encouraging, talking, crying, laughing…I feel filled up and ready to take on the world after just such an encounter. Especially moms in the first weeks of their motherhood journey. My career in lactation literally fell into my lap and from the moment I threw caution to the wind, I knew this was it. A place of knowing that I was exactly where I should be.
I often tell moms to put their babies in the sweet spot…that place perfectly shaped for baby right between their breasts. Moms instinctually put those noses right to baby’s head and breathe deep. A rush of oxytocin floods their bodies. (The stuff is contagious, you know? When she sniffs, I’m overwhelmed too.) Peace, calm, a sense of “right”. Knowing that the sweet spot is a great place to stay.
So, I’m choosing to snuggle into my own sweet spot. To recognize what gifts and abilities and crazy ideas I’ve been given. To use my voice to encourage, support and be the best cheerleader a mama ever had.
Where’s your sweet spot?
I love this post! What a great sweet spot you have! Are you a lactation consultant then? I think my sweet spot is working in the Marfan syndrome community. 🙂
Oh Amber – I love this post! It brought tears to my eyes! I still try to put my little Jackie in that sweet spot, but with her being an active 13 month old she doesn’t really stay there. I love when she falls asleep on me so I can get those few precious moments with her! Thanks for all of your love and support through my (our) nursing journey! LOVE YOU!!!
Love your honesty! Very insightful. I will greatly miss breastfeeding Grayson when that comes. 🙁
Over the years I have become passionate about depression, divorce, drug prevention, and Christian parents discussing these types of issues with their youth. I really enjoy when the opportunity comes up to talk about them with people – I’ll be open and honest! =) God has provided many times where I could help other people – even if just a bit.
**HUGS** Ami
What a wonderful post! I’m also one of the moms that waited for motherhood all my life, expecting it to be my sweet spot. I was quite disappointed in myself when I figured out I wasn’t nearly as fulfilled as I always expected. But I still wanted to be a stay at home mom, until I *did* find my sweet spot.
Birth.
I always knew the power of birth was immense and never thought I would be able to stand in that space and witness the work of mothers. I wanted to be a childbirth educator, safely outside the space… but part of the process was to attend three births. It took exactly the first one for me to figure out I not only could but wanted to be present in birth, and I signed up for doula training. I thought I’d be more than happy to be a comforting presence at births, improving the mom’s experience of her birth, and not take responsibility for the health and well-being of the mother or baby. I was wrong, and that was made painfully obvious to me at my fifth birth, in which the baby was born completely spontaneously, completely naturally, and was treated with no care for the emotional life of either him or his mother. It was so clinical, so cold. I went home knowing I had to become a midwife, so that women and babies under my care would be treated as the loving human beings that they are. I intended to work in hospital – because, let’s face it, that’s where moms need the most help in obtaining such care – but looked inside myself and realized that I would burn out trying to fight the system from within for the next 30+ years. I signed up for midwifery school to become a home birth midwife.
And that’s my sweet spot. I’m good at it, I’m awed by it, I’m fulfilled by it. It’s where I belong.