Motherhood is a journey through seasons. It begins as soon as a dream is planted ~ the dream of a family, of life and love outside of oneself. It grows deep and wide in rich soil. Motherhood stretches towards the sun, seeking warmth and connection. It huddles in close for shelter. Motherhood nurtures the bud into a beautiful bloom, and it mourns the loss of fragility. Motherhood in itself is a becoming, a stepping into the light; it’s a placement of vulnerability and a root of strength. When a mother is born, the previous self is shrouded inside itself, not gone but hidden. Matrescence, a term coined by the anthropologist Dana Raphael, is defined as the process of becoming a mother. It’s a word used to describe the physical, psychological, and emotional changes during the monumental transformation of motherhood. Matrescence is the developmental journey through motherhood, much like adolescence is the navigation to adulthood. It’s a journey through seasons, and not one path is ever exactly the same as another.
Motherhood is a journey through the seasons of prenatal, postpartum, and beyond.
