On October 18th, my daughter was born and I became the mother of three children. Hundreds of miles away, on the same day, another baby girl was born and another woman added the third child to her family. We were complete strangers at that time, but our love of photography and family brought us together. We started to have a conversation about motherhood with images, because we tell stories with our cameras. Since some tales are so similar, and some are not, we decided to collaborate and share a photo a week from a normal day as a mother to three.
“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.” – Mary Jean Irion
the safety valve. that is what we should call daddy. i fear that i might cause you to feel even more pressure on top of all that you already feel all day trying to sit still and follow the rules in kindergarten. i have been so distracted with work over the past month that i haven’t been there for you like you need me to be. and now with my sister’s wedding in days, i feel like i am swimming in a sea of stress. today i felt like i might go under. luckily for me and equally so for you, your daddy is an excellent swimmer. he used to be a lifeguard, remember? of course you remember. the lifeguarding days contain some of your favorite daddy stories. i love seeing how proud you are when he tells you about those days from his past. in your eyes, daddy was cooler than a superhero. maybe not quite as cool as a firefighter but still pretty awesome. i didn’t know daddy back in those days. i try to imagine him before you, before me. my brain struggles a bit to paint those pictures. maybe this is because i have so many pictures of daddy the way he is now and the pictures all show me that daddy still is way cooler than a superhero. he might not be saving drowning people in the ocean. but he is keeping his family afloat day after day. he is there for you when you need to release all that pressure that has been building inside your little body. and is there for me pulling me back to shore when my arms are too tired to swim anymore.
