Motherhood is: Your heart forever walking around outside of you

It wasn’t just on the day you were born that I noticed this feeling of extreme, overpowering love. I see it and feel it every day. I see it when you look at me with tired eyes, knowing the only place you want to rest is in mama’s arms. I feel it when we’re walking together and your hand reaches up to grab onto me; your tiny, chubby fingers entwined with mine.

I see it when I know you’re doing something to make me proud as you say, “Mom, look at this! Look at me, Mom! Mom isn’t this cool?!” And I feel it when you tell me you love me more than the stars and planets combined.

I see it and I feel it all the time, in so many ways… because you have my entire heart.

You have my heart when I leave for work and we’re apart for a chunk of the day. When I’m trusting someone else to keep you safe. Some days go by so quickly, while with others, you’re on my mind all day—during meetings, writing emails, giving assignments—and I’m wondering if you’re happy right now, if you’re eating enough today, if you’re missing me like I’m missing you.

You have my heart when I walk back to my car after dropping you at preschool . When your teachers are looking out for you and they’re the ones teaching you things instead of me. When you’re learning to navigate friendships and big feelings, without me. When you’re working on becoming independent from me, as I work to become comfortable with a little independence from you, too.

You have my heart as you become more you every single day. As you figure out what you do and don’t like, what you are good at and what’s not really your thing. You are trying to define yourself, and I am trying to give you the space you need to do so.

You’ll have my heart forever; it’s not just on loan for these years when you need me so much. It will be yours for the rest of our lives. Even when you “get old and move into a new house” as you say, our hearts will be connected .

You’ll take my heart with you when you go off to college. When you’re choosing the classes you want to study and the people you want to date. You’ll feel my heart even if you’re miles away. I hope you feel it most when you’re missing home or when you need to step up to do the right thing.

You’ll take my heart with you on adventures. On road trips with friends or soul-searching journeys abroad. When you’re looking for answers or hoping for direction. I hope its beat guides you long after having left my womb; when you’re lost or alone or needing to feel my presence even if we are not physically together.

You’ll take my heart with you when you move to a big city or across the country or maybe just around the block. When you’re creating a home and building a family of your own. I hope my heart is felt inside those walls and inside the lives of the people you choose to fill them with.

I’ve given you my heart as a duty of motherhood . But also because it was so natural for me to do so. As much as my heart beats to sustain my life, it beats for you, too. To show you my love; to prove my commitment; so that you know I will always be here.

So can you promise me something, my baby?

You have my heart . So I ask you to be gentle with it.

You are my heart. So I ask you to take care of it.

E. E. Cummings once wrote,

“I carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear.”

Know that because you’ve given me the honor of motherhood, this relationship has tied our hearts together for eternity. I will always be with you, and you will always be with me—no matter how old we are or how much distance may be between us.