Photo: Bill Bangham, Father of Click, 2004

The act of becoming a mother means that some invisible hand of life-emotions reaches down into the very pit of your heart and takes a wrench hold.

You will never be the same.

You have joined the universal community of motherhood and. there. is. no. going. back.

If one is alive, human and fully emotionally formed, there is a deep level of compassion that is permanently implanted in you that elicits tears of compassion at the thought of a child being hurt, another mother losing her babe, another's joyous occasion of giving birth to life just as you have, etc.

You're stuck.

You will be this way forever.

It is a good thing.

I believe this is why women are less prone to violence than men. We have literally given Life. And, it is our innate beings to preserve Life and to care for and nurture it. I love being a woman and a mother.

It is a true gift to be one and to have inside of me this well-spring of emotions shared by mothers around the world. Early into my own motherhood journey, I recall being in awe upon arriving at this shared destination. I can also remember first feeling this fullness of compassion and magical connection to all mothers everywhere. I knew that I had arrived and tapped into something deep, bonding and sacred and that is was a blessed gift not to hold lightly but to honor and to cherish.

Here's to the beauty, the fullness, the decadent brimming heart richness, the lush yummy-ness of Motherhood. And to All Mothers Everywhere….

This post originally appeared here on November, 9, 2009.