{coffee talk} BE VULNERABLE

 

The vulnerability of parenthood is the thing I come back to again and again. No one or no thing can prepare you for the way it changes everything. I have written about it a thousand different ways on the pages of this blog. 

But I’ve also been comforted that this is a universal experience. That others nod in agreement when I talk about it with friends. That readers here tell me they know exactly what I mean. 

 I love this quote by C.S. Lewis: 

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” 

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Be vulnerable. It feels like the perfect war cry for parenting. In all we give and do and experience with our children, be vulnerable…be brave. We have second guessed ourselves a thousand times. We have been asked to do things we didn’t think we were strong enough to do. We have been overwhelmed and over the moon. Climbed mountains and nearly drowned in this experience. But we keep going. 

Bravery is relative. Some of us on this journey have had to be braver than others. But parenthood asks us all to take up the challenge. It takes from us more than we expect and rewards us beyond our wildest expectations.