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.”
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.
