...SEVEN

It's finally here. Seven. I have been a mother for seven years. We have been a family for seven years. And in that time we have stretched, ached, cried, rejoiced, explored, gone to new edges, grown apart, grown together...woven a new tapestry that is our lives. Meg taught us how to be parents, me how to be a mama. And over the last year I have shed the last of my maiden skin. I am mother.

Based on the theory of cell regeneration, humans replace every cell in their body on a seven year cycle. So gradually my body has shed those maiden cells to be replaced with new ones. Cells that only know the mother part of my life. And now together Meg and I will pass through a gate of complete renewal (give or take a few cells). We both stand on the precipice of a massive shift. Because while I am no longer a maiden, she is no longer a newborn baby. She no longer holds in her ??? Little body any of the cells that created her. All the splitting and multiplying and mysterious growth that happened in my mother womb is no longer part of her cellular structure. And I can see in her body, ego and spirit the struggle of this shift. The seven year change is massive...earth moving. And no wonder it's hard for parents to help their children through this shapeshifting transformation. We are in the middle of our own foundation shaking growth. Saying a final farewell to my maiden self and then with gut wrenching melancholy watching the child that created this shift move into her own renewal. Huge shit going down.

I have watched this shift occur with absolute fascination to many of sister/friends over the last year or so and I have seen and felt an incredible sense of comfort and ease surge into the lives of those mothers. Some of them having their second or third baby in conjunction with that seven year milestone. Thinking that mothering has become much more rich and manageable because of their "experience". And while i think this is also true I believe the bigger truth is that they are fully realized, full fledged, ready to soar, grown up, eagle mamas. Finally having wound their way out of that labrynth that they journeyed to in birth. Finally looking outward to see themselves reflected in their world and the life they have created. Finally having every last cell of their body oscilating at the same mama frequency.

It's kinda like having been in between to radio stations on the FM dial for the last seven years and gradually, over time and space...tuning in.