The Way of the Southern Mother

Comfort can be a blessing and a curse. We allow our most beloved to gain access to the deepest rooms in our hearts.

We can push our children to pass milestones or we can hold them back.

Locking them inside the most selfish rooms in our hearts.

We push and pull, allowing them just enough release, to think they can escape that threshold, then we yank them back “home.”

“You can be anything you want but you have to stay here with me, because I have given everything. Leaving my own waterfall dry. Now I expect something in return for my unrelenting gift of self-serving love.”

It is the way of the southern mother.

I want to shove my children through that threshold.

Go child, go!

Jog forward, because life is long and you must sustain.

You must sustain!

Educate, regulate, make goals, and find yourself.

Push forward, for that threshold is narrow, and you must squeeze through with the clothes on your back. And maybe a snack from mom.

I will not pull. I will not hold you back.

I will slam that door and allow myself to be empty in your absence. That burden is for me, and me alone, to bear.

I’ll always be here to call home…

Maybe…

Because when you have left and my waterfall has run dry, I may rebuild elsewhere.

No matter where my soul roams, my heart and my hearth will always welcome you home.

That is also, the way of the southern mother.