Years ago, I had a conversation about having children with the wife of a close friend. They'd decided to wait. They were in their late thirties when their daughter and son came along. She told me that motherhood included "the bitter and the sweet." As you can see, I've not forgotten that observation.

Something I'm most thankful for are the relationships from my childhood and adolescence. Many of us stay in touch regularly. That's a credit to our families and community.

Here's a poem I've been tinkering with since this summer:

The Bitter and The Sweet

At a party with childhood friends

whose kids were older than my boy,
nearly grown,

I sought reassurance.

It all works out, one friend repeated,
it all works out.

She left to find the kitchen.

Her birthmother, overhearing the talk,

asked about the context of the conversation.

It was me; I was asking.

Exhaling relief,

she admonished me
to embrace all that motherhood brings.

"It's a blessing."

Another friend,

     whose own mother sent her cross country to live with grandparents,

chortled.

Some counsel.
What does she know?

Motherhood is disappointments and difficulties,

heartbreak all the time.

Painting Credit: http://jessietownsdin.blogspot.com/2013/09/bittersweet-vine.html
Photo Credit: http://twitpic.com/55kpkr