On Being Important…

From the moment my son was first placed in my arms, I’ve been crazy in love with being a mom.

Don’t get me wrong, there are moments when I want to put him in a box, tape up the top, and ship him somewhere across the world, but even in after those moments are over, I am grateful to have this gigantic bundle of a child. It’s one of the oddities of my life, I’ll admit, because for most, if not all of my existence prior to August 22, 2009, I was about as selfish as they come.

If it wasn’t about me, I honestly wasn’t interested.

I wanted to do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it, and if you weren’t down with that… well. Then I wasn’t down with you. I thought I was infinitely important. I thought I was destined for greatness… destined to be a star in some magnitude or another. I was just waiting for the right opportunity and then BOOM… instant celebrity.

Things didn’t really pan out that way.

Turned out, I was just plodding along, working jobs, making and spending money, paying and incurring bills. My life was nothing special. My life was just… ordinary. Some time after law school I started to think that I’d just never amount to anything. I wasn’t famous. I wasn’t the best writer ever to grace the literary stage. I wasn’t an exceptional athlete or the prettiest face in the crowd. I wasn’t the fastest runner, wasn’t the most talented oral advocate, wasn’t the best and brightest attorney in the city much less the state.

I was ordinary.

Oh but what motherhood can do to ordinary, am I right?

Because once you look down into the eyes of that baby… that person who looks back at you with such extreme adoration that your heart bursts, rebuilds, and bursts again with the sheer magnitude of love… your life is never the same.

No one, and I mean NO ONE, can be as big of a celebrity as a parent.

I am my son’s superhero, at least for now. I am the biggest and best and most special thing in his four year old life and honestly, y’all… if you want to know what it feels like to be important?

Love a child.

Fall head over heels in love with a child and take it upon your heart to do what you can to make that one life as beautiful as it can be.

That’s what I did on August 22, 2009, and that’s what I’m doing again through the Macon Mentor Project.  Because if you want to be important… all it takes is making a difference in a child’s life. Nothing… and I mean NOTHING… will ever affect you the way that will. Nothing will ever make you feel more important, more extraordinary… more invincible.

And you can trust me on that, because I’m pretty damn important, now…

Just ask my four year old.

 

Law Momma

Note: Law Momma and I both learned about The Mentors Project through Leadership Macon, what June O’Neal had to say moved most of the room to tears. They are in desperate need of volunteers. We both signed up- as well as others from our class. You should too- go here to see a recent 13WMAZ story about The Mentor’s Project and their current shortage:

 http://www.13wmaz.com/story/news/local/macon/2014/02/02/mentors-shortage/5165535/