From Tiny Beautiful Things

 From tiny beautiful things (Cheryl Strayed):

"I can't tell you what to do. No one can. But as the mother of two children, I can tell you what most moms will: that mothering is absurdly hard and profoundly sweet. Like the best thing you ever did. Like if you think you want to have a baby, you probably should. I say this in spite of the fact that children are giant endless suck machines. They don't give a whit if you need to sleep or eat or pee or get your work done or go out to a party naked and oiled up in a homemade Alice B. Toklas mask. They take everything. They will bring you to the furthest edge of your personality and abso-fucking-lutely to your knees.

They will also give you everything back. Not just all they take, but many of the things you lost before they came along as well."

I sure thought about my early years as a mother, and I thought about the mothers of young children I know as I read this passage,

Lauren Brown

and

Daisy Jayne

.

This is a response to a letter Dear Sugar received from a single woman who wanted a child but felt she would never have a husband (she's 38) and wasn't sure what to do. There is much more to read in the response. Buy the book. I love it in ways I can't really explain. Strayed is hard-ass firm in some responses but genuine and her responses are thought-provoking.