It’s been a very busy couple of months in the Grooms household. Between job transitions and our baby boy getting busier by the day, I’ve had little time to allow myself space to feel the weight of emotions I’ve been carrying as this week grew closer. Last weekend was the breakthrough moment. As Micah and I sat around the table and had a late breakfast, I allowed myself the space to breathe – and it was like the little crack in the dam had completely split open. I expressed frustrations, I voiced concerns, I cried out in sadness and once I thought I was done, I thought to myself these five little words, “I feel like my mother.”

I shared with Micah that I could see parallels between my role as a mom and in the way in which it was up to my mom to get creative on how to bridge the financial gap for the rest of our needs/wants plus take care of 3 kids. And let me tell you – she hustled. She ran a small business and she worked every single day except for Christmas and Thanksgiving and that’s only if no one died – she had the only flower shop in town so I do mean that literally. She had to get creative with the hustle to make money for our family and also take care of us and the more I thought about how I feel like my mom with my own hustle, I realized that it’s not just a circumstance of my mom’s life that’s now reflected in my own, that is and has been a burdened carried by moms for generations.

We have to get creative with our hustle.

After I processed what this means for me – this renewed revelation of being just like my mom – I sent an email to make an appointment with my therapist and I went for a walk. Want to know the one thing my mom got wrong in the midst of taking care of business? She didn’t take care of herself. And on this ten year anniversary of saying goodbye to my mom, the best thing I can do to honor her is to learn from her – the good and the bad – and to hustle towards the healthiest me I can be.

I’m not sure where you find yourself right now but I can only imagine that you’ve got a hustle of your own. Take care of yourself, friends. And take care of each other.
-C