The Keepers

No mother on her child’s birth day is thinking about who is going to wash the clothes she wore into the hospital to deliver. But I remember pausing at the dryer remarking at the absurdity: less than 2 days ago I was leaning down to pull out my own baby (oh yes I did) and now, those same arms are pulling clean clothes from the dryer. How could I go from something so incredibly monumental to something so utterly mundane? On her second day on Earth, everyone mentioned my daughter’s beauty, but not one person noticed we had on clean clothes. That’s because as a mom, I am the keeper of all things—even when they are invisible.

I keep: the peace, the schedule, the house, the secrets, the snacks, the routine, the hidden candy stashes, the trivial mental lists that contain an individualized abyss of knowledge specific to each need, want, and dislike. I keep everyone else’s sanity. The behind-the-scenes role of a mom is a full-time job, inside a full-time job. The very nature of behind-the-scenes implies these tasks are invisible.

The funny thing about invisibility is it makes you feel unseen.

This is why I always smile as I pass other mothers rushing and shushing their little ones along. I want to stop them and say I know all that you’ve done just to get here to this point. I know you, too, are the keeper of everything that’s invisible. I know your work, all your work, is a labor of love. We are the keepers of glitter so that they can sparkle.

The moving parts required to ensure a household stays up and running is like keeping a commercial jet 42,000 feet in the air. All that’s visible is everyone safely up in the air. But you see, mothers are the keepers of the magic that keeps our family flying.