What You Cannot Know (through no fault of your own)

'You didn’t know me then', I sometimes say to my now grown children

 when we talk about something I used to do before they were born, 

such as drive to work at 4:00 a.m. on slippery wintery roads.

 All they know me as is mom who looks after a family’s practical needs!

 (my sis texted me this afternoon about these pages above

and more but you'll have to buy or borrow the book for the rest)😀

The Shape of a Year by Jean Hersey

I think because we have the same mother and we both have daughters

we relate to certain parts of this book on a very mutual level! 

One of my top ten favs ever!

My dear, you cannot understand (by no fault of your own)

How much your mother’s heart expands to hold children full-grown

Or how the girl she was is still a part of who she is

(no matter what changes because Time keeps its promises)

The heart you cannot fathom until you are old as she

Will always still be learning how to hold while setting free

Twixt yester’s child and today’s woman, man her love is torn

Where thankfulness and longing spar in whispers heaven-borne

Yes, she’s been disappointed at love’s disappointments, oh

At how the future is nothing like she dreamed long ago

As God so rich in mercy grants breath-stealing more or less

And teaches her to look closer at ‘what is happiness’

I did not understand back then (through no fault of my own)

How oft my mother’s heart landed before her Father’s throne

Or how once upon long ago my mother used to be

A barefoot maiden filled with dreams foot-loose and fancy-free

Before the call and cares of life joined love and motherhood

And still through all the joy and strife she knew that it is good

How all we did not understand is what waited to be

Sweet thrills of surprise at age-old, newfound discovery

…she waits for passion to become astonished at time’s way

No one can seize the pendulum that dictates night and day

But as the heart expands to hold what soon is left behind

The girl she was will remind her to be patient and kind

© Janet Martin