Coping strategies!

I am not the kind of woman who stays svelte when pregnant.  I have lots of home videos to prove this.  This last time around we had extra stuff going on because we were recovering from C. and the loneliness and pain associated with what he did.

I realized that I had several big things bearing down on my emotional equilibrium and I needed to control what I could (constructively, of course).  This involved prayer, a list of to-copes, and a plan.

One thing I needed to deal with was my growing girth.  I decided to look at my expanding rotundity as a necessary part of the process and I dubbed it my ‘bear suit’–a costume of sort, temporary, but a prerequisite for the beautiful little baby I was supporting (inside the bear suit).

It helped.  I would catch my reflection and say, oh, there is my bear suit!

Now I recognize that the bear suit was always there.  It is the symbol of all the messy, embarrassing, fierce things I do to love my children, all mommy school matriculants do to love their children.

Love for dignity, because “the greatest of these is love.”