You Are Already Ready

This post was originally written for Deborah Williamson’s Wild Abundant Life.  View the original post on WAL, here: http://wildabundantlife.com/2013/08/you-are-already-ready-by-contributing-blogger-rachel-gerrity/

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Since finding out I was pregnant, I have felt insecure about being ready to be a mother.  

I still haven’t gotten the nursery prepared or put the car-seat in the car.  I haven’t read the pregnancy and parenting books that people have sent me. I don’t have an impulsive need to buy little pink outfits and hats.  And what’s most frightening is that I’ve never even held a baby.  I often wake up in the middle of the night feeling my baby, Freida, kicking in my stomach and have a moment of panic – am I really ready for this?

On my way to teach a yoga class a few weeks ago, a man ran a red light – our cars collided, my airbag went off and my car was totaled.

The second it happened, the only thought that came into my mind was Freida.  Is she okay?  How can I make sure she’s not hurt? I didn’t care about the burns on my body, my throbbing right leg, or my spinning head.  All I wanted to know was that Freida was okay.

When I arrived at the emergency room and saw her on the ultrasound machine, her heart beating and legs kicking around, I realized that I was already ready. 

It doesn’t matter that her nursery isn’t organized or that I don’t know how I will hold her– what matters is that her well-being is my number one concern and that I love her so strongly that I would give all of me to make her happy and healthy.  Yes – I am already ready to be a mother.

Have faith that you are already ready.  Often we put off doing things until we feel like we have completed the steps to make us ready; or we put off owning what we already are because we don’t feel ready to announce it to the world.  Whatever it is – know you are already ready.  Just as you are at this very moment.