Thrive Like a Mother Podcast

Holding onto the final puzzle piece

Ebony Fleming Season 3 Episode 39

Have you ever looked at your growing children and wished that time would just slow down? That's exactly where I found myself recently, gazing at my six-year-old daughter thinking, "I had you just yesterday." This feeling intensified with my third baby, Henry—our family's "last puzzle piece"—and triggered a profound reflection on time and presence in motherhood.

Time moves relentlessly forward, and as mothers, we often find ourselves caught between celebrating growth and mourning stages that have passed. But what if our preoccupation with slowing down actually prevents us from fully experiencing the present?

In today's episode, I chat through how I've come to see our family not as a static image but as an ever-evolving puzzle—the picture constantly changing as my children grow and as I transform as their mother.


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Speaker 1:

Hey, love, I'm Ebony and welcome to Thrive Like a Mother On this podcast. We're scared for our truth, but that fear is what fuels us to truly live in it. You're in the right place if you feel like you're stuck in survivor mode and you're ready to step into who you were truly meant to be. I'll share resources and tools I use daily to help you in your journey towards a healthier mindset and to break the wheel of survival. The journey may not be easy, but you won't have to face it alone. I'm a mama of three, healing day by day from past trauma, and I'm on a mission to build a life I've always dreamed of but never thought was possible. So, love, if you're ready to believe in what's possible, let's link arms and thrive together. Hey, loves and welcome.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I know I can't be the only mama who has looked at their babies and wished that time would just slow down. I'm looking at my six-year-old. I'm like well, girl, I had you just yesterday. I'm confused. I'm even looking at my three almost four-year-old now and thinking, wow, it was just yesterday that I was watching you learn how to walk for the very first time, and now, with my third little one, henry, I have been struggling even more with this concept because he's my third baby and because he's the last puzzle piece in our family. I want to, kind of, I want to take you on a journey here with this puzzle piece analogy. I'm thinking about a puzzle piece coming together. You're putting, you know you've got your puzzles laid out, you've been putting it together and you get to that final piece. Have you ever had a moment where you just want to hold on to that piece a little bit longer before you place it and finish the puzzle? And so, yes, henry might be the last puzzle piece to our family, but thinking about the sadness of it helped me to start to think about trying to see the joy in this last puzzle piece and how our family is an ever evolving puzzle. Because as I'm looking at these babies and they're growing up, the picture is changing. The way it looks right now may look one way, but in a year, two, three, it will look completely different and I will be changed as a mother. My kids will be older and they will be changed completely.

Speaker 1:

So I want to challenge you today with that feeling of wanting to slow down. If you have that, it's okay to feel that it's normal. I feel like we all do at some point, even if not just kids just with life in general. By wanting things to slow down, are we missing out on the opportunity to just be in that picture, to be a part of it, to fully experience and to fully experience and enjoy watching them grow on the outside of us?

Speaker 1:

You're not missing it, mama. You're in it right now. Allow yourself to be fully in it because you deserve it, because your babies deserve all of you, to not always be worrying that time is moving so fast, be worrying that time is moving so fast and to just enjoy that, although it feels fast, you are in it with them. Thank you so much for listening. Love. If anything in today's episode resonated with you, share it with your bestie or share it on social media and tag me so we can chat about it as always, sending you light and love, and remember you are worthy, you are enough and you deserve to thrive.

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