Poison into Fuel.

By Dr Sophie Brock

Do not mistake my

Resilience for invincibility

Softness for weakness

Contentment for complacency

Or

Kindness for passivity

My decisions and actions

Are consciously chosen

Actively constructed

Thoughtfully maintained

And repeatedly reassessed.

For which choices will best

Serve and protect my daughter and

Serve and protect myself

As those I love come before

My ego’s fear of judgement

Releasing of anger and resentment

Is not a gift to another

It is a strategy in toil

ing the soil

For my future growth and nourishment

To turn what could have been poisonous

Into Fuel.

A recalibration of a lens

In focusing on the ‘now’

And navigating towards a future

Does not mean diminishing or ignoring

The past.

But moving beyond this

Up to a new elevation

Requires a coming home to a ‘self’

That is in this constant state of

Evolution.

So while these words may pierce

Into whichever consciousness they may

They only rest here

To reverberate back to me

A reminder

Of all that I am – was – can – will –be.

Dr Sophie Brock is a Sociologist who specialises in Motherhood Studies and a single Mother to her 3 year old daughter. She is the founder of The Good Enough Mother, a podcast and platform dedicated to challenging the myths of perfect motherhood, (re)valuing the work of mothers and mothering, and exploring the experience of mothering in all its complexity. Sophie creates online courses that draw on academic mothering research and conscious parenting paradigms, to support mothers in reclaiming an empowered practice of mothering for themselves. She knows the power of vulnerability and 'writing our way into meaning', and hopes her words offer others connection and hope. IG/ FB: drsophiebrock