 I love my children more than life itself. It was once said a
lionness’s love for her cubs surpasses all boundaries. She would kill a
lion who stood in her way.
I understand that now.
My children have made me a better human being because I no longer just
live for myself. I live my best life to make theirs better, too – to
make theirs more tolerable, livable, even fun, joyous, adventurous, and
full of marvel and wonder.
The wonder of a child – we spend our adult lives trying to recapture
the magic of a Saturday afternoon when a porch swing becomes a
schoolbus, when a broom becomes a trusty stead, when a plastic crown
becomes a bejeweled symbol of a royal court…
I write to recapture those times through the telling of my children’s
stories. For a moment, at least, they are my stories, too. Then, time
takes hold and they are no more. The memories remain, however; the
recording holds true. Then, when the time is right, my children will
step into my place in time and become an adult, too. Their children
will take on the same role for them. As so it goes…
My writing was called into question recently. Some people were
concerned I might reveal too much of my personal life and that of my
children. Entertaining the idea of quitting made me sick – soul sick.
Writing gives me meaning, makes the seemingly mundane monumental. If I
were to stop writing, I would surely die. And for that, I would defeat
my very purpose for living.
Who am I to hide my thoughts out of fear that someone might call me a
name? Who am I to blind myself for the sake of others’ blindness? I
follow a higher calling, and its voice rings loud and clear. One might
say it even snarls, like a lionness fending her young.
 Christine Louise Hohlbaum
www.DiaryofaMother.com
American author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff
and SAHM I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe (2005), has been
published in hundreds of publications.
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