At the beginning of this year, I stood eye-to-eye with my feisty and rebellious teenaged-self, telling her that I was no longer ashamed of her.
In recent months, I’ve tried keeping her apart from my 15-year-old daughter. Now as we navigate our way through some turbulent mother-daughter times, I’m beginning to honour her, to recognise that she was a pinnacle survivor of some tricky times I experienced around this same age.
I am beginning to acknowledge these stories and feeling that she deserves to meet her. Slowly.
J and I are still in a ‘no photos’ phase, so as I continue to create new ways and self portraits to fill our now-family album, I’m faced with this girl (me right here) stood between her metaphorically broad-shouldered parents. And I thank her, for indirectly guiding me and my now-15-year-old daughter.
Photographed here by my younger sister.
________________________________________________________________________________
This is Artifact Motherhood; a collaboration of artists and mothers from around the world, who have come together to share our stories of the joys and struggles of our journey. Through our writings and visual records, we want to create memories that are more than photographs with dates written on the back. These are the artefacts we are leaving behind for our children and for generations to come.
This entry is the fourth in a series called “Seasons of Motherhood” and is meant to be one picture and one caption that represents our current journey/season of motherhood.
Please visit the next artist in our blog circle, the talented Diana Hagues and continue through all the artists until you get back to me.
[…] the midst of real life where we pause to remember, reflect or document. Now go to the next artist, Jo Haycock, to see where she is in this Season of […]
Oh gosh! I couldn’t love this more. I won’t have a teenage daughter to navigate but I can imagine it must be like meeting yourself as your parents did in so many ways. A time of discovery of both you and her.