Do you remember when your mom’s words came out of your mouth? I do. I don’t remember the exact phrase, but I remember the feeling… that quiet aha moment over something small and ordinary.

My early adulthood years weren’t the easiest between my mom and me. There were a lot of lessons that didn’t land until later, and because of that, there were a lot of misunderstandings.

One of the most lasting lessons I’ve learned from my mom is that love doesn’t always look the way you expect it to… and sometimes you don’t understand it until much later.

Growing up, there were moments that felt harder than comforting… times when I didn’t always understand the way things were said or handled. And if I’m honest, there were seasons where it felt like distance instead of support.

But time has a way of changing the shape of things.

Looking back, I can see now that a lot of those moments came from a place of love, and from doing the best she could with what she had. It wasn’t always said the right way, and it didn’t always feel like what I needed at the time… but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t care underneath it.

Some lessons don’t feel like love when you’re learning them.
They just feel hard.

Those lessons take time to recognize what they are. And you can hear the echoes as you grow and life moves forward.

Somewhere along the way, it stopped being her voice… and started being mine.

And maybe that’s what I’m carrying forward right now…
not a perfect version of the past, but a more complete one.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, I’ve been thinking about the things that stayed… even when I didn’t recognize them at the time.

What’s a lesson that found its way back to you later?

Happy Mother’s Day. From my road to yours, happy wandering.