Reznet

The Ordinary Things

By Christie Cooke

The ordinary can be like medicine.
—Sherman Alexie

Motherhood hasn’t been easy. I have put my best foot forward, tried to make decisions that would benefit me and my children, and kept moving in the direction that would make me a better person.

Along the way, I experienced what it means to truly live for your children. I put my life aside and molded myself into the woman I needed to be for my children, and, as I see it, I set a strong foundation for my children, especially in their fragile beginnings.

Today I am at a place in life where I have my family nearby, and working in a career I always dreamed of and studied long and hard for, and I can say I did it.

I made it out of hard times, although I still have them. I respect the struggles I endure and overcome. I work through them by trying not fall as hard as the previous times.

But my life as a single mother, granted there are some differences, is an ordinary one.

I am so comfortable with the life that just includes my two precious children. There is nothing glamorous about it, often uneventful and boring, but the magic is in time I spend at home and the way we live and learn about one another daily.

In the mornings, I wake up with my children by my side with their scattered bodies twisted and turned in different directions. Because it is so uncomfortable, I’m ready to move my daughter into her own bedroom and bed, but I can’t.

We sleep together, we always have, and it something so normal for us, to be next to one another and hear one another breathe, and for Edward and Emma to crawl over one another throughout the night. Also I am so used to how Emma rubs my arms at night. She does this for comfort and to remind herself, even in sleep, that I am with her.

This habit she started as a baby has been my sleep aid so many nights, too.

Everything I experience with my children is so much a part of who I am and what makes me optimistic about the rest of my life with my children.

Christie Cooke's "Native Moms" blogs are available for syndication. Please contact reznet to purchase republishing rights.

Christie Cooke, Navajo, has a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2007 American Indian Journalism Institute. Cooke teaches English at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan.