This conference, geared toward mom bloggers, celebrated motherhood, talked about maintaining authenticity in the face of marketing endorsements and encouraged this influential market to use its collective voice to its full potential. Talk of how the community of mom bloggers (though built in cyberspace, it really is a community) raises their audience up by sharing their experiences was another recurring theme. It's true. No doubt. Reading and relating to a story feels good. It reminds me I am not the only one whose life feels like this.
And that’s just the most concise way I can offer the gist of what was covered over two days. There’s plenty more, but what I really want to get to is the feelings my time among these amazing ladies elicited. I left the Four Seasons hotel Saturday afternoon, empowered, inspired, high, mindful, grateful, warm AND fuzzy. I wanted to figure out how to bottle the mix of emotions. I hardly remember driving home, I was so lost in thought. I came straight to my keyboard to put down some notes. Anything to capture the essence of the day. And then I remembered what drew me to the event in the first place. This feeling had already been bottled!
No wonder this video has gone truly viral. More than 50,000 hits last I looked. This piece by Katherine Center is, to me, the essence of what keeps me going when I feel like this motherhood gig is too much. This is important work, and it is work. The line “what you’re doing matters” was a theme of Mom 2.0. It’s a phrase I will repeat to myself again and again.
I’ve been a little hoodoovoodoo about this whole thing since I stumbled upon it about a month ago. It just seemed like the universe aligned to get me there. I am so glad it did.
It actually started last summer. I was in Kinkos dropping off a Fed Ex. A little girl approached me and said,
“My mommy wrote a book. You should read it.”
She handed me a card. I smiled at the girl and her mom and walked out the door having a little conversation with myself about how a mom would find time to write a book and how cute it was that the girl was so proud of her mom…. I put the card in my wallet.
Flash forward. About three weeks ago. I come across the card. I start bumping around and see the video. I watch it twice (and 20 times since) and tear up. So good! At the end I notice the mention of Opmom. Opmom.com (now http://www.thetastefullife.com/) is the site my friend Carrie Pacini started… It is a small world after all. Hmmmm? Wheels turning, already inspired and I hadn't even registered yet.
When I got to the speaker list, I was floored. The lineup was truly incredible. The more I read, the more excited I got. Admittedly, what excited me the very most was a bit of star power. One of my absolute favorite bloggers, Heather Armstrong, was booked as a keynote.
For my grandparent readership, Heather Armstrong was on the list of Forbes Most Influential Women in Media in 2009. Number 26. If you read her post at dooce.com about being number 26 you’ll get a sense for why I love reading her blog. Her success as a blogger is groundbreaking. She also just penned a deal with HGTV. Quite a case study. Above all, she makes me laugh and sometimes I really need a laugh. She writes (for all the world to read) the kind of things I only say in my head. I relate to her. We’re a lot alike. Only she’s on the Forbes list with Oprah and Barbra WaWa.
And here comes the point. The source of some of the empowerment that came for me personally at Mom 2.0 is the fact that we are alike. I sat there in awe of Heather Armstrong, and so many other ladies I met. So many. And guess what? They aren’t so different from me. Short of the long: I left reminded that I can accomplish big, cool and powerful things, too. I don’t know what big things I am out to accomplish, but being reminded I can is a start.
It’s easy to get busy getting by. Day to day. Hamster wheel syndrome. “Time to make the donuts”… Time to feed the baby. Time to go to work. Doldrums. It happens to me and I am one of the lucky ones who really loves my husband, kids and work. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to be unhappy in any of these areas AND live in the wheel.
This is not to say that the daily grind isn't part of "what matters." It all matters. Cooking dinner on a weeknight can be a chore, but sitting down to the table as a family matters. It all matters. The good. The bad. And the ugly. It's all part of life and very necessary.
It's just that to set out to do big, cool and powerful things, I need some time to focus on something besides the things that are required. Getting up and going to work is required. Doing laundry is required. The store. Picking up the house. The good ole todo list. It should be called the have to list. By the time all the perquisites are done, there’s not much time left (if any) to dive into the higher level coursework so to speak. The want to list.
Time to move up from Life 101. Step one: make and take time to daydream and formulate full thoughts, theories and ideas. Time to be me. Not mommy me. Not wife me. Not marketer me. Just me. So, I can be open to and look for inspiration. I love being all those other versions of myself. But after Mom 2.0 kids, I need to be the first version of myself from time to time.
I am one of bajillions of women desperate for some time to herself. I get it. I am not saying anything new here. I am just saying, this event reminded me how powerful taking the time can be. By taking time to find passion and enthusiasm we live bigger, better lives. When I go out and get empowered, I bring it home to the dinner table for the boys to see. The "time out" I took last week is really all it took to stop fussing, breathe, get inspired and fired up. Battery charged. It was so worth it. It was so simple. It was super special. I am still flying!
