Today is Mother’s Day. I am eager to get to my brother’s and be with the crowd. I am especially eager to see my baby. She doesn’t like me to talk about her, so I won’t. Not too much, at least. I’m not going to say what she did (ok?), but she just accomplished something very important in her professional life and I am kind of bursting with pride. When she presented to me that which I shall not talk about, I cried. She looked at me patiently and said: “don’t cry, mom…”
There is an expression in Portuguese that designates a parent that is pathetically and irrationally proud if his/her offspring: the “owl” parent. “You’re such an owl, mom!”, she, whom I shall not name, says to me.
She is not a powelifter but she did try her strength in our Higher Art. You must believe my objective coach’s diagnose when I say that was probably the most perfect flat-feet-on-the-ground bench arch I (and everybody else) have ever seen. Her shoulder blades adduction is equally good. She climbed the platform once, left everybody in awe and left.
And I am not an owl !!
She was a planned baby. Her birth is one of the few things in my life that I planned and accomplished regardless of anybody else’s opinion. My baby – my choice. I must have been scary to doctors and nurses. During her delivery, I growled at the doctors and told them to shut up. I scolded them for discussing irrelevant things during my sacred moment. They apologized and shut up as they were told. I did not allow them to keep her at the nursery: she was completely healthy, I demanded she be returned to me immediately. My baby, my choice, end of story.
Besides being the incredible woman that she is, she is a landmark of my taking back my life into my hands. She had to put up with a lot during my struggle with my disorders.
Today, she is one of my chief supporters. She is a generous person and she truly wants me to be happy. When I travel to a meet, she’s always waiting to hear the news.
I am a strong mom. At the core of my strength, though, is my baby. She is the true Powerhouse of my inner strength and my power.
I am a powerlifter because I have all this: inner strength, power and, above all, my baby.