That woman you know,

the one who became a mom,

she didn't

"let herself go."

Quite to the contrary, she's actually found herself.

And she's finding that all she really needs to feel more at peace and happy with her being and her life is to let go of lots of other shit like

anyone else's expectations for her,

caring what strangers or those not unconditionally in her corner think,

the fear of being judged or rejected,

and dreading gaffes and failure.

Because the only way a mama can fail is by giving up, and we don't do that here.

Here we persevere.

Here we believe in ourselves.

Here we support one another.

Here we mothers stand

-- on our own and together --

with wrinkles on our forehead and bags under our eyes,

looking less than put-together, but beautiful as ever

and we're not going anywhere.