Footprints that changed my life.....

Footprints - the physical manifestations of our presence in a place. Footprints - the lifelong impressions we leave behind........these ones being abstract, they have no palpable existence. Yet they exist, in the form of the change we bring about, in the form of dreams we materialize or help someone achieve.

Today, as I sit and ponder over this word, I think about the footprints the nurses took of my children the day they were born. Those were timeless gifts given to a mother. Those little treasures marked the entry of my little ones in this world. They were more than just physical prints. They signaled a change that was about to come. A change in my life as my roles shifted from being just a woman, a wife, a daughter, or a sister. I was a mother now. It seemed like my whole being was undergoing a sea-change. A tear-drop from those little eyes would flood my heart. A cry from those little mouths would pierce me through and through. What had those little footprints done to me?

They had transformed me into a care-giver. They made me realize the immensity of the task that lay ahead. The task of bringing up another life, a life I had sustained in my womb for the past nine months. But that life was in my hands, playing, crying, playing, crying. It was on me to guide them to a path of peace and happiness, contentment and bliss. It was on me to lay before them the foundation of a life full of virtue. Yes, those footprints changed it all.

They told me they were here for a purpose. They told me we all are here for a purpose. We need to find that purpose, and hold on to it. That will help us define who we are. That will help us bring meaning to our life as humans.

It is said that mother is the first teacher of a child. She gives him/her valuable life-lessons. And I totally agree with this. Being a mother, I have felt that whatever I do has a huge impact on what my children do or think. My life is like a yardstick by which they measure or define their actions. For this reason, it is important for me to commit myself to actions and emotions thoughtfully. I can teach them to be calm or be angry. I can teach them to be helpful or selfish. I can teach them to be friendly or alienated. The steps I take in my life are footprints I leave behind in their memory. Footprints I can't see, footprints I can't erase.

So when I take that step forward in haste and without reflection, I teach my kids to be rash.
So when I take that step forward blinded by grudge, I tell my kids to hold on to negativity.

But when I relax and weigh on the situation, when I take time to think, I leave behind footprints of love and balance. I leave behind footprints of composure and stability that will teach my kids to be sound in their judgments.

What impressions those footprints on the page have made for me!
Will I be able to do justice to those little feet entering this new world? I will try. That is the best I can do for them. I will try to leave behind footprints of love, of togetherness, of warmth.......