by the number

I was having a heart to heart, mama to mama, conversation with a dear friend yesterday. We'll call her M. The topic of dress size came up (well, jeans size, to be exact). M was a feeling down about the number she was seeing at her backside. I could fully understand where she was coming from. I repeated back to her something that a friend had retorted to me years ago..."It's just a number, no different than a shoe size." True, it is just a number. But for some reason it has more significance to us when its printed inside our pants than it does inside our shoes. It got me thinking about the numbers in our lives, and here are some of my thoughts, specific to my friend M. Please plug in your own numbers, below:

3. The number of people's needs that M is working to meet EVERY DAY. She doesn't do this in a hap-hazard, off-the-cuff, Sloppy Sally kind of way. M thinks about it with every move she makes, all day, every day. It's not simple and it's not easy.

7. The number of years since "she" became "we". Staying married isn't easy. It takes work, on both sides, and M is doing that work on a daily basis.

9. The number of months that her darling son lived inside her body. M was nauseas, kicked, stretched, and pained, and believes to her core that it was worth every minute. It was.

28. The number of times per day that M doubts her abilities and decisions as a mother.

786. The number of days that M has been breastfeeding her dear boy, so far. This means that for more days than her husband has worked at his demanding job since the birth of their son (no offense, D....you're numbers are most definately important too), M has been available to nurse little S. Every feeding, every owie, every naptime, bedtime, bored-time, and countless other times. Which adds up to:
8646. The number of times, at the least, that M has been there with her whole self, her whole being, her whole body to mother her son at her breast.

5502. The number of diapers that M has changed (give or take) in the last couple of years.
5500. The number of times it hasn't been fun (ok, maybe that one is a little off).

5. The number of people in M's family of origin. She thinks of them daily, loves them dearly.

1037. The number of times every day that M wants a cup of coffee. With cream.

1. The number of times every day that M gets that cup of coffee, can drink it while it's still hot, doesn't have to share it with anyone, and gets to center herself for a moment, if she's lucky. With cream.

So it seems to me that in the Big Picture, we can rest assured that there are many numbers far more important than the near holy Jeans Size. And these are just a few of them. So, to every mama, everywhere, let's all recalculate our numbers.

Oh, and one last number:

7. M's shoe size.