“No mum is an island…”

No man is an island…

 Human beings, by necessity,  depend on one another, as in You can’t manage this all by yourself; no man is an island.

This expression is a quotation from John Donne’s Devotions (1624): “No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.

I’m pretty sure most have heard this quote at least once (even if it was just in Notting Hill). But this quote resonates with me on a whole other level, because while men cant manage by themselves (it’s a joke, laugh with me) I too believe that women shouldn’t have to either, but more importantly, MUMS!

I am a mum to a beautiful 18 month old boy called Sullivan or “Sully” . He is my life and soul (my husband is too but this is about Sully). We moved to a new city,Bristol, in the West of England, 2 months before he was born, and it was hard… but we are harder. There were (and still are) times that i felt very alone and couldn’t wait for the next midwife checkup or antenatal class just so that i could bump into another expectant mum and just feel a connection with someone.

I know that it was my fault that i didn’t have any friends but when you are a new mum, with no family within 11,000 km of you, you’re trying to figure out breastfeeding, co-sleeping, explosive nappies, the lies that the fat just melts off when you breastfeeding and how to keep that little person happy, it’s hard to “just” make friends and then maintain that connection. I never realised it but for the first 9 months of Sully’s little life i struggled with PND. If you know me then you know that i am a happy, bubbly person with a huge personality and a heart of service but when i became a mum i became withdrawn and well “depressed” for the better use of the word.

I am grateful for the breastfeeding and parenting Facebook groups that i am part of as they were my company during the day (and night). More importantly though, i am eternally grateful for my beautiful bottles of liquid love…my essential oils! These beauties saved my life and the village that comes with them is the best! I was introduced to these oils 5 days before Sully was born and they carried me through labour, the extra nights in hospital and they are still carrying us. Sully has been an oil baby since day one and I am soooo grateful that i can sit here and say that!

So, when Sully was 9 months old i met my now friend, Charmaine, through a beautiful soul Kate, who is a mum on one of the FB groups. Charmaine was interested in essential oils and so i met with her and she ordered a kit. I drove home that night and when i got home i said to my hubby… “I have just been to such a lovely part of Bristol and just met such a lovely girl and we need to move there…”. The following day we made a few calls, about 2 weeks later we viewed a house and signed the lease. In the meantime, I had taken Sully to a baby group with Charmaine and her mindees and met her other friend Jane (also from South Africa) and we hit it off. Jane wanted oils too and so ordered a kit. These two beautiful ladies are now part of my village and i am so grateful to have met them…thanks to the gorgeous Kate and thanks to these bottles of liquid love 🙂

I still struggle, not every day is easy and God knows that toddlers are sent to test us…but i now also know that NO MUM IS AN ISLAND and we don’t have to and shouldn’t have to do this alone. Tonight i am diffusing a doTERRA blend called Forgive because sometimes we just need to…

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