Hello, and welcome to the Whole Motherload. I am so excited to introduce you to
this podcast in this introductory episode.
When I was a kid, my family did something called "Introducing". This is where my parents would introduce each child to the family, one at a time, to perform something for everyone else. I was the third of seven kids, so I thought it was pretty coolwhen I got to be the focus of attention.
They would announce each one of us, "Introducing from Manchester, Michigan, Jackie Donnellon." You know, that was my maiden name.
They would then sing a silly circus song while whatever child would perform. I always thought that was so cool. I could feel how proud they were whatever I was doing. It didn't matter. My parents just were proud of me. I could sense that, and I loved it.
In this introductory episode, I feel like a proud parent. I feel like I'm introducing The Whole Motherload. [Insert circus music here].
It is a podcast that has been in the works for quite some time, actually. When I was a young mom, Iremember thinking how cool it would be to write a parenting book. Not because I felt like I was some amazing parent, but because I was making a lot of mistakes with my five kids, and I was always seeking more information on how to do the moming thing better. I wanted to be a better mom for my kids, and so I I thought, well, I could write a book with all of the information that I've gathered over the years, with all of the experiences that I've had with my own children. And I thought that it would be so cool to put it into a book. Well, that book is still in draft form, and maybe someday it will hit the bookshelves.
But in the meantime, I realized that this podcast medium or platform would be a really powerful way to begin telling these stories so that they don't just sit dormant on a computer somewhere in a file that never gets seen. Just over four and a half years ago, my husband and I started an adventure of traveling.
So we have our home with us everywhere we go since we live in a camper van. In the time that we've been on the road, we have met a lot of people. Many of them are mothers. Something that I've realized is that every single one of them have an incredible story of their mothering journey, some challenge that has helped transform them into someone better than who they were before.
The more women I meet, the more I realize that these stories are worth telling. There is something we can all learn from their experiences, and they're just like you or me, but the stories are here to be told.
Something else that I've learned as I've traveled is that Especially women believe something that isn't true. They think that their gifts and their talents are common, and that their struggles and their trials are unique. And I have found that the opposite is true, that when we start talking about the struggles that we're going through as moms or as women, that a lot of similarities come up, that we can support and strengthen one another as we share some of these challenges and these difficulties that we go through, and that our talents and gifts are what we uniquely have to bring to the world.
And that's something that I hope to bring out in this podcast. The amazingness of these stories, these challenges, and these trials and struggles that have helped to mold, and shape, and build, and grow, and also the talents, and the gifts and the uniqueness of each and every person that will be a guest on this podcast. I'm so excited for you to meet these beautiful women and to hear these stories because they're gifts meant to inspire and uplift and strengthen you in your own mothering journey.
Some of them will no doubt end up in my book, and I hope they do, because I believe that they're here to be told.
There was something else that sparked this desire to produce this podcast, and it came from my searching for ways to be a better mom. So I came across A Thomas Jefferson Education, and it's a philosophy of teaching and raising children that I really, really appreciated. So I had subscribed to their email newsletter, and it was sent by the co founder, Rachel DeMille. In the email, she would send the first couple of paragraphs of a blog post that she had recently written, and a link to finish reading it if you were interested.
Now, I usually click the link. Well, this email, I received it back in 2011, it changed my thoughts on parenting forever. It has come up so many times since then when I'm thinking about my kids or talking to another mom. In this post, Rachael talked about setting out to not just raise your children, but with a mindset of raising your great grandchildren through training the 12 people who will actually be the ones raising your great grandchildren, and this includes your children.
With that forward-looking perspective, it helped me to be able to see my children a little bit differently to see how what I was doing was influencing future generations. And yes, that's a big thought, but it's so true and it's so valuable. I now have grandchildren, and I see the wisdom in this even more. So this podcast isn't going to change the world. However, I hope that it supports you in some way to be the mom that you want to be, to see your great grandchildren in your children's eyes, and know that you are an influence for good, that you are a gift to this world, and especially to those who call you mom. And those who will call you Great Grandma.
So I want to share something else with you that I have learned, and it's a principle that will keep coming up in future episodes. I think that sharing with you now will give you some perspective as you listen to those stories. A couple of years ago, I attended a class that shared some insights about the three stages of faith from a book written by Bruce and Marie Hafen.
They have been known to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said, "I would not give a fig for the simplicity, this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."
So stage one is Simplicity.
This is the innocent stage, the untested stage. This is the simplicity on this side of complexity.
So you guessed it, the second stage is complexity. So this is where real life comes in. The challenges, the trials, the disappointments. Many people get stuck here in this complexity stage.
But there is a third stage, which is the simplicity beyond the complexity. It's where you take the things that you've learned in the complexity stage and you're able to apply it to your life in a way that transforms you to being able to live a higher, more mature simplicity.
This is an informed simplicity because of the complexity. And so I think about that in mothering, and I think you can already pick up some of the points that I think are important here. I like to relate it to a recipe that you're looking for something to make for dinner, and you see a recipe that you're like, Oh, this looks so good. And you look and see that you have all of the ingredients in your kitchen, and you're like, I'm going to make this for dinner. It looks so good.
And so you pull all of the ingredients together. And this is the simplicity stage because you're naive and innocent about this recipe. You've never made it before, and you have all the ingredients. So you're like, Yes, I can do this.
And then you start making the recipe, and it's a little bit more complicated than you expected. Some of the steps are things that you've never done before, and maybe there's a lot of chopping, and it just gets really frustrating in the middle of this recipe, and you maybe even think, I'm going to dump this in the trash and order pizza.
Well, you decide that you're going to work through it, that you're going to make the recipe, and you double down and you get it done, and then you put it in the oven, and you're like, I did it, right?
And it comes out, and it's beautiful, and it tastes amazing. And so clearly, that complexity stage is where you are frustrated with the recipe and it's taking too long.
And that simplicity beyond the complexity is an informed, a higher, more mature way to see it, because now you get to sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labor of putting together that recipe. You made it through the complexity, and now you're in that simplicity beyond the complexity. And you can even go back and make that recipe again, if you choose, with more information than you had before. You're going to be able to get through it quicker and with a better perspective and even maybe attitude because you have completed that challenge.
Mothering is so similar in so many different ways. As you listen to each episode, consider how these women have moved through these three stages in their journey. I'm so excited for you to be a part of this. I'm so excited to be a part of this.
Yes, I am the podcast host, but I only have a glimpse of the amazingness that is to come. My goal is that you will find connection and community here, that you will hear your own story in those of other mothers, that something that is shared will touch your heart, and you will feel strengthened and uplifted, that the mother load you carry is a little lighter because of what you receive here.
Thank you for coming along on this journey. I'm so grateful for you and that in the sea of podcasts that you decided to listen to this one. And I hope to honor that time and energy that you put into being here by bringing you value and the gift of these stories that will strengthen
