This One is for the Moms

Posted May 8, 2015
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Mother’s Day is upon us and it felt important to me to make note of it. While my own mother and my step-mother are more than I could ever ask for, two women I am thankful for everyday, today I want to acknowledge the women of ILLUME who on top of being a key reason why we are where we are, are also amazing moms – Shannon, Eileen, Allison, Laura and Anne. There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful to come into work and see these women excelling at their careers without sacrificing their vision of motherhood. This is no easy task and that must be recognized, I know there are days when they get by through the sheer force of will, when their hearts want to be home with their children because they are sick or hurt or because their little spirits are bruised, when they sacrifice time with family for work, put their all into a project only to have it criticized or go unrecognized, when despite trying their very best they doubt whether or not they can do it all.

There is a kinship in motherhood. We all make different choices and are raising our children in different ways, we work or stay home, we are in a partnership or are raising kids on our own, we center our lives around our children or we bring children into the center of our life. Regardless of our choices we all know there is nothing greater we will do than put these beautiful little people into the world, to find their own joys, to do good, to pursue their own passions. Our most important job is teaching them to be their own people and to let them go. The best way to do this is to be true to ourselves, to show them what it means to work hard, to let them know that they should never settle, to inspire curiosity in them, to be present in our moments with them and to give to ourselves so that in our own joy we can pass a vision of what a joyful life looks like to them.

The moms of ILLUME are my hero’s, they keep me going when my own doubt takes over, they remind me to be grounded and they

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remind me of why it is that we started this company – most importantly they keep me on course. Happy Mother’s Day ladies!

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