Motherscope LLC | San Diego, CA motherscope.com Cover Illustration by Alexandra Harvey | Mothershaped The Mom Salon logo by Samantha Acker | Gemini Designs Copyright © 2021 by Motherscope LLC and the individual contributors. All rights reserved. Leonard, Jackie (editor) The Mom Salon | December 2021 The Mom Salon features the writings of Motherscope’s 2021 Contributors, appearing in rotation from Mar. 2021 through Feb. 2022: Kate Bailey, Eunice Brownlee, Kelsey Cichoski, Laci Hoyt, Micah Klassen, Shanthy Milne, Alyssa Nutile, Holly Ruskin, Kaitlin Solimine, Colleen Tirtirian, Megan Vos, Melaina Williams
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In This Month’s Mom Salon: Melaina Williams | The Thesis & Speak Your Name
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Alyssa Nutile | The NICU is Not For Mothers
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Megan Vos | Smoldering
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Holly Ruskin | Raising the Future
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CONTENT GUIDANCE “The NICU is Not For Mothers”: references to time spent in NICU
The Thesis By Melaina Williams To study life watch a child chase bubbles as they brilliantly take up on air and then . . . POP! leaving a mist of soap water freckles on the skin. A very present joy and a very present longing for more.
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Speak Your Name By Melaina Williams Mama, you’re not invisible. You’re not behind the scenes. We see you stoking the fire to tiny dreams, getting up in the middle of the night just to check if that tummy is rising just right, making sure the milk is right on time. Mama, you’re not forgotten especially at the end of the day when you don’t know what you’ve accomplished and you don’t have any words to say but the house will tell it all. Oh, how you’ve baked love into the walls and prayers into the floorboards. Mama, you’re not alone. Locked up in a lonely cell. There’s other mamas with that same story to tell or the same question to ask, same frustration to face, same marathon to race. So Mama, keep showing up even if that means you bring tears into the space, a cookie too many in the middle of the day, a walk around the neighborhood to escape, a discussion with a father that’s long overdue, a decision to start a career anew or end one to find what is more true to the you
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