But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.

Converstations with a mother of five are education in patience.

A mother's body remembers her babies-the folds of soft flesh, the softly furred scalp against her nose. Each child has it's own entreaties to body and soul.

It lasted just a moment, whatever that is. One held breath? An ant's afternoon? It was brief, I can promise that much, for although it's been many years now since my children ruled my life, a mother recalls the measure of the silences.

You see mother, you had no life of your own. They have no idea. One has only a life of one's own.

I can count all the ways in which being a mother has enriched my understanding of the world, of character, my sense of the future and my attachment to it. I can't imagine what kind of writer I'd be if I didn't have my kids.