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<\/a><\/div>\nNow, my mother laid the foundation at the beginning, and I’ve written a tribute to her. Here it is again if you’d like to read it.<\/a> The thousands of interactions that make up a childhood formed the core of the mother I am. However, there is something also about finding the companionship of a contemporary, someone who is just a little ahead of you or is going through the experience at the same time, that provides a different kind of strength. <\/p>\n In 2006 Karen Miller<\/a> sent me a copy of her book, Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood<\/a>. Once I received it, I tucked it on the bookshelf. At the time I wasn’t sure I’d ever get pregnant successfully and was indeed wondering if I really wanted to try anymore. Then I got pregnant with Bean and read the book. I have not put it down for very long since. <\/p>\n Momma Zen<\/em> is a treasure of meditations on motherhood. That sounds high-falutin’, doesn’t it? It’s really more like having a good friend talk quietly to you about all the things that come along with the baby: the upheaval of one’s life, the worries, the desire to protect your child while knowing absolute safety is impossible, the lack of sleep, the temptation to assert our ego hoping to control things. I’m not doing justice to the wisdom this book contains. Just know that I value it so highly (and Karen as well) that I give a copy to every friend who is a mother or about to become a mother. Karen and I have written privately as well, and she has talked me off a few cliffs of fear (my own concoctions). I don’t know that I’d have fared as well during the first few months of Bean’s life if Karen hadn’t been there, both in book form, on her blog, via email and the phone.<\/p>\n