Two nights ago, I attended a private talk and book-signing with Maria Shriver featuring her new book, "Just Who Will You Be?" I'm sure you'll hear this from every other mom blogger who attended but I'll reiterate just in case: Yes, she is even more beautiful in person. Yes, she is kind, gracious, and witty. And yes, she spoke from her heart and touched all of ours.
Maria Shriver is known for many things; she comes from a famous family, she has a famous husband, she is the First Lady of California, and she was a high-powered journalist - with an emphasis on "was". This became the impetus for her newest book. After she was asked to resign and give up her journalism career when her husband became Governor, she discovered that her twenty-five year career had been the major factor by which she defined herself. And when that vanished, she wasn't sure exactly who "Maria" was.
Sound familiar? How many of us have by choice or otherwise changed paths or are deliberating a change? How many are at a "personal versus professional" crossroad? How many of us define ourselves by our jobs, by our successes? How many of us are trying to find our own voice while we are the caretakers of others: spouse, children, parents, grandparents, etc?
As Maria spoke to our Silicon Valley Moms Blog group, she told us that the "theme" of all of her writing has been to create dialogue. And boy, did she ever with this one! As she spoke, she openly shared her inner struggle between her background where she was raised to constantly make herself useful and be doing something of importance (after all, with a father who founded the Peace Corps and a mother who founded the Special Olympics, she joked that maybe the only thing for her to do to top that would be to run for President like the rest of her family), and finally her realization that just being herself should be enough.
Many more great points came up in her talk and during the Q & A that night: how she takes 10 minutes a day to just be still and let her mind be still; how she struggled with work/life balance with the birth of each child; and how she manages to run her family while she created and is running an incredible volunteer network.
But the point that really resonated with me was when she said that the greatest gift we can give to our children is to let them know that "they are enough." To which I wanted to yell, "Hear, Hear"!
BTW, here's a photo of the thank you card I hand-stitched and gave to Maria for sharing her personal soulful journey. Sorry your "thank you" from Poppy will be delayed, Mom!
