Episode 077: I'm Not a Mother, But I'm Enough

At Last She Said It

Cynthia Winward

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Latter-day Saint women hear motherhood described as their highest, holiest calling from the time they are young girls. But not all girls grow up to be mothers. Some don't get the opportunity to have children, and some don't choose to. Is there a place in our doctrine, our teachings, or our culture for women to just be...women? Whole, complete, fulfilled, and enough, with no specific role spelled out for them but the one they choose to create for themselves? Cristall Harper joins us to reflect on her journey, without children in a church that assumes—even insists—women desire motherhood.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to at last she said it. A podcast where women of faith come together to
0:06.7	acknowledge that it's complicated and support each other while we figure it out.
0:19.0	Okay, Crystal, here's the moment that I know I've been looking forward to and I hope that you have. I'm going to ask you the question.
0:21.0	What do you know?
0:22.0	What is something that you know right now today?
0:25.0	I know that it's going to take a lot of courage and vulnerability day for me to be honest and I think that my honesty will
0:36.7	feel confrontational to some people because feelings about infertility and motherhood are very
0:41.9	tender and very complicated and emotionally charged.
0:46.4	What I have to say might feel startling or irreverent, but I tend to, I like like to be candid I know that for most of my life I haven't felt like a good enough woman in the church and I know that there's going to be people that hear me and disagree with me and say,
1:05.0	I've never felt Church be like that. I believe you. So I ask that you please believe me as I share my experience.
1:14.3	Wow, I'm pretty sure everyone is excited to hear the rest of this conversation now.
1:20.8	I know that I can't wait.
1:22.1	Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us.
1:24.6	Also we like Irreverant Crystal. Don't worry.
1:28.6	You are my people. Hello and I'm here with Cynthia Winward.
1:43.7	Hi Cynthia.
1:44.9	Hello Susan.
1:46.6	We've been really looking forward to recording this episode today because we have a friend
1:51.2	who I know happens to be a devoted listener. This is how we became
1:55.3	acquainted with her and thank goodness we did a podcast so that we could make the
1:58.8	acquaintance of Crystal Harper. Crystal I can't wait to meet you in person, but welcome to the podcast.
2:05.8	Thank you, Cynthia and Susan.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Cynthia Winward, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Cynthia Winward and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.