"You Are Triumphant"

Almost three years ago, around Easter, I was at a local playground with my son. He was tiny, hadn't even had his first birthday yet, and we were out enjoying the warm sunshine and fresh air. Another mom showed up with her son, a few years older than mine and, coincidentally, with the same not-very-common name, Soren.

This other mom was warm and chatty. I felt at ease with her instantly. My Soren was still young enough that questions about his birth were normal; she asked where he'd been born, assuming I'd respond with the name of one of the valley hospitals, but I responded that we were living in Seattle at the time of his birth and that I'd seen a midwife group at an independent birth center, though he ended up being born via cesarean at the University of Washington Medical Center. She was the sort of person you don't mind sharing personal details with, even having just met.

Soren's birth was an amazingly positive experience for me. I'm lucky in that fact; since it turned out to be so different from the birth I'd planned and imagined, the potential for disappointment and even trauma was certainly there. But happily, I've always felt empowered and peaceful with how things transpired.

My playground companion had no way of knowing how I felt about the birth. Going on only the details I'd shared, she gently offered some words of validation. "You are triumphant," she said.

That bold, sweet expression made such an impression on me. I immediately started saying it to all my friends, especially in times of self-doubt or discouragement. When I'm typing a text message on my phone and I enter the words "you are," my phone predicts that the word I need next is "triumphant." And it's usually right.

The words ring true because they are true. We are triumphant in our failings, in our mistakes, in our changed plans and dark nights of the soul. There's victory inside us. We need to understand that even when we don't reach our highest goals, there is triumph in the attempt and in our straining grasps. Whatever else, if we are still breathing, we are triumphant, and I'm willing to believe our triumph continues even after our lungs stop working.