July was busy. July was heavy. July asked a lot of me, and I showed up anyway.
That’s really the only way I know how to describe this month. Not “good” or “bad,” not something that fits neatly into a highlight reel. July was full; full of celebration, full of weight, full of purpose, and full of quiet little doors starting to open. If you’re a working mom, you probably know exactly what I mean when I say a month can be all of those things at once.
Here’s what July held for me.
We Celebrated Another Day Not Promised
This month, we celebrated my little sister’s birthday; another day not promised that she got to see. I don’t take that lightly. Not this year, not any year. Some celebrations are really just gratitude wearing a party hat. When you’ve lived long enough to understand how fragile and unpredictable life can be, a birthday stops being just a date on the calendar. It becomes proof. Proof that she’s still here, still laughing, still ours to celebrate.
If you’ve ever celebrated someone knowing full well that day wasn’t guaranteed, you already understand the particular kind of joy I’m talking about, the kind that has a little ache folded into it, and is somehow more beautiful because of that.
The Work Doesn’t Clock Out, Even in Paradise
In the middle of all this, I also took a two-week trip to St. Lucia for Carnival; dancing, soca, sun, the whole thing. It was everything I needed.
But even there, purpose found me. I handled some Sevilide Foundation business, because that’s the truth of this season of life: the work doesn’t stop just because the scenery changes. Being a working mom, being a woman building something bigger than herself doesn’t come with an off switch, even on vacation. Sometimes that’s frustrating. And sometimes, like it was for me this July, it’s actually grounding. A reminder of who I am underneath the sunscreen and the soca playlist.
New Doors, Not Yet Named
July also brought some new opportunities into view, ones I’m not ready to talk about publicly yet, but that I felt shift underneath me while I was away. Not ready. Not fully formed. Just… noticed.
I think that’s an underrated part of growth: the noticing. Long before you can explain a new chapter to anyone else, you have to first admit to yourself that something is changing. July was the month I let myself notice.
What This Month Really Taught Me
This is what being a working mom actually looks like, isn’t it? Grief and gratitude. Purpose and rest. Grind and grace are all packed into the same 31 days, often within the same hour.
We don’t always get to choose which parts of life show up together. July handed me a birthday I was grateful for, a business I couldn’t fully step away from, and a future I’m still not sure how to name yet. And somehow, I carried all of it.
If July asked a lot of you, too, whatever your version of “a lot” looked like, I see you. You don’t have to have it figured out. You don’t have to package it into something tidy or inspirational. You just have to keep showing up, the way you already have been.
Pouring Into Moms This August
So here’s what I want August to be: a month where we pour a little more love back into moms; working moms, tired moms, moms who are celebrating and grieving and building and resting, sometimes all in the same breath.
You are allowed to hold more than one thing at a time. You are allowed to be proud and exhausted. You are allowed to celebrate someone else’s birthday while still processing your own year.
Here’s to August. Here’s to us.
xoxoxo
Meli Mel