I have been really excited for this book for a couple months now. I mean, just look at that cover. I shouldn’t even need to say anything more. As someone who loves outdoor adventures, I knew that embarking on my own journey of motherhood was going to change how I am able to participate and interact with nature. So I was very excited to see how another mama managed.
More is a collection of notes and letters that professional climber Majka Burhardt wrote to her twins while pregnant and during the first few years of their lives. Instead of being any kind of prescription for how to balance motherhood and adventures, this book is a chronicle of Burhardt’s personal struggle in wanting it all and having to choose moment by moment, day by day.
I really appreciate how real and raw Burhardt is willing to get, especially with the challenges posed to her marriage. Motherhood doesn’t happen in a vacuum, nor is it separate from a woman’s identity pieces of employee, employer, wife, or any other label she claims. Burhardt is willing to get into the messy parts that many people don’t want to talk about, honestly exposing the anger she worked through, the pieces of her past that got stirred up in raising her own children, and how, no matter what she already had, she wanted more.
As a society, I like to think we’re slowly advancing in willingness to talk about the hard things instead of presenting just the highlights of life and motherhood, but we still have a ways to go. Books like More are crucial in starting those conversations and allowing us to be confident in knowing that to express the struggle doesn’t mean we love our children, spouses, families, or even lives any less.
Everyone must make a choice (or many choices, throughout life) to prioritize what is most important in that season. Burhardt wrestles with the challenge posed to mothers, in particular, that recognizes children take the front seat but also aren’t the entirety of a woman’s identity. Finding balance is an individual process for each woman, but we can at least take comfort in knowing we aren’t the only one wrestling.
Reading, writing, living 