Watch this Heartwarming Music Video about Motherhood

I’ve never been shy about expressing gratitude for my mom. We’re an enthusiastic crowd, and we’re not short on I-love-yous, sentiment or affection. But since I became a mama a few years ago, the gratitude I have for my mother has mushroomed into something more like awe. But it’s often hard to distill that kind of feeling into words.

I could always see everything my mother did for me and my sisters—how hard she loved us, all the work that went into raising us with intention and heart; how she instilled a sense of limitless possibility for our futures through her loving support and encouragement.

I understood—well, I thought I understood—what she went through to raise us. But I now know that my understanding was abstract, even naive, when compared to the bone-deep knowing I feel since becoming a mom myself.

I now know how vulnerable she must have felt when each of us entered the world.

I now know how wholly transformative motherhood is—on an emotional, mental, and, of course, a physical level.

I now know how challenging motherhood is—how every day you can be bowled over by this awesome, humbling work of guiding humans as they grow.

Motherhood has caused me to confront my actions, my ideas, everything I thought I knew about myself in the mirror (or, more accurately, in the eyes of these little beings I helped create).

In moments where my kids push me to my brink or I am mentally reviewing a parenting moment that I wish I’d played better, I find myself reflecting on my own mother. Wondering how she did it. Hoping I can be as good a mother to my kids as my mother was to me. She’s become like my parenting north star.

This song, “A Mother Like You,” brings this idea to life for me. JJ Heller, a singer, songwriter and mother of two girls, wrote it to honor her mother, who she says has always been “her number one fan.”

Heller writes, “Sometimes it’s hard to find the words to communicate our gratitude for our mother’s sacrifice and unconditional love. I hope ‘A Mother Like You’ helps capture a bit of that feeling.”

JJ gave the song to her mother as an early Mother’s Day gift. She loved, it and has listened to it on repeat.

“It’s not often that mothers get recognized for all they do, so it feels really special that I get to do that through my song. Moms are amazing and need to be reminded of that.”

I couldn’t agree more! And—I’ll be calling my mom.