Using Your Gifts to Bless Your Family and the World with Erin Morley [Episode 65]

Episode description

Erin is a mother of three and one of the world's most sought-after sopranos. She talks about melding these two worlds of motherhood and personal success. Erin believes parenthood is the secret to life bringing a balance to life and an opportunity to care for another. She knows that being a singer is important, but being a parent is even more important than that. She takes her motherhood as a serious responsibility and career in itself. She hopes her children will have more positive memories than negative ones when they look back at their childhoods. She wants them to know and feel how much she cares for them. 

Erin tries to prioritize family time together despite continuing to travel to perform. One of her goals is to zero in on her children's specific needs and meet those needs as a mother. She talks about how amazing music is in enriching her children's lives and helps her create loving memories singing around the piano. She found it natural to sing to help reach and calm her babies in a way that speaking or physically holding them couldn't. This helped her to realize how much singing should always be part of her life and she shouldn't give it up simply because she became a mother.

She talks about mindfulness and not wanting to wish away the negative because then we would need to wish away the good also. It's better to experience both and be aware of the differences so we can enjoy the good moments. Erin is trying to find contentment with living in the moment rather than always looking ahead and wishing our children were in the next phase. Mindfulness is like a code for gratitude; they can't live without one another. 

Erin describes the different types of sacrifices mothers make for their children, including physical and emotional. Comparing the physical wounds a mother suffers after childbirth to the scars of Christ helped her find meaning in the physical trials of pregnancy and child-bearing. 

Erin finds the moments when her children are most willing to talk and connect and tries to utilize those moments. She practices a "Sweet, Sour, Service" routine where each member of the family shares something sweet from the day, something sour from the day, and something they did to serve someone that day.