Last week, while in the grocery store, I stood in line, looking over the tabloids (hmm, “Brangelina” versus Aniston yet again…) and realized I wasn’t standing.  I was swaying.  You alllll know the sway.  It’s that Mother Sway you start doing when your child is newborn and needs to be soothed.

Now, my son is going to be 3 years old next week so we’re long past the age where he fits in the crook of my arm and needs to be reminded of the womb.  But still, I stand there, reading the magazine headlines, practically slow dancing in the aisle.  I can always tell which other women around me are mothers because the ones who aren’t look at me as if I just stepped out of the nearest sanitarium.

But still, I sway.

Because I’m a writer (and I knew I had a blog topic to come up with), I started coming up with a list of other things that have become second nature to me, things I do without thinking.  And no surprise, but most of those things lined up on either the Mama aisle or the Writer aisle.

As a Mama, I react to the slightest noise of a baby.  If it’s mine, it’s usually within milliseconds of hearing a breath.  But it’s pretty much any child nearby.  I never used to do that before having my son.

As a Writer, I am constantly listening (okay, I admit it, eavesdropping) on conversations around me, looking for something funny, interesting, eye-opening.  Since I am one of the “writer from the womb” type of writers, this has been second nature as long as I can remember.  But it’s an ingrained habit that I don’t think about until long after I’ve remembered it’s not nice to eavesdrop. (Does it count if you don’t consciously realize you’re doing it?)

As a Mama, I am acutely aware of where the people in my house are.  Mostly my son, but not just him.  Everyone. At all times.  In years past, I was good at delving into something and getting very tunnel-visiony.  Not so much anymore.  Now I always have one corner of an eye roaming the room, looking to confirm locations of my loved ones like a radar beacon.

As a Writer, I watch people.  I remember being on a vacation in Maui with my husband.  We were sitting in a restaurant, and I was entertaining myself by looking at the people around us.  Ultimately, I got my husband involved in the game.  Based on their body language, based on their facial expressions, we tried to imagine how the people sitting together were connected.  The couple at this table was on a first date that was not going well, based on their awkwardness, the roving eyes looking anywhere but each other, the girl’s tapping foot under the table and the guy’s grasp on the edge of the booth as if he was ready to hop out at any moment.  The foursome at that table were family.  Comfortable, laughing and yet snappy all at the same time.

This is a game I play every day.  In fact, it’s given me some great characters and storyline concepts at times.  Everywhere I go, I find myself trying to figure out how people are related.  When I used to work outside of my home, it was a favorite hobby while I was sitting in traffic.

These are just a few of the things that came to mind…and ultimately, it made me realize yet again how integral both roles are to who I am.   From my very first written story at the age of six, I couldn’t imagine not writing.  I couldn’t see any other path for myself.  Now that I’m a mother, I cannot imagine who I was before or who I would be without my son in my life.

Both of these things came into my life at very different points… I became a writer at the age of six.   At the age of 33, I became a mother.   And yet both make up some of the biggest reasons I am who I am today.

It certainly makes me wonder what other aspects of myself are yet to be discovered.

What about you? What are some of your “Mama” or “Writer” traits?