Earlier this month, Drew Barrymore announced she and her husband Will Kopelman will be divorcing. Despite going through a difficult family transition, the Jewish actress recently opened up in PEOPLE about how being a mom has helped her put things in perspective. The 41-year-old has two daughters, 2-year-old Frankie and 3-year-old Olive.
Motherhood, she says, has taught her a lot of life lessons. She stated:
“I just feel like my whole life was collecting things in a butterfly net of experience. What to do, what not to do, how to live, how not to live, how to be free, happy. Just gaining every bit of wisdom that I could, all for that because I cannot remember life before kids. It seems like a dream.
I was saying this quote that a women said at a conference that I was at the other day. She said, ‘I can’t wait to go to work, and I can’t wait to get home.’ And I thought, that sums up a great womanhood to me.”
Barrymore also recently got inked–she debuted her new tattoo on her right wrist, which is of her daughters’ names in her handwriting:
She explained how this tattoo was definitely not an impulse, but something she’s been ruminating for awhile:
“I had been wanting to do it, and then, one day, we were on our way to an appointment and I was like, ‘Can we just quickly stop at this tattoo shop?!’ I walked in and I was like, ‘Who is available to do a tattoo … quickly. Like, right now?’
And this guy came up and was like, ‘Yeah, I can.’ And so I was like, ‘I am going to write this down on a piece of paper, and then can you just transfer it onto my arm?’ So, it’s my handwriting.”
When asked what she would say to her younger self, however, she had a great answer:
“I wouldn’t have listened, so I wouldn’t even bother. But everyone wishes that they could know what they know now in a romantic and poetic way because I am so happy now and I have such a good thing in my life with my kids. So there is always that want to go into that 12-year-old’s room and say, ‘It’s going to be alright. It’s actually going to be great!’”
This is sage advice for anyone, because we all need a reminder that things will be OK.
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