1:365
I've been thinking about how to write about Mother’s Day since the beginning of May. It didn't creep up on me like I would have preferred. I've had to fight with the emotions and memories more than I'd like. I wrote most of this before Mother's Day but I could never seem to finish it the way it deserved.
I use the term mother to mean a lot more than just the women who give birth to a child. This day is to celebrate mothers, fathers who act as mothers, and other relatives or loved ones who serve as a mother. There are also those of us who are mothers but our child is not with us living anymore. Or there are those who have lost their mother before they would have preffered.
The definition of a mother (according to the dictionary on Words with Friends, which my mom and I are obsessed with playing each other...and beating each other) is:
The greatest or most notable example of
We often say the expression, “the mother of all __________” to denote something grand or tremendous. So it is fitting that to define a mother is to define something extraordinary. Mothers are extra ordinary. We would fight anyone or anything if it went to harm our children. We give up our own wants and needs to provide for our children.
I saw an instagram post from the USinterior about a mama bear and her cubs. I heard more than once one of my friends or myself say while we were at the hospital that the “mama bear came out” during an experience. The IG post said “nature continues to give us an example of an unbreakable connection”. No matter if we gave birth, adopted, saved, or stepped-in to be a mother, we all would envoke the natural instinct of protection.
Why do we just celebrate this act of love and sacrifice one day a year? We instead should remember our mothers 365 days. I won’t lie, it’s nice to have that one day to be pampered.
As I continue to read about my friends who are becoming mothers again or for the first time and about the mothers who lose their children still or those who fight every second of every day to preserve some health and normalcy for their children, I can't help but be proud to be considered one with this group.
I saw mothers every day argue with doctors who by the book "know more than them" but we know our children. I saw mothers calm their children as they were crying. I saw mothers bathe and dress their children while there were unconscious. I was one of those mothers.
That doesn't happen just one day out of the year. A mother's job is not 1 day out of 365. We are day in and day out working and striving to love our children the way God loves us. I still see it in grandmothers, great grandmothers.
Until the day we meet our Father, we will always act as a Mother.