My inbox is full of messages urging me to buy something for my mother. NO! If I am to take seriously an opportunity to celebrate my mother, it certainly won’t be through consumption. Mothers deserve genuine recognition for what they do and what they have done.
It may just be that it’s tough to understand what a mother does for a child until that child becomes a mother herself. When I was pregnant on Mother’s Day, I went to brunch with my mother and her friends whose daughters all lived far away. I remember hearing their chat about grey hair and looking at all of them thinking how very beautiful they were. I told them so! That was the day that it really struck me how much strength and joy they all brought to my life. My mother, my bump, and I had a photo taken that day, and I see how happy we were to celebrate together.
The next year was my first mother’s day. That was the day that I reached out to my mother with an appreciation I hadn’t been capable of before. I didn’t just appreciate her; I began to understand what she had done for me. It was far too profound for a card.
If you have any sense of what your mother has done for you, just tell her. A genuine expression of your love and appreciation carries the real message of the day better than anything in a box can.
Image © Anna Ceglińska | Dreamstime.com
