This year in the U.S.A. we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the setting aside of Mother’s Day as the second Sunday in May by President Woodrow Wilson. Some mothers would prefer that the government had never started the tradition for all the pain and heartache it has brought them over the decades. Others could not care less. Even Anna Jarvis who founded it, grew to hate the commercialization of the holiday.
And right now, I’m going to say there are probably more than a few readers who just turned on their “snarky” personality, ready to pile on. See, I told you she was a negative writer! She always has something negative to say, blah, blah, blah. Sorry, ladies and gents. Already been there, done that. Truth is truth.
For the majority of mothers, their families were kind yesterday or as kind as circumstances allowed in the current economy. There were lovely cards, many of them hand-made by their children. There were flowers, breakfast in bed, loving or mostly fun family reunions. For others, it was a time of sadness, such as for the friend who came up against her first Mother’s Day without her grown son who had died suddenly on December 26, 2013. And she and her husband are not alone in their suffering, not by a thousand times ten thousand. The pain will be a long time mellowing out but they have a joyful reunion ahead of them in Heaven, when the time comes. The good always suffer more than the wicked on this earth but the sorrows will pass and their rewards will be all the greater.
However strained the circumstances of our youth might have been, our mothers literally entered the valley of the shadow of death to give us life. For that alone, we owe them respect. And where love is possible, also, it should be poured out by the cupful, not measured by stingy teaspoons. Just remember that the woman who raised you is as much your mother as the woman who gave you birth. Where forgiveness is needed, it isn’t always a simple thing to do and no one should be coerced into having to forgive someone who has been cruel, even when they are unaware of the true facts of a situation.
Here’s to a wonderful year of healing, no matter how slow the process.
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