Mothering….

“We are born of love;  love is our Mother”   …..Rumi

We are diverse.

We are young, old, married, single.  We are widowed….and we are divorced.

We are lesbian….bi-sexual….transgender….and straight.

We are stay-at-home, work-outside-the-home, work-in-the-home…Moms.

Ageless and timeless, energized and buoyant.

And….anxious, depressed, overwhelmed and angry.  Overworked…and at times under appreciated.

We are defiant.  We are fierce.  We are protective.

We are tough.

Also…. fragile, broken, damaged, confused….misunderstood, aggressive, outspoken….and silent.

We are faithful….and unfaithful.

We are concerned, afraid, worried and sad.

We’ve been lost.  We’ve been found.

We are warriors!

We are mothers…..and at any time in our lives we have been many or all of these ….multiple times….and will be again.

We have given birth, we have adopted, we have step-parented.

We have mothered the children of our friends….of our sisters…..the children of our children….and each other.

We have loved mothering; we have struggled with mothering.  We had mothers who mothered well, and mothers who did not.

We planned to become mothers;  we became mothers before we were ready.

We gave birth to children of a different race than our own….a different sexual orientation…. differently abled. We marched for their freedom, we fought for their rights.

We are feminine.

We are the nurturers…..the feelers…..the empaths.

We bring sensitivity, caring, compassion and tolerance to the world.

We are adaptable, powerful, yet imperfect.

We…..are….courageous….and sometimes cowards.

We have roles.  Important roles.  Many roles.

We are teachers, mentors, nurses, cheerleaders, listeners, comforters, healers…often the breadwinners.

We are mothers.

The soul of the family system.  The center.  The heart.

This is Mother’s Day weekend.

Some of us will celebrate with our own Moms.  Some, like me, will remember, with sentimental sadness, the Moms who have passed on.

Some will spend the day with their children, and some have children too far away.  Some, like me, will experience both.

Mother’s Day is a time when I think of all the women in my life who are mothers.

They fit all of the descriptions above….single Moms, divorced Moms, married Moms, widowed Moms,  Moms of biracial children, disabled children, gay kids, Stepmoms, Moms of children they have adopted, Moms who are lesbians, Moms who have tragically lost their children to death, Moms who are estranged from their children, Moms who are raising their grandchildren and Moms who have become grandmothers.

We are all different, yet very much the same.

As I write this,  I have images of many of you and the children you have raised and are raising.  I am in awe of you, appreciating, as I do for myself, the indescribable joy of mothering and the omnipresent worry that comes with the territory.

It is the role I cherish most and the greatest blessing of my life.

 

John and Jeremy are my world.

 

 

 

To all of you who have mentored me as a Mom, have led by example, have shared with me every delicious…..and difficult….facet of mothering your kiddos….and have been a ‘mother’ to me when I have needed one….I thank you.

And I honor you.

Happy Mother’s Day!