Mothers

One thing that all mortals share is that we all have mothers. I lost mine 10 years ago, so Mother's Day is a hard day for me. I miss her a lot.

Today I rejoiced with a mother who welcomed her eighteenth adopted special needs child to her loving family and also grieved at the passing of my friend, a mother of a 17-year daughter and a young married daughter with four children. And I've thought a lot about mothers.

One way we can find greater peace in life is honoring, loving, and forgiving our mothers. The most miserable people I know hold on to grudges against their mothers. Some of them have never been mothers themselves and don't know how truly daunting the job is. Others seem to be stuck in a pity party and want to blame their bad choices on their moms.

When my mother was alive, every year on Mother's Day, I cooked dinner for her and pampered her. I brought me such joy and peace to serve her not only on Mother's Day but throughout the year. Sometimes serving her was very inconvenient--even difficult--but it still brought me peace. I gave up a promising career to care for her, but don't regret the choice at all.

I volunteer in a retirement center and see many forgotten mothers whose children are too "busy" to call or visit them. It's been fun to adopt a couple of these moms and try to love them the way I loved my own mother. There are so many lonely people in the world who long for kindness, and a lot of them are elderly, widowed mothers.

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat," said Mother Teresa. Loving and forgiving our mothers brings us peace. As we honor our mothers by living in love, goodness, and forgiveness, we find peace.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers and to all who celebrate motherhood. It is a noble and difficult calling. May we find peace as we love and forgive our mothers and as we reach out with love to those who feel unwanted, unloved and forgotten.
© Carol Brown