Mothers

Mothers

1. I am not sure a drugstore Mother's Day card can touch the mystery of it all.

2. Some mothers love Mother's Day cards.

3. A mother is a mother forever, even when she is gone or her child is gone. My mother lived from 1907 until 2008. I think I am just beginning to really understand her as a person.

4. Being a mother is both the simplest and  the most complicated relationship of a lifetime.

5. No child belongs to a mother. Mothers may belong to their children sometimes.

6. Each mother is unique as each child is unique. Either the mother or the child can be far too unique for the taste of the other.

7. Everyone has a mother. There are so many stories, but the reality is each of us grew within one woman.

9. A mother is seen through the eyes of each child in differently. As an only child, I miss a sibling's take on the whole thing

10. Sometimes the smallest moments are the greatest moments. My mother fell in the river in her best clothes, taking a fish off the hook for squeamish me. This probably wasn't a small moment for my mother. A better example is her excitement as she dug up the potatoes in the garden each fall.

11. No mother is perfect.

12. Some mothers are far from perfect.

13. All mothers are far from perfect sometimes.

14. Sometimes a mother can for a moment be beyond perfect.

15. These moments are rare.

16. To fully understand motherhood it may be necessary to be one. A mother knows the miracle of a first tooth.

17. A mothers job is to hold tight and let go. A child's first trip to the corner store alone is a breath holding event for a mother.

18. Holding tight is easier than letting go.

19. Being the mother of a teenager is hard.

20. Being a teenager is probably even harder.

21. Most often, it is more difficult to see a child suffer than experience your own suffering.

22. Some of the funniest memories are of the stupid things your mother did. My mother made me wear a sponge in the back of my hat when I skated on the hard ice of the creek.

23. Some mothers are good cooks and some mothers aren't.

24. Every mother makes a favourite dish and a specialty that is hard to swallow. My favourite was my mother's lemon snow with custard sauce. I still shudder at the thought of tomato aspic.

25. The stories read in a mother's lap are the best stories.

26. Each mother has a special gift she often offers to her child. My mother gave me her love of poetry.

27. Every child has said or thought "I hate you." to her mother.

28. Every mother has thought, "Who is this child? Where did she come from?"

29. There is no greater or important love than the nurturing love of a mother.

30. Motherhood rocks.

31. I wish I could go out in the woods to pick some wild leeks for my mother. That was her favourite Mother's Day gift.