Mother Love

Day 1682.

It is eight minutes into Mother’s Day here in the USA.

English Mothers are celebrated in March.

Luke would claim on English Mother’s Day
”Nope, doesn’t count.. you’re in America now”
On American Mother’s Day, it would be
”Nope, doesn’t count… you’re English”
Either way, at some point there would be flowers.
And this is continued anonymously by some kind soul, who sends me flowers each year.

Oh, Luke, how I miss the way you teased me, the playful banter, always delivered with that heart melting grin!

George, on the other hand, in typical George style, has his own cheeky take on the matter of Mother’s Day.
George claims that it is the day when Mother’s get to be their best version of themselves. This is the day that I get to spoil him.
And so, I do, by cooking very complicated pancakes from his favorite restaurant in London.
He holds his ground on this despite explanation from incredulous well wishers that his logic is flawed.
I enjoy this witty twist.
It’s wonderful, because however you look at it, we get to be together.

But this is also a painful day for so many.

For some, there will be one less card.

Some get none, because if they have lost their only child, sometimes the world no longer sees them as a Mother.

Some live with children lost in substance use and have no idea where their children are, either metaphorically or literally, living in terror of ‘that phone call’.

Some yearn to be Mothers, and can’t.

Some are the battling the cruel cycles of fertility treatment.

Some nearly were Mothers, but that pregnancy just didn’t make it.

Some live without their Mothers.

Some suffer the agony of a Mother caught in the strangle hold of substance use.

Some live with a Mother who grieves their other child and feel that no matter what they do, they can never make their Mother happy on this day.

Some Mothers, like mine, have to witness the agony of their own child suffering in child loss.

For all those who mourn the Mothering future you longed for and didn’t get… my heart goes out to you always, but especially today.
This is a brutal road for us all.

But for me, today is not a celebration of a Brady Bunch style Motherhood.
For me, today is a celebration of the extraordinary capacity we have to love, wholly, deeply, unconditionally and eternally, without measure…
The love of Mothers.
The love for Mothers.
The most powerful of love…

Mother love.