“Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy very, very much – even more than she loved herself.” ~Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree
If you look closely, honestly at your relationship with your mother, regardless of the quality of that relationship at this moment, you must acknowledge that there are many gifts you’ve received directly from her. How to do, be, handle, react, cope, let go, hold on, love… Or how not to.
No matter who you are, your own mother gave you life. For some, that may be all that she gave you. For others, she may have given you the entirety of the world, the entirety of herself. But regardless of the depth of devotion or the degree of sacrifice, every mother-child relationship begins with a gift. Today, we honor and celebrate this gift.
There is a meme that has been going around the internet – and around our collective consciousness long before the web existed – which states, “sometimes I open my mouth and my mother comes out.” As a mother, I want that statement, years hence, to make my children smile. As a daughter, I know that is not always the likely reaction.
Whether we want her to or not, our mothers and the gifts they give us have a profound influence on the people we become.
As a mother, I can relate to The Grove as a place of solace and comfort, a place to revitalize connection with what is essential. This is what I hope to be for my children, this is among the gifts I endeavor to be giving. In the future, as in the past, I hope they will see their mother – where ever I may be in my own life – as providing a place to call Home; where they are never alone, and they are always loved. Very, very much.
Happy Mother’s Day.
~ Christiana
Perhaps you may be interested in visiting last year’s thoughts on Mother’s Day, here.
