Mothers Day Reflections

It’s the little things about motherhood that stay with you forever, like the feeling of little fingers grabbing your own and holding on tight. Baby fingers leave me awestruck, these small creations with tiny knuckles and dainty fingernails. Baby toes are equally as pleasing. If there is a more perfect moment in all of motherhood than holding a tiny foot and kissing it over and over, I have not found it. Baby smiles are followed by baby giggles, the best sounds on earth. They come forth from hours of coos and gurgles, mother’s music, as we sit and admire these little creatures from top to bottom. A soft kiss to a child’s head as they sleep, with lips brushing across silky fine hairs and the smell of powder, warms the mother’s heart like nothing else can.

The taste of chocolate, lady bugs, and butterfly kisses, are but a few of the countless discoveries each day. These shared adventures strengthen the bond between mother and child. Small arms reach, stretch, pull, and grasp each experience with innocent joy. The first steps come and we watch as they totter back and forth. We know that they will fall, more than once, and that we have to let them or they will not learn to walk for themselves. Long strolls while learning the words for cow and grass and sunshine, never last long enough before it is time to rush them off to school with a lump in our throats as we turn to leave them.

We watch with trepidation as they take their first turn at bat, their first jump off the diving board, and their first ride without the training wheels. We stand guard at the playground and gasp as they climb just a little too high. We have to control ours emotions so that we don’t give the neighborhood bully a good spanking, but instead teach our children to stand up for themselves when they need to.

Brush your teeth, eat your vegetables, clean your room, and do your homework, the familiar lines of a mother’s tune. A good mother knows that they won’t like us all of the time. We don’t let it break our hearts when they scowl and turn to run to their rooms in disgust after we have to tell them no. We remember fondly the days when they thought mom knew everything, but our chests swell with pride as they learn to think for themselves.

We support them when we can, but not too much. We can tell them when we think they have veered a little off course, but must respect some decisions as theirs alone to make, and can only pray that the road they ultimately take will be a good one. We hope that they will surpass all that we have done and want for them only the best that life has to offer, knowing full well that there will be pitfalls along the way. We must teach them that life is not about perfection, but about doing our best. That is all we can ask of them and that is all that they can ask of us. As mothers we are not saints or angels, but women, who do the best that we can with this awesome responsibility that has been bestowed upon us....

and we treasure every minute of it.