To My Favourite Mothers This Mother’s Day

Image Credit: Kevin Laminto via Unsplash.

Written by H. WEND, May 14th, 2023.

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Mother’s Day isn’t quite what it used to be. For as long as I can remember, I have always known that I had a very special mother, that apart from strange blips in my adolescence, I always believed I was incredibly lucky to have had her. She was my life’s greatest blessing.

When Mother’s Day would come around, it was not nearly enough to celebrate and thank her, but it would come anyway, and I’d give her chocolate, slippers, breakfast in bed, and a card in the morning before the family gathered for a meal and chocolate cake.

The first Mother’s Day that came without my mother felt hollow, somewhat meaningless, annoying even. It still feels like an event I’m no longer invited to— Kicked out and shut out forever.

I no longer wanted to acknowledge the day until the following year when my younger sister became a mother to her baby girl. Watching this unfold for her has been breathtakingly wild in the best way.

I am in awe of her.

From the outside, it is the most natural thing in the world for my sister, but I know it doesn’t always feel that way for her. When I watch her, I see our mother. I see the hands that held my sister and I for the first twenty-odd years of our lives— the same hands that taught my sister how to hold her daughter with the very same tenderness.

When grief enters your life, it can feel like many doors close on you. I’m thankful for reminders of those who keep my mother and her legacy alive. My sister and her daughter are a couple of these amazing reminders.

It’s almost as if the day itself means everything and nothing. Nothing— because we know we do not need a specific day to tell our mothers that we love and appreciate them. Everything— because our mothers are ours for life, and this day of celebration will come and go, but their time with us works eerily similar.

Today I am reminded of a legacy that isn’t lost in this one day—that never really leaves—a legacy that survives death and prevails in the most magical ways.

This Mother’s Day, I am so thankful for the mother I was blessed with in this lifetime. Our time together felt much too short, but within that short time, she gave me a lifetime of love and hope to hold dear. I am thankful for the seat she occupied in rooms full of people who were lucky enough to bask in her warmth and light. I am grateful for the ways she showed up for me. Just as eight-year-old me would peer out from a stage during school performances and award ceremonies to find her glistening face, I know that when I find myself in a crowded space or unfamiliar places, I will see her glistening face— her warmth and light.

I am thankful for the force of nature she was—a mother who was kind, generous and nurturing. She mothered with depression and inner struggles, and felt alone while she weaved herself around her children but she knew herself well and single-handedly made many lives magical.

Today, I am also thankful for the little lady who has spent her life as my adorable, free-spirited little sister but is in fact so much more. To the motherless daughter who learns to mother on her own, the mother who is more than enough, I have grown more in awe of you since the moment you accepted the invitation to step into the most daunting and magical experience of your life—motherhood.

To my favourite mothers (and all mothers) this Mother’s Day. 💐