The Mothers We May Overlook...

Easter our "formal "portrait...

As we prepare for Mother's Day, I thought I would share a few words about Moms...

I'm reminded of the opening montage of the movie "Love Actually" where you see the arrivals at Heathrow airport, all these folks so happy to see their loved ones... The film's directors actually set up cameras and got real people arriving into the arms of loved ones. It is so simple the way we love, when we open our hearts to the people who matter, see the perfect love in their eyes, it's true love... And perfect... Everything else, well it melts away... The piddly-stuff and foolish worries...

I think that's why a mother's love is so profound, it melts all the other stuff away, I see it in my own children, and see it in the lives that matter most to me... The touch of a mother is everlasting.

That first time you hold your child, it's like a love flood... You have waited and waited for this child... I think of my girls who have adopted, that moment they have longed for, and suffered for, all the different pains and then the moment... The moment that girl holds that baby in her arms...

The world stops for longer than an instant and we are all transformed.

I've been so fortunate to be in the hospital, after girls I love have had their babies; and its that magical and powerful moment.  I also have shared some private moments, with friends that are painful and grace filled all at the same time... But in all of these moments, I'm moved by the fact that as women, we really do shape the world. And without our touch we all would be lost.

What a blessing, to be surrounded by girls who do the Mom thing right... From the Moms who care for their children's chronic diseases and make it all seem "normal".  To the girls, who are caregivers for there Moms and their families all at the same time... To the women who are mothers, but never had children.... These women are the truest mothers in all of us... The women who have taken vocations of service, or marriage or have remained single, but they have never forgotten a birthday, are always the ones you call when you are in a pinch, are as comfortable doing your laundry as their own and are out running the free world... You know these quiet mothers.... We all have this woman; who save us, or saved us as kids, filled in for the brokenness in our own families...

The female doctors and nurses in my life and the religious sisters who taught me service and unfailing love of  faith.  Doctors, nurses and nuns are cut from the same cloth... They share all your moments; both offer comfort and a safety that you only find with the sisterhood of women.  They get it all, because they do it all... They don't get the luxury of saying, "I'm busy." They are both bound by vows of service, daily putting other's needs above their own.

That's Motherhood in its most basic form.

And as women we all do that....

So this Mother's Day, as we are loved with burnt toast and warmish tea... Remember the silent Mothers among us, the ones who have our backs, raise our children, and bless us with their selfless love....

They are our Mothers too... 

Happy Mother's Day...

The Divine in me bows to the Divine in you....

Kathryn, the Pilgrimage Gal....