A Belated Mother's Day Wish

This is for my mom and all the mothers in our circle of family and friends. I was in southern Utah on Mother's Day and in an area where we couldn't get phone service, so I didn't get to call you, Mom, as I usually do on Mother's Day. I thought about you on Sunday, along with all of my sisters and sisters-in-law, my cousins and aunts who are mothers ... I said a special prayer in our sweat lodge Sunday night, for all the mothers in the world, including you all.

Just something I made, inspired by the
qualities I love most about you, Mom:



Mothers are the wellspring of love in the world. Mothers are our models for nurturing, creativity, acceptance and generosity. Not to say that fathers (as well as people who don't have children) are not often models of these qualities, but that I believe babies and children learn to be loving and accepting -- first -- from their mothers. There are children in our world, adults and children still growing up, who don't have mothers like we do. Whose mothers have died, or have never really been there for them in the way our mom has been. I hold them in my heart -- children and adults alike -- and wish they can find love somewhere.

I feel so lucky to have you for my mom, Mom ... and to have sisters, cousins and aunts like I do -- mothers who heed the urge to gather their kids in their arms and hold them and nourish their tiny spirits along with feeding their bellies and minds!

Thank you for being flexible, for teaching me about beauty, for acknowledging the growing pains we all have, for looking into your own heart and being honest, reliable, willing to change and bend and above all, to love your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I wish you and all mothers I know ... a long life with your love reflected back to you by your children and their children.