Present Day May 11 2024 � Mother’s Day I just got home from walking my dog Leo and the whole time I was out I was thinking about mothers. Who we are and what we represent. I thought about the women in my life who have helped shape the person I am today. You see I didn’t have a good relationship with my own mother although I tried to get to know her for she gave me life! Now I’m in a place in my maturity where I can honour her and the unintended gifts she gave me. After all these years of mom being gone I have found myself reflecting about her so much this year. During these reflections I have written her the many letters that I could not have written her when she was alive. This process has given me pause and enlightened me to the many ways my life has been well lived because of her. Being the oldest of four girls I saw many situations where our mother was our fierce protector. I also acknowledge the many ways that I felt I wasn’t enough and how this thought has encouraged me to push myself to prove to myself and others that I am more than what meets the eye. Honestly there have been some very important women in my life who saved me from depression self-loathing and destructive behaviours that I’d like to praise them on this special day too. No one can take the place of our mother’s! Whatever faults they had they are a work in progress like the rest of us. We don’t receive a manual for how to be a mother when our children arrive planned or unexpected. A mother simple does the best she can with what she has. As a mother of adults now I try to cut myself some slack when I think of my less than stellar moments raising my children. My relationship with my mom was chaotic at best and when the primary parent doesn’t have the basic skills to show you love and trust and devotion I grew up guarded at time combative and determined to be better. I was fortunate to have a foster mother aunts and teachers who saw something in me that I could not see myself. I love these women too for their guidance and trust and presents. No matter what your relationship is with your mother take to good with the bad. We forget that those not-so-great memories have given us intangible gifts. Our mother’s gave us all the grandest gift the gift of life! What are you waiting for? Tell the mother mom’s aunts nana’s and great grandma’s thank you and love you:);
