As a toddler child, the 2nd Sunday morning of May in the United States you could always find us as kids, starting our Mother’s Day celebration at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
It was a wonderful day of celebrating our faith and family gatherings to honor our Mothers.
Once as a young First Grader, you know you certainly appreciated your Mother for all kinds of tasks in daily life. Helping you get dressed for school, making your breakfast, packing a lunch in a brown paper bag and taking you or walking with you to the bus stop, a quarter mile away.
At this stage of your own youth, there is little thought about all the challenges your own parents endured, now that you alone are growing up so fast, since the day you were born.
Decades later, after you are married and you have become a parent, your own “Mother’s Day” celebration takes on a whole new perspective.
As young parents with our own elementary age kids, our Mother's Day always started at McLean Bible Church and then perhaps a picnic afterwards at our local Great Falls Park, along the Potomac River with all the Spring wild flowers in bloom.
Reflecting back, when you achieve the parental milestone of your own personal 2nd or 3rd Mother’s Day holiday, you discover you are now much more focused on your child, through a whole different “Mother’s Day” cognitive lens.
You think, how will I teach them? When will I have the means and ability to prepare them for all of the challenges of life on their own?
Their own first losing soccer match or striking out in the little league baseball game. Their 3rd Grade report card. Their own first romantic crush and break up. The future “Sorry to Inform You” letter(s) from an anticipated college or service application.
"Who will they become? Now as a parent, you will ask yourself this question many times, as a Mother and/or Father in your lifetime."
As you grow older yourself in life as a parent with teenagers, you begin to reflect back on your own life and what your Mom and Dad experienced, as you grew up as their Son or Daughter.
Mother’s Day is about the endless journey of life, being a responsible parent. It is not a flat and easy trail to navigate.
The parenting experience will be long and full of challenging ascents, curves and also so many exciting descents.
As a Parent and a Mother, you know all about responsibility. Pure Joy. Faith. Dedication. Sleepless nights. Fear. Courage. And most of all, “Love” no matter what…
