Mothers are wonderful.
They bandage our scraped knees; kiss our tears away; smile when we act silly; thank us for those chunky clay masterpieces and other less-than-attractive gifts made precious by our own hands; hug us for no other reason than they love us; and want only the best for us, sacrificing what they want so we can have it.
They feel our hearts break as if they were their own and always have a shoulder for our despair. They see us at our best and our worst and love us just the same.
Of course, we never see what all this is about until we venture into motherhood ourselves. I think our mothers’ IQs raise with the stages our children’s lives are going through.
On Sunday, mothers will be honored across the nation. Restaurants will be filled to capacity and florist shelves will be empty.
The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, Mother of Christ. In England, this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.
In the United States, Mother’s Day started nearly 150 years ago, Appalachian homemaker Anna Jarvis organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best seen to by mothers. She called it “Mother’s Work Day.”
Legend has it that her daughter, also Anna, remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers.”
At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna’s mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother’s Day. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.
On Sunday, moms will be pampered and treated to breakfast in bed. Carefully wrapped presents will be opened and proclaimed the best Mother’s Day gifts ever, and she will mean it.
So bring her flowers, chocolates, silk scarves and jewelry. Treat her to breakfast, lunch or dinner. Tell her you love her and are glad she is your mother. She’ll be glad, too.
Happy Mother’s Day to all who have mothered us.