My mother and I celebrate Mother's Day on May 9th. We have ever since 1978. The year after my brother, Jody, committed suicide. It is comforting somehow to remember together. Until my son died in 2013, I really didn't "get it". Sure I miss my brother, but not like I miss my son. It is different, it just is. So now, my mother and I share the loss of our sons. It is a special bond, an unspoken understanding of pain that when shared somehow helps brighten the moment.
So on the real Mother's Day, I have no expectations of not being loved because Jay, Ary, or India don't call. Which makes it all the sweeter when they do. Actually, this year, India's card made me cry, it was a sappy card but she wrote a beautiful note that made the words personal and real. Jay actually called me on Mon. the 7th to say Happy Mother's Day. I had to laugh. A Mon.? REALLY? It was still wonderful to hear his voice. Ary's text came first thing and made me smile.
I was doing what makes me happy --- riding my motorcycle. The yellows of early Spring - forsythia and daffodils - have waned, giving way to the purples, pinks, and whites - lillacs, azaleas, dogwoods - of late spring. The smells as I ride through the countrysides of Maryland - autumn olive, honeysuckle, wisteria, grasses -- make me so glad to be alive.
That was on Sat. On Mother's Day this year, it was wet and cold -- good gear makes ALL the difference in staying happy while riding in less than perfect weather.
As I headed home from Ocean City, I was comfortable and lost in thought. I was thinking about a conversation I had last night with a young woman I hadn't met before. Not sure how it started but she asked me if I would mind going with her to the outside bar to talk. We talked so long that her husband came out to see if we were ok. After our conversation, she told me that she was meant to meet me this weekend, I had a lot she needed to hear. Turns out, I felt the same way. I was reminded how lucky I am that I was able to get to know Tommy. There are times when 25 years is not nearly enough time, but it is all perspective isn't it. What if I never got to know him at all. What if I only heard his heartbeat. What if that was true over and over again.
Where did Mother's Day come from anyway? Is it really just a fake holiday made up by Hallmark? A google search tells me that in 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sun. in May as a day to honor mothers.
A woman named Anna Jarvis apparently campaigned for a day to honor mothers, for her mother, who died on May 9th, 1905. WOW! The first Mother's Day celebration was held in Grafton, West Virginia at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in 1908.
Interestingly, she hated how the holiday became commercialized and was arrested for her protests against florists. She died in 1948 in a sanitarium. Another WOW.
The universe is indeed surprising in it's parallels.
Here is a card I bought -- just reminded me of past Mother's Days and good times.
So on the real Mother's Day, I have no expectations of not being loved because Jay, Ary, or India don't call. Which makes it all the sweeter when they do. Actually, this year, India's card made me cry, it was a sappy card but she wrote a beautiful note that made the words personal and real. Jay actually called me on Mon. the 7th to say Happy Mother's Day. I had to laugh. A Mon.? REALLY? It was still wonderful to hear his voice. Ary's text came first thing and made me smile.
I was doing what makes me happy --- riding my motorcycle. The yellows of early Spring - forsythia and daffodils - have waned, giving way to the purples, pinks, and whites - lillacs, azaleas, dogwoods - of late spring. The smells as I ride through the countrysides of Maryland - autumn olive, honeysuckle, wisteria, grasses -- make me so glad to be alive.
That was on Sat. On Mother's Day this year, it was wet and cold -- good gear makes ALL the difference in staying happy while riding in less than perfect weather.
As I headed home from Ocean City, I was comfortable and lost in thought. I was thinking about a conversation I had last night with a young woman I hadn't met before. Not sure how it started but she asked me if I would mind going with her to the outside bar to talk. We talked so long that her husband came out to see if we were ok. After our conversation, she told me that she was meant to meet me this weekend, I had a lot she needed to hear. Turns out, I felt the same way. I was reminded how lucky I am that I was able to get to know Tommy. There are times when 25 years is not nearly enough time, but it is all perspective isn't it. What if I never got to know him at all. What if I only heard his heartbeat. What if that was true over and over again.
Where did Mother's Day come from anyway? Is it really just a fake holiday made up by Hallmark? A google search tells me that in 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sun. in May as a day to honor mothers.
A woman named Anna Jarvis apparently campaigned for a day to honor mothers, for her mother, who died on May 9th, 1905. WOW! The first Mother's Day celebration was held in Grafton, West Virginia at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in 1908.
Interestingly, she hated how the holiday became commercialized and was arrested for her protests against florists. She died in 1948 in a sanitarium. Another WOW.
The universe is indeed surprising in it's parallels.
Here is a card I bought -- just reminded me of past Mother's Days and good times.
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