This is for you

I received this in the mail from a good friend of mine, who is a single mother of two. Aside from the obvious eloquence of the prose, I was stuck by the fullness of the message contained in these few thoughts. Happy Mother’s Day to all.

This is for all the mothers who froze their buns off on metal bleachers at baseball and softball games Friday nights instead of watching from their cars so that when their kids asked, “Did you see me?” They could say, “Of course. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” and mean it.

This is for all the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, “It’s ok, Honey, Mommy’s here.”

This is for all the mothers of Kosovo who fled in the night and can’t find their children. This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they’ll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.

This is for all the mothers of the victims of the Colorado shooting and the mothers of the murderers. For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TV’s in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.

This is for all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And for all the mothers who don’t.

What makes a good mother anyway? Is it patience? Or is it compassion? Is it broad hips or is it the ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time? Or is it heart? Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time? Is it the jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 a.m. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby? Is it the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a school shooting, a fire, a car accident, a baby dying?

This is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies, and this is for all the mothers who wanted to but just couldn’t.

This is for reading Goodnight, Moon twice a night for a year and then reading it again, “just one more time”.

This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair and stomp their feet like a tired 2-year old who wants ice-cream before dinner.

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school, and for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

This is for all the mothers who bite their lips sometimes until they bleed when their 14-year olds dye their hair green.

This is for all the mothers who lock themselves in the bathroom when babies keep crying and won’t stop.

This is for all the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for all the mothers whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls, “Mom?” in a crowd, even thought they know their own offspring are at home.

This is for mothers who put pinwheels and teddy bears on their children’s graves.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, and who can’t find the words to reach them.

This is for all the mothers who sent their sons to school with stomach aches, assuring them they’d be just fine once they got there, only to get a call from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up right away.

This is for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation, and mature mothers learning to let go.

This is for working mothers and stay-at-home mothers, single mothers and married mothers, mothers with money and mothers without.

This is for us all; so hang in there. Home is what catches us when we fall. (Author: unknown)

And that’s All in a day’s work!