Mother's Day....

I love to read.  It's something I inherited from my mother and from her mother before her.... I read fiction, non-fiction, biography, cookbooks, anything I can get my hands on.  As a child I used to stay up late at night reading under the covers with a flashlight or crouching in the hallway next to the nightlight....  There are books in almost every room of the house- non-fiction in the living room, fiction in the office, childrens books in the nursery, craft and sewing books in my sewing room.  To me, books are part of what makes a house a home.....

When I'm reading I often come across passages that speak to me, and I like to copy them down.  Usually I scribble them on bits of paper or in random notebooks only to lose track of them.... Last week however I copied down a passage from The Red Tent by Anita Diamant which I thought was fitting to share on Mother's Day today.  The main character is talking about the birth of her child:

"There should be a song for women to sing at this moment, or a prayer to recite.  But perhaps there is none because there are no words strong enough to name that moment.  Like every mother since the first mother, I was overcome and bereft, exalted and ravaged.  I had crossed over from girlhood.  I beheld myself as an infant in my mother's arms, and caught a glimpse of my own death.  I wept without knowing whether I rejoiced or mourned."

I find myself reading this quote over and over again, nodding my head at each carefully chosen word.  When I try to describe becoming a mother to those who are not yet mothers I can only think the same thing, that there are no words strong enough to name that moment.  One moment you're just a woman, and you think that you know exactly who you are, what you stand for, who you want to be.  And then a little tiny life is placed in your arms and in your heart and suddenly you become someone completely different- just like the new person in your arms you are a new person too- a mother.  A mother who no longer spends as much time thinking about who you are and what you stand for and who you want to be, but who your child is, how you will raise them to know what to stand for, how they will become the best person they can be....

I think that once you become a mother you understand how courageous and selfless having a child truly is.  You have willingly given your body, your soul, your heart, your mind and your emotions completely to another person- more completely than you give these things even in marriage.  You start giving of yourself while pregnant and will never stop until you leave this life behind- once you become a mother you are always, and forever, and foremost, a mother.

So thank you Mom for being courageous and brave and selfless enough to give me life- you raised me to be the woman that I am, the wife that I am, and now, in my ultimate role, the mother that I am.

And thank you to my grandmother who raised my mother to be the woman she is so that she could, in turn, share herself with me.

And thank you to my mother-in-law who raised her son to be a wonderful husband and father.

And thank you to all of the other mothers I know- you are all a source of inspiration and a fountain of knowledge and I love you all.