Happy Mother's Day

Here in the U.S. yesterday was Mother's Day. A day we thank our mother's for being who they are and for raising us and making us who we are.

One can not TRULY appreciate this day (or father's day) without being a mother or father. Yes, many will disagree with that statement, and as time goes on you may feel like you understand what it took for your mother/father to raise you. To put up with all your moods and phases and horrors you put them through as you matured. Yet, I maintain, unless you have or are raising one yourself, you can not TRULY understand. There is another level of comprehension and appretiation for your parents the day you bring new life into the world that is truly a part of you. It is a new level of love that only a parent can understand.

Having a child also put's into perspective how truly human we are; flawed though we may be. The mistakes your parents made can now be understood and hopefully forgiven, though never forgotten. Unfortunately it is sometimes those flaws that mold us. It is being a parent that looking deeply inside allows us to see the mistakes we have made and the effects they have. Yet as hard as we strive for perfection, the more we realize our failures and hopefully, our successes as well.

True understanding comes not from school, or even the bible. True understanding comes from looking in the eyes of your child. A better understanding of your parents decisions and thoughts, dreams and wishes, and if you look deep enough, a secret knowledge of who you are and those emotions held deep within that as hard as you might try, only appear on certain occasions. Yes, sometimes on mother's day, but mostly those events that are not on our nationwide calander, but rather our household calander. Those scribblings that say "Johnnies first baseball game", "Brooke's first dance recital", and dare I say "Heather's senior prom"?

Yes, Johnnie will drop his first fly ball, Brooke will slip on stage, and you will be up all night on prom night. You will probably cry at every one. Not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. You will sniffle and cover your eyes and never admit you were crying, even as you walk down the aisle arm and arm with your daughter, she will not understand. Not truly.

But you know that one day, as you now understand, so they will too. The day they take the time to look into their child's eyes and see themselves. The night their child falls asleep in the car and they carry them into their bed and they remember the feeling of you carrying them safely into their bed. The day they open their first mother's / father's day cards with scribbles that look like cave wall etchings, the day their own child drops his first ball or slips on stage.

It is on that day that you too will get a card or phone call from your children, and more tears will be shed, but this time, if someone looked closely enough at you, they will see a small smile on your face, perhaps a smirk, that sense your job is complete, they now understand, and perhaps even a sense of revenge!