Ordinary Thoughts, Essays and Short Stories

Not Just Another Day in May

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It’s May Day!  Trees are budding, flowers are starting to bloom and somewhere people are dancing around a maypole.  I’m not one of those people, though.  About the only dancing I do is when I inadvertently walk through a spider web.  And that’s really more of a flail than a dance.  Which reminds me…it’s time to call the exterminator to schedule our spring spray.

But I digress.  Besides all that fun stuff mentioned above, the month of May brings another annual event that bears mentioning.  Mother’s Day is right around the corner.  It used to be a day I absolutely dreaded.  After my mom passed away, that holiday became a heart-wrenching reminder of what I’d lost.  The annual onslaught of Mother’s Day ads and events was agonizing and I did everything I could to avoid participation.

After several years of self-indulgent wallowing, I finally sat myself down for a come to Jesus talk and realized how unfair I’d been to my own daughters.  While I was trying to protect myself from heartache, I was creating an unnecessary feeling of loss for them.  I mean, I was still here, alive and kicking, yet I wasn’t letting them acknowledge me on that special day.  They did their best to understand and give me space, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hurt by it.

Once I stopped making it all about me and truly looked at it from their perspective, I was able to set my sadness aside.  I know how important it is to remember that Mother’s Day isn’t just for the mom.  It’s also for the people in her life who love her and want to celebrate that bond. 

Having lost its hurtful hold on me, Mother’s Day is back to being an enjoyable day of sharing the love between mother and child.  Of course, even though it’s a special day, it could be any day.  Love doesn’t need a calendar date to be celebrated.

Since I’ve got mothers on the brain, I decided to share an essay about the impact my own mom had on me…pretty much from the moment I met her.  To check it out, just click the button below.

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2 Comments

  1. Thomas

    Lovely!

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