What Mother's Day Means to Me

Mother's Day is coming May 11th, 2008 and while many other people are wrapped up in finding gifts and ways of expression to celebrate their mothers, new moms must be thinking about their lives in retrospect as I am. Becoming a mother is a life altering experience that brings about emotional, physical, and mental changes via mother nature to ensure that you are in essence the ultimate evolutionary caregiver. You come to feel more than you ever knew you could for a small helpless little person and bond with that person whom you never really knew until you laid eyes on him or her.

It's an amazing and humbling experience that a mother wouldn't trade for anything in the universe. What exactly we're made of that enables us to sense our children's needs and emotions is a mystery, but it is a wonderful thing. Being a mother now gives me a sense of joy, respect for all truly dedicated moms all over the world, and a positive outlook on the future. It makes me look back upon my past and realize how blessed I am to have what I do today. Learning, loving, changing, fortifying, needing, and challenging my family is now my job just as it was my mother's and grandmother's before me. I am undaunted and ready to take on the obstacles that motherhood and life entail. What does Mother's Day mean to me now? It is not only a celebration of the entrance into true womanhood, but a confirmation that we as females are stronger and more beautiful than we are often given credit for. Not for our capacity to bear children, but our capacity for respect of humankind and our nurturing skills to make this world a better place. We make existence what it is, because we are a foundation which can not be torn down.

As a mother I have good and bad moments, yet I am never totally deterred from what my purpose is. That which is to raise a beneficial and loving member of society who will hopefully grow to encourage harmony and respect among all peoples and raise more loving individuals to benefit this society. We all should take part in making the world a better and more peaceful place. A mother's job, however, is more personal and much more poignant in forming a certain type of person as a child. In adulthood, we form our own opinions, are responsible for our own actions, and we can either convey what we were taught or go in the other direction.

Many women ask themselves whether they have failed a child when their offspring make the wrong decision, but should not try and tackle blame as it is by choice that we go down the paths that we do. All that we can do as mothers is try and lay the foundation of a good person and from there, they become adults and therefor do what they want or believe is correct. I don't know what the future holds for my family or what my daughter will do or grow up to be, yet I feel secure in the fact that my husband and I are raising a kind individual. Nothing makes me happier than to see that she is satisfied and sees love between us. Many children are not that lucky too often in this country especially with all of it's privileges and supposed rights, children do not have enough rights in my opinion. Motherhood has given me a new perspective and new dreams for my future. It has affected me in a way I'd never imagined.

I ask everyone on this day to not only celebrate mothers, but to look within as I do and ask themselves if they are doing enough each day to help make the world a better place as our mothers attempted to raise us to do. We should emulate their kindness, responsibility, respect, and wisdom throughout our lives. I feel that it's different each day and that becoming a mother has made me into a better person. Recognize the treasure that is a mother and do your best to realize her harmony and dreams so that others will follow suit, that is the very best way to celebrate mothers.