Sunday, May 12, 2024

The two sides of Mother's Day

Her
London, ON
March 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Mother’s Day has always been bittersweet for some.

Maybe you lost your mom. Or you’re slowly losing her. Or you never had fond memories of her to begin with. Maybe you wanted to be a mom, but couldn’t. Maybe you’ve been a mom, then weren’t. Maybe your experience doesn’t fit the perfectly typeset sentiment of a Hallmark card.

Whatever the case, it can’t be easy to navigate the avalanche of globally programmed marketing messages, to be reminded yet again how impossible it can be to live up to manufactured imagery, to compare better to everyone else as they play the same game, too.

So we get through today and wait for the triggers to subside tomorrow.

All of which begs the question of why we wait for days on the calendar at all when any day is the right day to express gratitude and kindness to others, wherever they might be located within our family dynamic, and however we define family in the first place.

On any given day, many of us are blessed to be connected to folks whose lives naturally cast light on our own. We’re lucky to have that front row seat to lives that make our own better. We shouldn’t need to visit the card aisle to let them know how we feel.

So while today I’ll be looking for ways to ensure Debbie, seen here, knows full well how thankful I am that she is the very centre of our family’s gravity, it won’t be because the calendar says so. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow and on every other day I’m lucky enough to get to spend with her.

I’ll never come close to evening the score. Everyone knows the best moms, like this one, always give far more than they receive.

But still, everyone needs more kindness, however we’re connected, and this will be just as true tomorrow as it is today. And everyone needs to somehow appreciate that what - and who - they have is incredibly special. And never guaranteed.

So please celebrate your people today. And tomorrow. And be as kind to them as the best moms have been to us.

If we’re lucky, they’ve taught us well.

#LiveLaughLevy #ldnont #london #ontario #canada #mothersday #mom #moms #life #parenthood #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Her, May 2018

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