Reverse Mother's Day Card.......

This week I was wondering if Mother's Day was just a "Hallmark" holiday - so I googled it and found:

"Mother’s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Jarvis would later denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar. While dates and celebrations vary, Mother’s Day most commonly falls on the second Sunday in May and traditionally involves presenting mothers with flowers, cards and other gifts."

For some reason, Mother's Day has been "bothering" me this year. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the commercials on television, maybe it's wondering about my own history as a mother. Maybe it's the two new babies we welcomed into our extended family this year. Maybe it's missing my mom and my mother-in-law, knowing that Dave and I don't have mothers to call/send gifts/appreciate anymore.

But tonight I began to reverse the equation and think about my "kids". The two who made me a mother. Our son, who came home from the hospital with two very young parents way back in 1969 - a mom and a dad who, frankly, didn't have a clue about what they were doing. And later a daughter who came home with more "practiced" parents in 1974 to be welcomed by her big brother. 

I look back and wonder, what kind of a mother was I? Did I do a "good" job? Was most of it "good" and only some of it "bad"?

I had coffee with my daughter today and we had a nice conversation. I looked across the table and saw a very accomplished woman. A good woman. A talented woman. A loving mother and a wife who supports and loves her husband. We hugged goodbye at the end of our visit and it felt good.

I don't get to see my son very often because he lives across the country. But he's a good man. A loving father and a supportive husband.

Our daughter drew with her crayons and sometimes the crayons drifted off the paper and onto our painted walls. Today she is an artist.

Our son wandered Nashotah Park and explored nature.....today he is Director of the Department of Natural Resources for the Samish Indian Nation.

Both are independent, accomplished and I am so very proud of them. 

So maybe, just maybe, I can take a little credit for doing most of it "right". Mothering is an adventure, an exploration and it is different for each child welcomed into the world. 

They say "once a mother, always a mother" and, on one level I think that's correct. But on another level, I don't feel like an "active" mother anymore. I raised them and then turned them loose.....and they created their own lives.

Good job Todd and Megan.....I feel priviledged to be your mom.