A Mother's Pulse

Just trying to fathom the immense sacrifices that my own mother has made in her life for me brings my heart to a stillness so deep that I only wish to hold her close and cry.

My mother, and the mothers all around this world are truly the purest gems that our earth has to offer. What gratitude can we give that can ever match their selflessness; selflessness even to the point of allowing us nine months’ of welcome within the secret worlds of their bodies? How many bouquets of roses or boxes of chocolate will ever be enough thanks for the countless times that Mother held you to her warm breast and cooed you to sleep in your sickness and fear, or the days, weeks, months and years that she chose to go without so that your own understanding of lack would be delayed?

The answer is obvious.

No amount of words, no number of gifts, no songs or poetry can ever fully capture the essence of our praise and love for the women whom we call teacher, sister, friend, healer.

Mother. Mama. Amai. Maman.

Today, I stand with others around this world in thanking you for your strength shown through gentleness like the slow waters that can wear down the foundations of even the mightiest mountain. Today, I take in another day of air and gasp at the amazing depths of your soul; you who hold out your hands to help the uncertain stand on their own feet, you who kneel on chapped floors and clean the dirt away while looking up in hope at the morning sun beaming light into darkened spaces; you who carry your weary spirits gracefully like an unbreakable chain of gold; you who are and always will be the precious and perseverant , the peace and the prayer for that peace; the summit of life, strife and light

You who are the angels that God found no reason to give wings because every day, amid the mess of broken dreams cutting into flesh, you softly bind wounds and teach the injured to walk then run and finally soar and touch the heavens that dwell within.

Your wings are the clasped palms that hold us closer to the pulse of our own lives' beauty.

Happy Mothers’ Day.