Gracias, Madres.

They carry us inside for almost a whole year.
They give birth to us through incomprehensible pain.
Then they spend the next 20 or so years feeding us, clothing us, keeping us clean, making sure we brush our teeth and wash behind the ears. They nurse fevers and flus, clean blood scraped knees and mend egos. They teach us how to speak, help us learn to walk and make sure we have clean underwear. They’re always there with breakfast and they make us sit straight while eating dinner. They pack lunches, take us to practice, and answer our stupid questions.
They do all of those things for us and and so much much more and then, they watch us leave. Whether it’s off to college or to our own marriage or simply to find our own way in life, there comes a time in their lives when they watch as the fruits of their labor venture into the very same world they have been protecting us from.
Some mothers watch their children make all the wrong decisions. Some mothers watch their children go off to war. Some mothers watch as their children venture off to distant lands, perhaps risking their lives in the process, searching, maybe, for the one thing their mothers were never able to afford them: freedom.
Today, when you spend time with your own mom, amid flowers and gifts, siblings and grandchildren, run your fingers through her perfectly coiffed hair. She wont mind. Take in her freckles and wrinkles and maybe that little beauty mark she’s always had. Smile as you remember her in the kitchen, donning fashions from the sixties, or seventies or eighties, whipping up bacon and eggs on the fly. Remember that you never had a better meal than one she made for you, never had an ailment she didn’t cure, never heard advice that wasn’t good. Look into your mom’s eyes today and behind the happiness they exude, remember that behind those eyes are years of wisdom and sacrifice. Thank her, right then and there, for this beautiful life she has given her all to give you. Hug her like there’s no tomorrow.
And today, along with your mom, say a prayer for those moms whose children are away in distant lands fighting a war. Say a prayer for those moms whose children gave their all for their county. Say a prayer for those moms in Cuba, whose children may have left their side seeking freedom, risking their lives on rickety rafts, never to be heard from again. Say a prayer for those moms who are separated from their children by 90 miles of ocean and fifty years of ideology and lies.
Say a prayer for all those moms that have passed on and the families they left behind.
Mother’s Day isn’t just about flowers and perfumes and chocolates for mothers. It’s about thanking the most perfect and selfless of human beings: Mom.