During my infertile years, which may not be over, I was lucky enough to have a mother, sister and husband who realized that although a was not a Mother, with a capital M, I was a motherer, as a verb, not a noun. This quality was honored by them on Mother’s Day, not the title Mother.
Each one had seen me in the act of mothering. My sister witnessed me mothering my nephews and niece, my mother noticed the mothering of her grandchildren and my husband recognized that I mothered him, our household, our cats and some of our friends. Since I am in a healing profession, I’ve also mothered my clients and coworkers. I got cards from my nephews and niece, my mother and my husband bought me a card from the cats. This all helped to ease the pain of not having “my own” children to mother, and the pain that can come with the celebrations around me.
Some of the definitions of mother in my dictionary are:
- a woman who creates, originates, or founds something
- A creative source; an origin
- Maternal love and tenderness
A definition for mothering includes
- to watch over, nourish, and protect maternally
Now, it may just be me, but this sounds like almost every woman I know, regardless of offspring or not. It also sounds like a lot of men that are in my life. I’ve mentioned in another post that I can find a reason to celebrate almost anything. My proposition is, let’s take this Sunday to celebrate the mothering spirit in all of us, and in the world around us. Even if we are just self-parenting our inner child, lets celebrate taking good, positive, nurturing care of ourselves. Although we may not all be mothers with offspring at the moment, we are all capable of mothering.
This year, even if you are being honored by your own children, take a moment to honor yourself and what you bring to the world as a mothering human. You deserve cards, recognition and special attention, as all of us do, regardless of what day it is! Give yourself a pat on the back.
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