Mother's Day Thoughts

I picked some lilacs today, so sweet and lovely, to make a little centerpiece for  my Mother's Day table. The kids were here and most of the grandkids. What a beautiful day.     

It's great that Mother's Day is celebrated in May, when the trees are greening, the flowers blooming, the lilacs scenting the air.   Spring means birth and rebirth, a perfect season for remembering moms.

I've done lots of things in my life but I think parenting is the most challenging job on earth. It would probably be helpful if all new moms had to take some kind of required parenting classes that teach the basics; the stages of children's development, how to nourish their spirits, encourage them to become confident adults. Considering how important this job is, and how inexperienced we are when we begin the parenting journey, there's not much hands-on guidance out there (although there are books and now online resources to check out).

Mother's Day 2015 at Casa de Mama's. 

Most of us parent by the seat of our pants, doing the best we can with the skills we have, mostly imbibed from our own mothers, or as a reaction to our own mothers.  Mom was so strict we'll be more lenient. Mom was too lenient, we'll be more strict. We are young, too, still kids ourselves in many ways, still tight in the bud.

The phrase "I wish I knew then what I know now" was probably coined by a mother looking back.

I ponder these things when I work in my garden, planting seeds, enriching the soil, filling pots with petunias, geraniums. marigolds, adding basil and other spices, nourishing their growth. Kids are like the flowers and spices in our gardens, I think to myself. We want them to grow and thrive.

We hope the tulips and daffodils we planted in the fall, bloom in the spring; that the daisies and roses and day lillies bloom year after year;  that the chrysanthemum build up their strength to color autumn.  We hope the winter is not too hard on them; that they weather the storms; glory in the sunshine; reach their full potential.

That's what we wish for our kids on Mother's Day, too, and every day, year after year.