a Giant Wave of Gratitude for my Mother

A little over a week ago I was at the grocery store. I was trying to grab some things to make dinner for Max and Abby as they welcomed little Murphy into the story of their lives. And as I went from the produce to the dairy section I was hit, out of the blue, by a giant wave of gratitude for my mother. The mother who taught me to mother.

I imagined her standing in a grocery store similar to this one years ago. Perhaps she was even looking for the same things, preparing to make dinner for me and my growing family.

Repeated each time I had a baby.

Not only did she make us dinner, she cradled those babies with all her love. She took them for night shifts so we could sleep.

That mother of mine drunk those babies in, and also drunk in our other children, too. The ones displaced by each new baby.

She made their eyes shine.

I was always grateful. I always knew it was something special that she filled my fridge, and our bellies and our hearts. But it hadn’t hit me how fully she had “mothered” us all until I was trying my darnedest to repeat that same thing for my own “baby” and his baby.

Gratitude for Motherhood love that Ripples

Motherhood is just so incredible.

The love is molded and given freely over and over again is such a precious gift that ripples from generation to generation.

You may not realize the power of those acts of motherhood. Especially if you’re faced with mouthy teenagers or an invisibility this Mother’s Day.

But what you do MATTERS. Those things, the small and the big, make powerful ripples.

It’s the kind of love that may wait to hit until some random time or place. Like standing at the grocery store. And a blanket of realization washes over us.

My mother taught me to mother not by telling me anything at all. She taught me through being my mother.

And through mothering my children, one by one.

I have another giant wave of gratitude for my mother this Mother’s Day, as I sit and think about all those days my mother spent with me, mothering. With no words, just love.

Love you forever, Mom!

Sending so much love out to all those other Mothers this Mother’s Day. What you are doing, the big and little things, are filling hearts and souls with just what they need.

Whether they or you know it or not.

Other Mother’s Day Posts:

• The Lanyard (the poem is at the end of that post and it will make you cry)
• Stages of Motherhood
• My Mom (with a Mother’s Day video I love)