Why do I like this made-up feshta so much? (I live in a Portuguese area and everything important has an sh in it.) Mother’s Day, Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day.
More than any other it honors the love behind it all. Whether its mom or sister or spouse or best friend, its a love day for the ladies, way more than any Valentine’s might be. Its a day the pressure is mostly off, for me. I don’t have a partner, so its not like i have someone to grill burgers for lunch, so its not that kind of pressure. There’s just some lessening of the code, some ‘i don’t care, just leave your phone in the car’ time with the kids, some pleasure mixed in with favorite foods or take out for dinner, or this year? This year we got to go to my Mom’s, in person, unmasked. My middle kid was giving everyone long hugs, even though he lives with some of us. I’ll take it. My kids told me thank you and I love you multiple times all day, though it was primarily that middle kid again. He does make me smile. I chose to keep my eldest home from a soccer game that was smack dab in the middle of it, and he didn’t give me too much grief, and got a chance to talk to him grandmother and aunt and actually give them a chance to find out who he is, as he grows into his young man self.
That was pretty fucking great.
And yes, I know what a tricky day it is. And I am grieving my mother-in-law who is still alive, and I know this a day of a lot of grief for many many. There is no way not to mention the layers that there are here. Women. Its all the women of the world and what for many of us, is a nurturing capacity. whether we have access to that part of us is massive. And with whom and how the nurture is shared is a multiplicity. Fur babies, friends, step-children? And probably some don’t have it, and how does society view them? There is also so much loss, loss of babies, loss of moms, loss of possibility for babies. Its all in this one day, somehow. Its hard to hide from it, and even I don’t want to see the social media world on this day. There is too much that looks like ‘perfect’, and I don’t want to see it.
My best friend in the world told me that if she could choose anyone in the world to be her mother, it would be me.
And so my heart broke open, and the skies poured down baby rainbows and dandelion puffs. And I loved it. I would do it in a flash. Anyone else need me ? I’m offering the nurture here, free. I’ll bring tea and an extra blanket, maybe some lozenges, and a hand hold, and a shoulder squeeze.
love you all, and holding you in a long hug.
-lovelove
Wonderful to read. Hope we can see you soon. Would love to see who all your young people are becoming. So much time, so much change. Happy Mother’s Day.