Thoughts on Mother's Day: A Dual Tribute

                       

“You are the trip I did not take, you are the pearls I could not buy,

You are my blue Italian lake, you are my piece of foreign sky."

  - Anne Campbell -

Softly fly the years!  I look back and marvel at the miracles that are my children and become more aware of how life has truly blessed me.  So on Mother's Day, as they honor me, I, in turn, want to honor them for the kind of persons they have become.  As they remember me with special tokens and greet me on this special day, I want to let them know they honor me every day as they lead responsible and purposeful lives, as they live with integrity and decency and as they teach their children to follow the same ideals.   They have given me a lot of love and reasons to rejoice through the years as well as a host of beautiful memories  that add richness and meaning to a life that would have been drab and hollow otherwise.  As I have taught them, they have taught me lessons embedded in experiences that children alone can teach in their very own special way.  We have grown together as we explore life and the intricacies that come with each challenge conquered, with each hurdle overcome, with each memory created.  We  learn from each other,  share common joys, shed tears of disappointments from some dashed uncommon hopes when life shows its imperfections, revel in each others successes and stand strong together to face the onslaught of life's storms.  I love them dearly, not just because they are mine, but for what they have made of their lives, for being wonderful, strong, respectable human beings.  And yet, even when stark realities rob one of satisfaction, a mother's love is unconditional and is not based on some hidden criteria for acceptance,  neither is it dependent on some imaginary scale of determinants that confirm if someone made the grade.

My children:  They are my warm sunshine in a winter morn, the melody to my unsung song, and when life is done, they will be my chevron, the badge  I hope to return with honor to Him who loaned them to me with His sacred, loving trust.  As I sing their praise, I also pay tribute to my Father in Heaven for His all encompassing love that saw me fit to be an instrument of creation to some very special spirits that gave meaning and fulfillment to my life.

ON CHILDREN

- Kahlil Gibran -

 

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

This Mother's Day, I also want to pay homage to the person who gave me life, that special human being retrofitted with an infinite supply of patience and love that she was expected to dispense at any given moment without prior notice.  She was that wretched soul who had the misfortune of being my mother (lol) because to say that I was a challenge as a  child would be an understatement.  My mother must have wings before she came down to earth or she would not have been chosen to raise me, a most willful, obstinate child whose troublesome exploits became legendary among my circle of relatives who watched me grew up.  

But just in case anybody gets the wrong impression, I was not an evil child.  I was just headstrong and stubborn and I loved to test my limit.  When I was told not to do something, I would do it on purpose just for spite, and to aggravate my mother - bless her heart. By the time I was in grade school, I had broken every rule that started with "don't" but unfortunately,  my mother never learned to eliminate that word when dealing with my behavior.  As a child, "mischief" would be a most fitting nickname for me because I always looked for trouble.  However,  I would not expose  myself any further by citing examples of my daring feats of misbehavior.   In a lot of ways, I was grateful to my parents, especially to my mother, who tried to discipline me and taught me right from wrong but never attempted to break my spirit.   Unwittingly perhaps, she nurtured my strength  instead of clipping my wings.  As I grew up, she stoked that spark of humanity that defined my values and my sense of fair play until I learned to curb and tame that inner fire smoldering within.  She instilled in me, not so much in words, but by example, industry, honesty, and integrity. She taught me perseverance, faith, and tenacity, values I needed to fight the unseen monsters of despair and hopelessness in a world full of challenges.  I want to thank her for everything she did for me, for her care, for her sacrifices, for her unfailing support and unshakeable faith in me as I sought to find my real substance as a human being and as a child of God.  I am grateful to her for making me my own person that I became  a "living arrow" in the "archer's hand" as I sought my destiny.

So today, I pay tribute to my mother and I want to let her know, as she looks down from that special place of peace and beauty that became her just reward for giving me life, that I love her, that I was immensely blessed that the Lord gave me a very special person to call "mother".  Happy Mother's Day, Inay!