Dearest momma bear... step-momma, grand-momma, aunt who is like a momma, big sister who didn't have a choice but to become a momma... ALL OF YOU.
Thank you.
Being a mom and in some instances choosing the fill that role is probably the hardest job you've ever had. Sure it's fulfilling but, let's be frank, it kicks your butt. Homework, fixing dinner when you're exhausted, washing a pile of clothes that never really ends, teaching, correcting, and so many other little things that we can't even sit and adequately list. All of it, priceless. I'll just say that like so many of us I'm convinced that I've known the best mothers on the planet.
I am blessed to come from a long line of bad-ass women who are tough as nails and relentless in the fervent way in which they chose to love their families. Women who when life pushed, they pushed back. They've all been rebels and none have been complacent. I'm grateful that I've had the distinct honor to witness the upper echelon of mothering. And... to be clear, when I say "mom" I don't just mean the women who carried a baby in their tummy or have adopted a child... it takes so much more than biology or legal documents. Crap... I've unfortunately also met "moms" who treat their children more like a commodity than their beloved offspring. No, a "mom" can be a friend's mom, a step-mom, an aunt, a god-mother, a teacher, a counselor, an older cousin, big sister... all of them who have taken an active role in the life of a child and unconditionally poured themselves into that kid's life for no other reason than to love and help them.
So, to all the mommas out there this Mother's Day weekend I say, THANK YOU for what you do and for what you reluctantly do: For kissing the boo-boos, doing the tuck ins, and the prayers, and the sacked lunches, and the clean clothes, and the intense talks, and putting them on time-out, and licking your finger and taking the crap off their faces, and for making them clean up their rooms, and for moving them out, and for taking them in. THANK YOU.
And the happiest of Mother's Day to my Mami. She set the bar high people.