Mother’s Day
"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there."
— Robert Browning
This weekend—this Sunday, to be exact—is Mother’s Day. I’ve always found this moment on our calendars a particularly special one—how often do we encounter holidays dedicated so singularly to the appreciation of family, to the person who makes family possible, to all that they do for us?
As a mother myself, I remember with fondness the crafts that my daughter would bring home from school in celebration: paper flowers, pop-up cards, little tokens of the kind of joyful, easy appreciation that seems to come so naturally to children. Though the celebrations nowadays lean more towards brunches and books than construction paper, the symbols are no less meaningful. I think the continuity of holidays through change—their permanent recurrence in our years, against all the shifting backdrops—is part of their specialness. These are the ways we mark the time passing, the ways we continue to hold on to what’s important even as the times change.
I remember, too, celebrating my own mom over the years. She was a vibrant, creative, sharp woman, steadfast and capable. She was our family’s true artist, in all mediums—paints, fabrics, pastels, charcoals—and it was through her and her amply-stocked sewing room that I first found my love of fabrics, which is what started me down the path that would lead to design work. I miss her every day—there’s no other way to lose someone, is there?—and Mother’s Day is one of those days that makes that absence a little sharper. Still, though the grief is sharpened, so is the appreciation for our time together, the richness of the memories.
I think that, ultimately, is what Mother’s Day is about: sharpness, sincerity of feeling. There are few people in our lives who shape us as much as our mothers—physically and literally, of course, and also emotionally, spiritually, centrally. These shapings leave us with the sort of vast feelings that can be hard to pin down. Some things are inexpressible, because language isn’t quite wide enough to do the job. One of those inexpressible things, I believe, is the love we feel for our moms. So we channel it into flowers and cards and special meals, as a testament to the lifelong effort it is to give back, even in part, what was given to us.
No marketing spiel today—Mother’s Day is far from a commercial bid. All I want to say is this: to all the moms out there, a very happy Mother’s Day to you. Thank you for the enormity of what you do. You really do run the world.