To Mom With Love

When I gasped my first breath I cried
But I felt someone’s presence by my side
She held me close in her arms
Embraced me and wrapped me warm
There I learnt to smile?.
Soon I walked my first steps in her care
I learnt to talk my first words, sweet and fair
"Mama" was my first word
She whelmed with joy when she heard
She filled my heart with love?.

In whichever word you call your mother, Mama, Mom, Mammy, or Maim, the most beautiful word ever spoken on human lips is the word "Mother".  It is the most beautiful word; full of compassion, mercy, hope, happiness, joy and love that is deep, kind and true coming from the depths of the heart. Mother is the sweetest word I have ever heard in my life. She is the sweetest woman.  She is an angel from heaven.  Her love is priceless.  There is no greater love than the love of a Mother. Her love is like an island in life’s ocean, vast and wide, a peaceful quiet shelter from the wind, the rain and the tide.

All across the world Mother’s Day is a day of honouring mothers.  Origin of Mother’s Day goes back to the era of ancient Greek and Romans. But the roots of Mother’s Day history can also be traced in UK where a Mothering Sunday was celebrated much before the festival saw the light of the day in US. Mothering Sunday History in UK is centuries old dates back to 1600 in England.  In the UK Mothering Sunday is on the 4th Sunday in Lent, originally a day in honour of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. After a prayer service in the church to honour Holy Mary, Mother of God, children brought gifts and flowers to pay tribute to their own mothers. On the occasion, servants and other employees who stayed away from their homes were encouraged by their employers to visit their mothers and honour them. Traditionally children brought with them gifts and a special fruit cake or fruit-filled pastry.

It is the hard work of the pioneering women in US more than a century ago, Julia Ward Howe, an activist, writer and poet and Anna Jarvis, a social worker that the Mother’s day came into existence.  Anna Jarvis is recognised as the Founder of Mother’s Day in US. Though she never married and never had children, she is also known as the Mother of Mother’s Day, an apt title for the lady who worked hard to bestow honour on all mothers. Anna Jarvis got the inspiration of celebrating Mother’s Day from her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, in her childhood. Being an activist and social worker she used to express her desire that someday someone must honour all mothers, living and dead, and pay tribute to the contributions made by them. A loving daughter, Anna, never forgot her mother’s word and when her mother died in 1905, she resolved to fulfill her mother’s desire of having a mother’s day. Her hard work yielded good results in 1911 as Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state in US. On 8th of May 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Most of the countries celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May, but some countries celebrate it at different times throughout the year. Mother’s Day is normally observed on the second Sunday of May in India also as the festival of "Mother’s Day" has gradually become a part of our culture today and on this day mothers receive flowers, a prepared meal, cakes, cards or a phone call from their children, families, relatives and friends. Hindus in India have long celebrated festival in early October called Durga Puja worshiping their divine mother, Durga. Families spend weeks preparing food and gifts for friends and relatives, and also cleaning and decorating their houses for Durga Puja celebrations. Whichever the religion or culture people may belong, whatever their style of life they may adopt or whichever the country in the world they may live, one thing is certain that Mother’s Day is a special day for everyone all over the world and no one can ever forget the power of mother’s love and her compassionate touch?!

My Mom & Me

When some celebrate Mother’s day with their loving and living mothers with joy and fun, some cherish the bitter-sweet memories of their mothers who have gone to heavenly abode. They offer a tribute of love to their mothers who loved them and nurtured them as they miss their love, friendship, strength and closeness in their daily life.  There are so many unfortunate children in the world, abused, neglected, abandoned and the orphans; who have never felt the touch of mother’s love, crying out for wanting to know and feel the touch of Mother’s love. The loss of one’s mother is among the most difficult times in life. The time may soften the pain, but the yearly frenzy of our modern Mother’s Day celebration reopens the wound. Thousands of women between the ages of 25 to 70 die every year for various health reasons and accidents. The children they leave behind join the millions of others facing each Mother’s Day without their mothers.

Someday we all will lose our mothers?. we won’t be able to have dinner with Mom together anymore?. Our roses will not be acknowledged?.All that remains is the only memory of her?! The only gift we will be able to give her then is the only one she ever wanted in the first place: "our promise to keep her memory alive in our hearts and that we live on earth with dignity, respect and virtues". We need to regain the dignity of Mother’s Day by opening our hearts wider than our wallets.  We should also think of the children who are deprived of the joy of knowing or being with their mothers.  On Mother’s day I wish joy, peace of mind and happiness to every one all over the world who rejoice the lovely moments with their mothers and also to those who cherish the beautiful memories of them in their absence. Happy Mother’s Day!  God gave us mothers so that we may experience on earth the tenderness of His love. Let us thank our mothers for wanting us, caring us, loving us and giving us the joy of life, not only on Mother’s day but every day in our life. 

My mother for me is the most complete package of love God could have ever provided to me.  So many wonderful thoughts and memories come to my mind when I focus on what she had been to me all my life.  She has been a font and spring of my life, my strength, my enlightenment, the warmth of our home and a treasure of my tender memories. She is everything to me in my life?.!  I shall never forget her for wanting me to live, for helping me to grow, listening to my anxieties and grief, understanding my silence, for being my best friend and never the less accepting me as I am, fulfilling my dreams one by one and giving me a chance to walk on life’s path with courage and diligence and all the more for her lifetime caring?.!  I have grown older now and cherish in my heart the joys that I have known.  I thank you, Mom, for your loving care, for the beautiful memories you gave me and for your hugs and kisses?.  So, on Mothers’ Day as a token of my love I dedicate to you my small article "To Mom with Love" just to say that I love you.  God Bless my Mom.

Sharel Machado, Heidelberg, Germany

Author: Sharel Machado- Germany