Mother's Day

All week, I've seen profile pictures changing on Facebook from the familiar faces of my friends to those of their mothers. The popular message for the week was to change your profile picture to that of your mom's to honor all mothers. For those who know me, they know that although I can appreciate things about my mom, she is not the primary person I think of on Mother's Day. That would make her sad if she were here, but the truth is that I've had many, many mother's in my life. There have been many women who filled in where my mom was not able to with an abundance of nurturing and love. I couldn't fit all of the pictures of my mothers into one small Facebook profile spot, so I didn't change my profile picture.

I haven't stopped thinking about this all week. I've thought about my mother, my aunts, my mother-in-law, my grandmother and great aunts, and many church leaders who have given me a more complete view of motherhood. It was yucky celebrating Mother's Day when I was growing up because it was the one day during the year that we were supposed to forget the way my mom really was and honor her in the Hallmark greeting card way that everyone else honored their mothers. It felt fake, and it took me many years as a mom not to feel yucky when Mother's Day came. I never wanted to be celebrated unless my kids really wanted to celebrate me. Fortunately, I have gotten over the yucky feeling and enjoy Mother's Day as a celebration of the gift it is to be a mother to my little girls.

Today as I sat and thought about my mom, I found some pictures of her when she was a new mom. I think it was a time of promise of things to come, and a time she was happy to be a mom. Things weren't as emotionally stressful for her yet, and I found that I liked looking at these pictures of her when she was a little happier and finding joy in motherhood. So here is my "profile picture" of my mom that didn't go on Facebook. I was happy to find these and happy to see my mom happy being a mom.