Ascension : News From The Grotto
Submitted by The Islander (Shari Parkhill) 18.05.2006 (Article Archived on 01.06.2006)

I would like to wish all the mothers on the island a very happy Mother’s Day, since it is Mother’s Day in North America.

News From The Grotto

Thought For The Week

I would like to wish all the mothers on the island a very happy Mother’s Day, since it is Mother’s Day in North America.  We are lucky here that we have two special days on which to celebrate our mothers.  But of course, we celebrate our mothers every day.  They are the ones who nurtured us, taught us our values, taught us the golden rule, and showed us how to get along in this world.

Mothers are very special people to us.  And some of the mothers who influence us are not always “our” mothers.  Many women have had a special place in our hearts over the years.  Looking back on my own experience, I can think of many women who meant something special to me.  There was, of course, my own mother.  She wasn’t always the typical milk and cookies after school mother, but she is one of the strongest women that I know, and she taught me to be strong as well.  My stepmother, who came into my life in my late teens is another special woman.  She taught me that your heart can expand to accept another mother figure.  And how much you gain when you are blessed to have two mothers. 

Then there was my mother-in-law.  She taught me that your heart always has room for one more, that you can become someone’s child by loving their child.  It is a wonderful thing to discover that there can be a whole other family waiting to embrace you.  This is something I have learned first hand, now that I am a “mother-in-law”.  There is always room for one more.  And along with them comes their family, and more people in your circle of life to enhance and enrich it.

I think back to the other mothers I’ve known, my aunts, my friends’ mothers who welcomed me into their homes, the teachers who were also mothers.  And those women who weren’t mothers, but shared their love by mothering other people’s children.  All had an impact on my life.  I’m sure that if any of us sat down with a pen and a piece of paper, and were asked to list the names of all the women who have had a positive influence on our lives, we would get writer’s cramp before we were finished. 

Mothers everywhere love their children, do everything they can to provide for them, to educate them, to keep them safe and to make them good people. On this special day, let us not forget those mothers who attempt this under circumstances that we have never experienced.  Those in countries torn apart by war, in areas of drought, those struggling to put their families lives back together after any of the natural disasters that have occurred over the past year throughout the world.  Let us pray for them, that they have the strength to never give up, and to always know that their struggles will pay off, in the better lives that they give their children.

I’d like to thank the mothers in my life on this day, and let them know that they will always be special to me, and that I love them.  To all the women in my children’s lives who nurtured and cared for them, I offer you my thanks.  And to all mothers everywhere, have a blessed and very happy Mother’s Day.