Mother's Day Posting..

This posting is backdated.. as I have intended for this to be a Mother's Day posting..

I wanted to do it but have been bothered by various things.. but today, I am determined to pen it down..

I finally bought the book "For One More Day" by Mitch Albom, and co-incidently, I was reading it the week leading up to Mother's Day.. and I find various passages from the book very apt as a tribute for Mother's Day, to all the mothers, and also the fathers out there..

In line with the Mother's Day theme, I will blog about the parent-child relationship for now.. (watch this space for excerpts on relatinship.."

Some of the poignant passages I can relate to so much it hurts. And it made me think very much about my mum as well..

"If my mother said it, I believe it.
She wasn't easy on me, don't get me wrong. She smacked me. She scolded me. She punished me. But she loved me. Se really did. She loved me falling off a swing set. She loved me stepping on her floors with muddy shoes. Se loved me through vomit and snot and bloody knees. She loved me coming and going, at my worst and at my best. She has a bottomless well of love for me.."

Some of the toughest passages that struck me rather hard..

"Years later, after her (mother's) death, I made a list of Times My Mother Stood Up for ME, and Times I Did Not Stand Up for My Mother. It was sad, the imbalance of it all.."

"Children get embarrassed by their parents... " Someone remarked in the book..
"But usually they are just in some kind of pain. They need to work it out" - the mum replies.. "Sometimes, kids want you to hurt the way they hurt..."
"A child embarrassed by his mother is just a child who hasn't lived long enough"

How very true.. I can't help thinking back to my teenage years and shudder on the things I say, the thoughts I have.. Time - Time allows one to learn and move on..

And lastly, what I resonated most with..

"I believe my mother saved my life. I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you will never know what they endured, and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn't"

I was full of remorse when I read these lines.. The countless times in which our parents stood up for us, which are not visible to us. The endless times we have thoughtlessly said the stupidiest things or done the silliest gestures, and inadvertently hurting them.. and through it all, the bottomless wealth of love that keeps them hovering around us, nagging at us, loving us in their own ways...

Parents, endure all kinds of things for their kids.
And Kids, inflict all kinds of hurt thoughtlessly on their parents.

For that and much much more, we are indebted to our parents.
I do not expect our kids to be indebted to us.. But I hope, the growing up years are kind to them.. so that when maturity and the time of realisation come for them to be parents, they do not feel the overwhelming guilt as I sometimes do..

For the last few days, when I have been reading about parents' despair over their kids buried beneath the rubbles in China, and viewing the horrific pictures splashed over the papers.. tears been pricking my eyes endlessly. My heart and everything in me went out to all the parents..

Parents of teenagers, parents on toddlers, parents of kids..

As a mum now, it is not just empathising, the intensity which I feel for them, with them, and almost an extension of them, cannot be described.

And what Mitch wrote in the book is very true..

"Behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin"..

A tribute to all great mothers I know.. May we all have the strength to endure the numerous pains that will come, open our arms to reveal in the little joys that come our way and persist in loving our kids, and all the kids, the way they all deserve to be loved..