From time to time I write for other mediums, currently I am a columnist for Greet Magazine. My most recent column on Mother’s Day just hit mailboxes the week of April 24, 2023. Here is that column:

MOTHER LOVE

What a beautiful, wonderful and thoughtful idea. To honor the mothers for all they do. (The grammarian in me would prefer we call it Mothers’ Day because there are so many mothers and I personally think that they deserve more than one day, but we can talk about that another time.) 

Mothers and the notion of motherhood can be traced back to the Greeks and Romans with their festivals to honor the mother goddess from which all life came. Then came the early Christian Festival known as Mothering Sunday – when parishioners would return home to their mother church to be nourished. 

And that’s what Mother’s Love is – nourishment. We come to our mothers to be held, to be consoled, to be motivated and to be reminded that someone, a fierce and feisty someone always has our back. No matter what. It’s not called the “Momma Bear Syndrome” for nothing. Mothers make the world turn and celebrating them is a privilege. I didn’t get to become a mother until my mid 30’s and it was a hard won opportunity and I am beyond grateful every day that I have a daughter who calls me Mum. She is bright, funny, exasperating and inspiring. She is so much smarter than me that I am frequently in awe of how deft her mind is. 

Which makes me wonder if that is the job of all of us mothers – to raise children who leave our hearts a bit raw because we love them so fully and to inspire us to live our own lives at full throttle? It’s the push me-pull you tension of parenting that we wrangle with every day. Are we doing too much. Are we doing too little? Should I be more strict or more lenient? What is the right answer? 

I have a dear friend who is an OB/GYN and he jokes that when ever he delivers a baby he looks for the instruction manual and never finds one. Raising children is the ultimate DIY project and we never know if we have done it correctly and the whole thing is going to fall apart or if we have created enough infrastructure that they will be able to stand solidly on their own. 

We hope that they will and that is what Mother’s Love is, that constant hope that we can and will do well by our children so that they can do well for the next generation and continue to pay it forward. 

And mothers come in all flavors – biological, adoptive, step, grandmothers who become mothers, single fathers who hold both roles, beloved aunts, dear uncles, close friends. Biology, in my opinion, doesn’t make the mother, it is the intent and the energy that is poured into these beings who are in our care that makes a mother..

My own mother has been gone for more than a dozen years, I miss her sorely. She didn’t get to spent much time with my daughter, her seventh grandchild, but I know the brief time they get was filled with laughter, silliness and unconditional love. 

Mother love. 

Take good and gentle care of the mothers – as they do for you.

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For the June issue of Greet I was tasked with talking about Father’s Day and Commencement. I fulfilled the brief and added in some other observances for June.

Dad, Grads and Weddings, Oh MY!

Dads, Grads, and Weddings, Oh My!

It’s the retail cry that fills the shops after Easter – you need to get your celebratory items now in order to honor the Dads and Grads in your life. And celebration is always necessary, in my opinion. You’re talking to the girl who always keeps a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge just in case a spontaneous acknowledgement of something amazing needs to happen.

As we look at June, it is more than Dads and Grads, it is also the midyear check in on how much progress we’ve made to our monumental goals that we set for ourselves in January. Have we sculpted our bodies, given up all vices, taken three truckloads of stuff to Goodwill or the consignment place down the road? Are we drinking enough water, getting enough sleep and spending more time with our loved ones and less in front of our devices?

Yeah, me neither. However, I’m not going to pummel myself over it. Each day is a new opportunity tot be kinder and better than the day before. Because sometimes today sucks so you need to start over tomorrow.

And June offers us that gift of midyear reflection and recalibration. In celebrating our graduates – commencement after all is the beginning of the next chapter in their lives, and honoring the father figures we know and love, reminds us how lucky we are to have them in our lives.

The wedding season is a great excuse to spend more time with the people we adore and revel in the thought of love and how it really is the currency of our collective hearts.

Beyond the dads, grads, and weddings, June is a mystical month named for the Roman Goddess Juno. It is a time of renewal of spirit, of the promise of summer and hope for a gentle respite from all of our worries for a time. Juno is also the guardian angel that protects everyone during times of danger. That’s a big job, but she’s been doing it for centuries.

June also brings the Solstice – the longest day of the year to ruined us to be grateful for the light and warmth and that the cold days of winter are in abeyance for a while longer.

So, make some lemonade or crack open the champagne and celebrate all the bounty that June brings us – Dads, Grads, Weddings, Goddesses and Light.

Cheers!