Every year my sister posts pics on this day of her beautiful family in their Easter outfits before they head to church. It’s such a joy to watch her kids grow up and grow into the awesome humans they are becoming.
Recently, my mom and I found this old keychain of hers, which had these pictures of Jenni and me in our Easter dresses. Each year she could, our mom sewed our Easter dresses, and we always got new patent leather shoes to match.
Give thanks to moms for the care they put into making their families feel special, for carrying around pictures on keychains and in wallets and on phone screens so they can be displayed with pride, for the effort it takes for them to hold the vessel, for bright colors and a united aesthetic even when they themselves would rather just go to bed, sit on the couch, or fall apart. Give thanks to the mothering energy, even when it comes in the form of a godparent, a full-time dad, an aunt, a step-parent, a foster parent, a grandparent who’s now full-time parenting again, or adopting a furry four-legged critter.
Here’s to those who desperately wanted to be mothers but were unable to because they never found their partner, their bodies would not allow it, they lost their children before they were born or who outlived their children.
To those whose mothers left them earlier than they would have liked.
And to those who had to mother themselves. May the redbud outside your window, and the smell of bread you bake for yourself be all the solace you need.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqw5UbRPvcQ]