Days that last: Special Gifts

This business of motherhood, well, it’s hard stuff. The good news is that among the tough moments, the second guessing, we were all given gifts to make this journey a bit easier. The trick is finding your gift. Because you actually have to come out of the second guessing to find it.

I was chatting with one of my sisters the other day about our mom. She’s pretty amazing (our mom is..well..my sister too). We were talking about our mom's gift of making everything special. Birthday cakes decorated (by mom) to match current interests, holiday decorations, etc. She always sends cards and doesn’t forget to send them for birthdays or special occasions…like Mother’s Day. She is incredibly thoughtful when choosing gifts. Plainly spoken, she just makes things special.

I was given different gifts as a mother, which I suppose is a nice way of saying that I will never be on the ball about sending cards. I will be thinking about you on your special day, such as your birthday, anniversary….or Mother’s Day…even though I can’t get it together to send a card.

During this phone call, my sister was feeling a little guilty about not having our mother’s gift. But the truth is that we are already the mother that our children need us to be. Sometimes we need to reconnect with ourselves and our kids to discover our gifts. In this world of comparisons though, that can be a challenge. We can look at other mothers and find ourselves lacking.

As I think about this particular gift of my mom’s, the gift of making things special, it makes sense. We (her children) needed that. There are six children in my family, and in any large family, there are moments when you feel a bit lost among the chaos. We needed our mom to make things special, to help us stand out in the crowd and be appreciated for the individuals that we were. I think we still need that.

On this Mother’s Day, maybe we can all take a breather from the comparisons. Maybe we can look at other mothers and appreciate their gifts, instead of feeling not enough. Maybe we can look at ourselves and our own special gifts that we give our children.

Today on this Mother’s Day, I am thankful for the mother who makes life special.