Mothering As A Verb

 Like every year, we took some photos on Mother’s Day. Our day was long, beautiful, special, and extremely easy. As every Mother’s Day should be. The sky’s were dark in the morning, and the sun shined through in the afternoon. A few photos and some powerful words on Mothering as a verb…

As a noun, mother may be good or bad, willing or unwilling, on welfare or rich, worshipped or blamed, dominating or nurturing, accidental or chosen. Perhaps that’s why the word mother is so much used in profanity; in war, as in “the Mother of All Bombs;” or by war-makers who honor Hero Mothers who give birth to soldiers. But when mother is a verb – as in to be mothered and to mother — ah, then the very best of human possibilities come into our imaginations. And we are all able to mother, whatever our sex or our age or our abilities. To mother is to care about the welfare of another person as much as one’s own. To mother depends on empathy and thoughtfulness, noticing and caring. To mother creates the only pairing in which the older and the younger, the stronger and the weaker, are perfectly matched. It is also about free will. One can be forced to become a mother, but one cannot be forced to mother. What Julia Ward Howe had in mind in 1870 when she invented Mother’s Day was a day on which we oppose war and advance peace. In other words, it was not Mother’s Day, but a Mothering Day. It reminds us all, whether we are young or old, male or female, of the possibilities that lie within us and that we cherish in others.

I hope you had a beautiful weekend.