Becoming Your Own Mother

When I think of motherhood, the one word which comes to mind is love. Actually, I need two words…

Unconditional love.

I’ve felt it as a son, and I see it in my wife’s eyes as we raise our three daughters.

Unconditional love isn’t always pretty. It is often loud, sometimes quite contentious. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like love at all.

But underneath the drama and the slamming doors, the love of a mother is always there.

Unconditionally.

Regardless of gender, all of us are mothers, of sorts. All of us have given birth to thoughts and ideas of our own, to our hopes, our dreams, and our aspirations. But what do we do with them after they are born?

Do we treat our thoughts and ideas with a mother’s unconditional love? Do we nurture our hopes, dreams, and aspirations, cradling them with love and encouragement? Or is our response contentious by nature, with proclaimations that dreams will always be just that. Dreams?

Each of us are born twice. The first is our physical birth marking our entrance into this world. Our second birth comes when we lovingly accept ourselves unconditionally, embrace our inherent beauty, and begin nurturing who it is we were created to become.

Mom can only take us so far. We honor her when we extend to her child the same unconditional love she extended to us.

Happy Mother’s Day 2015!

It’s a great day to be you!

The photo? Yes, that’s Mom!