Mothering

Ah, as Father Stewart reminded us today, next week is Mother's Day. And, I still miss my mom...her wisdom, her smile, her energy and enthusiasm for Cardinal baseball, fishing, and her family. I think a lot about mothering and mothers, young and old. Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a baby shower, given by the "aunties" of a dear young friend who is expecting her first baby. Surrounded by family, she's embarking on a journey fraught with perils and opportunities for joy. As I told her in my piece of parenting advice, "babies are God's way of reassuring us that life is good and that He does, in fact, exist." Who cannot hold a baby and not marvel at God at work in the world. And, as anxiety ridden and stress filled as new motherhood can be, I think it is easier in some ways than parenting the 20 somethings. They are young people embarking on their own, learning and growing, stumbling and failing, loving and trying. It's so hard to watch when they make dumb decisions, despite your best advice and constant worry. Every ambulance siren that ever sounds, every tear, every heartbreak, that they experience, touches the mother, too. All we can do is be there to help pick up the pieces, to remind them that life is messy and that the journey is worth the effort, that finding love and happiness is possible, although never really easy. Mothers matter. Take heart all of you who mother, whether you mother a baby, an older child, a student, a niece, a friend, or a stranger. Mothers, too, are God's way of being present in our world.

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