The complexity of a mother’s heart can never be captured by the expression she wears on her face. As a child you don’t realize how cavernous and powerful her love is for you. You don’t understand that your pain hurts her twice as deeply, or that your joy breathes new life into her lungs. Her bright smile or thoughtful gaze may seem to simply say that she is happy, but underneath and throughout her being her love for you is breaking, mending, and stretching her heart in a thousand different directions.
She gives all that she has and goes to bed each night praying for an even greater capacity. She clings to your now while grieving the loss of your yesterday and anticipating your tomorrow with hope.
I couldn’t see it until I became a mother myself but I recognize it now in each of these faces. My great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and me. We all wrestle with this love that overtakes us and teaches us over and again about ourselves.
To all the women who have loved me, my mother, and her mother before her – to all who mother the children that they hold and those that they’ve had to let go – thank you. You are beautiful, courageous, and stronger than you give yourself credit for.
Today and every day is yours.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Carrie Joy(ful) 