Happy Mother’s Day!

My Mother is an amazing person. She is a wonderful storyteller, she is passionate, she is committed to promoting education, and helping others. Everything she does touches someone, positively, in some way.

She has taken a world where she may have had very little positive happy light, and created a world where there is positive in everything. That is the world that she brought my sister and I into, and that is the world she brought us up in. One example of how she puts everything in s positive light is in her presentation of my paternal Grandmother. She passed away a few years ago, but while she was around, Mom would tell me stories about her, about how she loved the birds, about how she loved going for walks, especially in the North York Cemetary, because she just found that place very peaceful. She also told me about how Grandma was a very strong woman; she signed herself into a hospital, and took herself off an open-ended prescription for Valium that some doctor gave her after her husband died.

Most importantly about this example, is that it was through my Mother that I came to love my Grandma. My Mother’s view of Grandma made her a wonderful person. I realised this the first time I was walking to work and heard a cardinal, just a couple of months ago, and thought of Grandma, but what got to me was that it wasn’t Grandma who taught me about the cardinal, it was Mom. It’s Mom’s voice that I hear saying: “when you hear that call ‘bir-dee, bir-dee, bir-dee!’ THAT is a cardinal. That’s what Grandma told me.” I remember loving Grandma so much, but that is because of Mom.

So, thank you Mom. When I do something good in this world, when I see people, especially women, for their beauty and their strength, it’s because of you. When I recognize the strength of a woman’s love, or a mother’s love, or recognize the accomplishments of women in this world, and can find love, respect and compassion (even 4 Nana sometimes!) it is ALL because of the person you are, and have taught me to be.

Thank you for giving me this world, thank you for all your help, and your hope, and your strength. Thank you for teaching me how to see the good things in this world, and showing me how to be strong. These are lessons that, although I may stray from, will always give me strength, and allow me to know that I am capable of having faith, and being good in this world.
I love you.
Happy Mother’s Day.