Mothers' Day - Not For Everyone

I'm blessed to have a great mom. She's always been there for her kids, she an enthusiastic and supportive parent, and she deserves the love and attention that Mothers' Day bestows.

But not everyone gets warm fuzzies on Mothers' Day. Some don't know their mothers. Some have lost them to illness or death. Some have had bad, abusive or absent relationships with their moms.

Others have wanted to be mothers their whole lives and can't conceive. Some are patiently waiting for adoption papers to go through and can't bear watching others celebrate what came so naturally. Some have lost children or been rejected by their own. Mothers' Day isn't a blast for everyone.

I've been thinking about that since I read Heidi Newmark's book Breathing Space. She talks about a Mothers' Day lunch she had with her parishioners every year - a safe place for women who didn't get the warm fuzzies that day - to come together in mutual apathy and support for each other. Some would share their wounds, but mostly there was talking and eating and loving at the lunch. Just what those women needed most.

I am blessed, and perhaps you are too, but not every woman and man looks forward to tomorrow's celebration. As our nation scurries about buying greeting cards, flowers, chocolate, jewelry and other tokens of celebration, pray for them. Pray for the women who feel their emotional and physical scars on this day, who wish for their sadness to find an acceptable place.

And shouldn't it be the church?