She calls me Mom!

My daughter surprised me by coming home for Mother’s Day weekend. I screamed at the top of my lungs with excitement when I saw her standing in our yard. My husband picked her up from the airport and his story was that he was on his way to pick up a piece of art as a Mother’s Day gift. I did not expect to see my baby girl and I did not realize how much I was missing her. For me the thought of my daughter wanting to surprise me as a gift of offering herself to me was unexpected. I had no idea that my daughter held me in such high esteem. I say this because I don’t believe I was a fantastic Mom.

I was only nineteen when I gave birth to my daughter, not married, which already sentence me to be an embarrassment by some, and truth be told, I believed this sentence myself. So for me, getting by was enough. Finding a job that would support both of us, a place to live, making sure she ate and attended school everyday. I did just enough, because I did not know anything else. I did not know how to be creative in baking cookies, doing art on rainy days, playing peek-a-boo games, making crazy Halloween costumes, jumping in a puddle, cutting construction papers into butterfly shapes, singing lullaby songs, being president of the PTA, asking the pediatrician to talk in layman terms, being funny and silly. I did not know I had a right to motherhood. I wasn’t aware I had the right to be a Mom because I had associated what others deemed to be an embarrassment and attached it to being a mother. But I’m so glad my daughter is now teaching and showing me that I am and always have been fully capable of being a Mom and all that comes with it, the hugs of a child, the love of a child, and hearing their voice say, “Happy Mother’s Day!”

So to all the Mothers out there, we all have different paths. We all can finds things that causes us to believe we are not doing motherhood well. Our world makes us feel that we have to be the very best of doing it all. Mothers are not perfect and they will never be. The only thing that is perfect is hearing that voice that calls you by your rightful name, Mom, Mama, Mother. Whatever is that beautiful name your children call you, own it!

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Rev. Jacqui P