Mother's Day - A Poem, An Introspection

Today is Mother's Day; Take a deep breath, a small pause; reflect on this Journey so far.

Did you know that the celebration of Mother's Day origins dates back to the Ancient Greeks? In their spring festival, they celebrated the Goddess, Rhea, considered the Mother of the Gods.

In 1907, the idea started when a woman called Anna Jarvis held a small memorial service for her own mother in Grafton, West Virginia. Soon after, most places in America were observing the day and in 1914, the US president made it a national holiday, celebrated on the second Sunday of May.

I'm a huge fan of poems that reflect on our shared journeys through motherhood, the lessons learned through that experience, and making the choice to deeply believe in the long-lasting bonds between mothers and kids.

While this poem is not directly about motherhood, it touches upon the themes of love, loss, and the cycle of life.

It reflects the deep connections we form with loved ones, including our mothers, and the eventual process of letting go.

Mary Oliver's poetry often invites introspection, appreciation for the natural world, and contemplation of our place within it. While she may not have written explicitly about mothers, her words resonate with the emotions, experiences, and relationships that are integral to motherhood.

"In Blackwater Woods":

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies

into pillars

of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders

of the ponds,

and every pond,

no matter what its

name is, is

nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

is salvation,

whose meaning

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes, to let it go.