If you've stuck with my ramblings so far, thanks. And if you're a grammar purist, you've probably also noticed that I've been putting my apostrophes for Mothers' Day in the wrong place and are getting tempted to write me off as another careless writer. But I've actually been intentionally altering the spelling.
Though Anna Jarvis, who founded Mother's Day in 1914, was quite specific in her desire that it should be a singular possessive so that for each family it was only about their mother, I find that to be much too narrow a focus. I don't want to be placed on a pedestal for being a good mom to my kids because when I mother well, I'm really just doing my job. I find it embarrassing and a little degrading to be honored for doing the things I was supposed to be doing anyway.
Mothering is truly a divine calling. It is at once both glorious and mundane; very few individual tasks we mothers pull off are actually miraculous, yet the whole of them add up into the most wondrous of accomplishments: guiding small, inchoate souls on a path to maturity. And none of us are actually up to such an enormous undertaking.
But the real beauty of motherhood, the wonderful part that we celebrate is that we continue to grasp for that sacred goal despite our failings. I'm not finished walking this road yet. Which is another reason I find it ridiculous to be celebrated for doing something I've not even completed. Anna Jarvis may have had no such reservations, since her mother passed away before she began campaigning to have a Mother's Day. But I'm not dead yet, and until that time, as we all know, a mother's work is never done.
So instead of celebrating individual mothers, let us celebrate all of them at once with a Mothers' Day. Let us pick up this glorious calling out of the mess of dirty diapers, grass-stained pants and endless litter of Cheerios where we so often lose our focus, and hold motherhood - not the trivial daily chores of it but the real goal of this undertaking - up to the sunlight to sparkle and shine and remind us what we are striving toward. Let a Mothers' Day be a time when families step up, and, instead of offering mere Hallmark gratitude for the things that are past, cheer our moms on for the journey ahead and remind them of the worth and indispensability of the pilgrimage.
The apostle Paul refused to be exalted by his many followers. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants.... I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." (1 Cor 3:5-7) Paul knew that we are not made great ourselves by the tasks given to us; we only appear to do great things because a great power is given for great tasks.
It isn't I who is inspirational, not I who should be raised up today because of some amazing mothering ability. Mothering inspires me, and because of that I can dare to do amazing things.
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