Celebrating Mothers

As we finally delve into spring, there are so many things to look forward to – warmer days and more sun, getting your hands in the soil, spring clean out projects (which are always liberating experiences for me) and then, celebrating our mothers and important women in our lives with Mother’s Day. We should be celebrating our mothers every day for all that they do and the nurture and guidance they provide. I remind my daughters of this regularly but I’m not sure they are listening…
 

 
It’s the little things that make me appreciate my mother. I love that she calls me about recipes that she has tried out on her french book club. I am also constantly amazed by her willingness and interest to try out new things. For example, over the long winter months, she joined a choir to meet other women and feel the joy of simply singing. Most interestingly, she has convinced my father to practice tai chi with her to a youtube video. I only hope I will manage to fit these things in my schedule in a few years.
 

 
My mother also has become increasingly creative with her passion for fabric collage and photography. She has always been keen about photography and gave me her medium format Rollei camera many years ago to experiment with. I found the photo of her holding the camera dating back to the 1950’s. I spent years in the darkroom learning about black and white photography. Today she uses photographic images in her fabric creations and they are interesting a beautiful.
 

 
For many women, life is hard and weighed down with the burden of poverty, abuse, inequality and simply daily hardship. It is difficult to see the pleasure and beauty of life where they may be none. But across many cultures, as women, we spend our lives gathering memories and accumulating interests and today in this culture, our lives overall are more varied and multifaceted than they ever were. Raising children, participating in careers, working to make our homes and living environments beautiful and comfortable all take up a place in our busy days. By the time we reach mid life and are in retirement mode, we are ready to embrace all our outside interests and push them to the forefront. I was speaking with a group of women who were in various stages of retirement and none had any difficulties making the transition because they were thrilled at the opportunity to cultivate those interests. For me, my interests became a job and now a passion and a business. My mother provided the roots of that passion and I hope to impart some sort of groundwork for my own daughters. Find something you love to do and with good management and perseverance you may be able to create a career and do something you love and earning a living at the same time is always a great thing. Happy Mother’s Day.
 

My Mom and Dad