Happy Mother's Day...May 11th 2008

May 8th 2008

2 more days & it's that day of the year when the focus is on Mothers...Mother's Day this year falls on 11th May.

Frankly, a mother is a mother 24/7. No such thing as a day off. Thoughts are of her family esp her children. Of course different mothers behave differently to their kids...and in the eyes of their kids. But all mothers (the loving kind, of course! As there are those who are mothers not by choice or from love...) have only one aim in their lives...namely to bring up their kids the best way they could & to see them mature to be happy, successful parents of their own kids.

So, what is Mother's Day for then...since a mother is a mother 24/7? Don't tell me that one only remembers that one has a mother only for ONE day in a year? Nope, our mothers are there for us 24/7 and, as we grow up & leave the family home, our mother is out of our sight and probably, too, out of our minds most of the time! Sad to say but true, right?

In my case, it only struck me deep inside that the one person... who had selflessly looked after my welfare all my life... is going to be gone for the rest of my life, when the funeral home workers started to put in all the screws tightening the lid to my mother's coffin!! That feeling has stayed to me till even today... I had lost then ALL opportunities to do anything more for her...lost all possibily to make her life better or happier...and esp to say to her I do love her so...

And to witness even today...that there are ppl who still believe that burning paper-made replicas of items for their mothers/loved ones, would reach them...when they did not even think of doing so while those ppl were still alive, with them and could share the happiness with them? The irony of it all...sad to say but true...again...

Look around us...the sight that greets us early every morning on every school day. What do we see? Mothers here, there...everywhere...waiting with their kids for the school bus, helping their kids cross the road, holding their hands, etc. What we don't see...mothers preparing breakfast for their kids, dressing them up, fussing over them...before school, after school ...pampering them from head to toe...fussing over them...even till bedtime! Probably even when they are asleep, too?

Now, let's flip the coin...look at its other side. The kids are now grown-ups. How many such adults do we see holding their mum's hand...helping her cross the road, up the step or over a drain? I am constantly reminded of the common saying among old ppl...that water in a river never flows upstream! But, we are not water. We are human beings...supposedly with feelings. Have our mothers become so detached from us...no more the mothers we looked up to...loved...respected...depended upon at every stage in our growing up years? Are we so shy or maybe, so ashamed to let others see us (now all grown up??) holding our mother's hand?

I have personally heard such grown up "kids" kinda "shouting" back to their mothers...Why are you walking so slowly? Walk faster la! Haven't you, too? Or maybe you have seen a young couple holding hands, walking so far ahead of an elderly couple or just an old lady or old man...so oblivious even to the fact they (he/she) are there...just behind them? And the old couple (old man/lady) trying ever so hard to catch up? Picture yourself...when your time comes and you ARE that old lady or old man...

Is this the kind of world you would want for yrself? Pls don't forget that everyone grows old...everyone with NO exception. Of course, unless one "goes" b4 one's parents.

Flashes of a story being taught to students in a Moral lesson in schools repeated itself in my mind. That story about a kid requesting his father to keep the basket being used to carry the father's aged father up the hill (to be left there to die) so that he could use it when his own father's time came.

Or that of a video clip played over & over again on approaching festive occasion via our satellite TV channels. The video clip showed how a couple's kids re-enacted the behaviour of that couple towards their aged parents...how they treated their parents worse than their pet cat!

Well, Mother's Day is one of those days...a day for each & every one of us, cos we all do have mothers...a day for us to find a way to show our mothers that they are not forgotten. That they are still our mothers. That, if not for them, we wouldn't be here today...nor be what we are today. No one is without fault. No mother is perfect. Just look at ourselves in the mirror. All mothers will try to be the best mother they can be and know how to be. If you yourself are a mother, you would know what I am trying to say here. Or don't you?

And there is no one else we can call, "Mother". Is there? A mother who is REALLY your very own mother? I don't believe so. Impossible, to be exact. Yup, there are others one may have the capability (guts?) to call "mother" but is she your mother? More of just a word...no feelings whatsoever that you would have for your own mother. Pls correct me if I am wrong.

I remember an article in a local paper recently. A girl was so unhappy with her mother for not being able to provide for her every need...like what her friends could have. To cut a long story short, the mother told the daughter that she would pack her clothes, etc and take her to 3 very wealthy families. The mother said she would ask her daughter to choose which family her daughter would want to have as her family and then ask if that family was willing to take her as their own daughter. She could then choose to stay with them and be their daughter. That action by the mother woke up that girl...made her realise that no other woman can ever be her own real mother. That no other woman can ever have the love her own mother can give her...altho others may provide the materialistic items of the world!

Do love yr own mother...she's the only one you've got...the only one you'll ever have! And you do NOT have like forever to do so...

Hope it's NOT too late for you...like it was for me...

Happy Mother's Day!