From the Mother of Mothers
I recently returned from a trip to visit my son and his family, which I enjoyed immensely. My grandson is about a year and a half old now, and he is scrumptious! My son and I love each other, and in many ways, we are similar, but he struggles to understand the work I’m doing with the Archangels, so when we get together, there’s a bit of awkwardness from time to time. There have been hurt feelings in the past between us. We’re finding our way forward.
When I need some TLC, I usually go to Mary, the Holy Mother, for comfort. It was while I was visiting my son that I checked in with her. It occurred to me a few months ago that I tend to go to her when I’m troubled, but I decided to go to her more often, to share the good things happening in my life with her, as well as the troubling times, and I did that will visiting my son. What started off as a personal visit became what I think is an awesome message to share with all mothers on Mother’s Day. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Jodie: Good morning, Holy Mother. I just wanted to check in with you, as I’m visiting with John, and we’re enjoying each other.
Mary:
Good morning, holy daughter [author’s note: we’re all holy, as we all come from the same source], it is so nice to hear from you and to spend time with you. It is also a pleasure to watch you with your children and grandson.
I am so happy bridges are being mended. Allow them to be rebuilt. Let go of the pain and disappointment. I was not a perfect mother, and neither are you or anyone else who has ever been a mother on Earth. We try out best, and sometimes, we fail. Sometimes, however, we do things right, and it does not take a leap of faith when we see our grown children to see that there were many things we did right. Successes and failures altogether, at the base of it all there was love, yes?
Motherhood is a great challenge for anyone who takes it seriously. It is such a great responsibility, is it not? It begins and ends with love, but in between is teaching, helping, guarding, and guiding. Later comes support, even when we disagree with choices made, and acceptance of the people our children become.
Children should always know that their mothers love and accept them as they are. A mother’s love should be constant, dependable, and never ending. It should not have to be earned, and there should be no conditions attached to it. It is never too late to make this so.
Children who grow to adulthood sometimes do not appreciate their parents as they should. They do not always remember or recognize the sacrifices that were made. Be patient, mothers, as your children are likely to amend their judgments and thoughts as they experience more of life.
And to the children who are grown and continue to judge their parents harshly, try to either understand or forgive. Life is difficult at times for everyone, and mistakes are often made. Do not trap your parents in guilt or shame or regret. Free them from these things, learn from their mistakes. When you lighten another’s burden, you lighten your own.
Parents, be at peace. Children, growing and grown, be at peace. You will all continue to make mistakes from time to time. This, although not enjoyable in most cases, is necessary and helpful. When you make mistakes, when you fail, you have the opportunity to learn, grow and evolve. It is expected that you will fail at times. All failures are chances to improve yourselves. Forgive others and forgive yourselves for your failures.
Know that I send you a mother’s love, to each and every one of you. Call on me to visit and spend time with you. Whenever you need a mother’s support and comfort, I will come to you. You do not have to practice any particular religion or any religion at all. I welcome all of you. I love you all.
Final Thoughts
My mother’s been gone for over a decade now, and I still miss her, and I literally think of her every single day. She represents unconditional love for me, as I never doubted her love. We rarely had trouble between us, even when I went through those difficult teenage years. I still don’t ever want to do anything that would disappoint her, although I imagine not much could, because she loves me so much. Still, I consider my conduct a reflection of my upbringing, and I always keep that thought close to my heart when I’m making decisions.
I think as adults, most of us learn to understand our parents better, from an adult’s point of view, rather than a child’s, and hopefully, we gain perspective and forgive anything we held against them at one time. I binged the last season of Ted Lasso recently on Apple TV, and Ted’s mother comes for a visit and said something I found interesting and pretty profound, really. Her son, Ted, is a soccer coach, so she uses a sporty analogy about parenthood, saying something to the effect of, “As parents, sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose. Most of the time, though, we tie, just hoping and trying to do our best.”
That line made me smile, because it’s so true, isn’t it? We try our best. We look at all the angles, we spend countless hours worrying we’re doing a good enough job to get our kids through life relatively unscathed, so they’ll turn out to be good, happy, solid people. Sometimes we hit the nail on the head, and other times, maybe we should be disqualified, but we give it our best shot, because to be a parent is the most important job we’ll ever have. It’s not like there’s a score card or a set of rules to play by. No owner’s manual, no referees, and the coaching we get along the way isn’t always enough to bring us to a victory, but we sure give it our all, anyway.
We all have a mother. If yours is on Earth, I hope she’s well and you’re enjoying each other. If your mother, like mine, has left Earth, I hope you know she still loves you, and she watches over you. Either way, she probably has regrets, and I bet she wishes she’d done some things differently. I think we all do. Hindsight is so much clearer than the present, but we don’t have that clarity at the time we act, so it’s not very helpful then. We just go along, doing the best we can at the time, hoping it’ll be enough to get our kids to an adulthood that is healthy, happy, and fulfilling. Mothers feel guilty for one thing or another at times, but for me, taking a good look at my grownup kids, I get a good feeling that I must have done more right than wrong, and God knows I always did my best.
To all mothers on Mother’s Day, along with all their children, enjoy your day and celebrate each other.
Many blessings to all of you.
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