Mothers Day ?

Every May for years, I would get my Mother a card on Mother's Day and give her the same hug that I gave her whenever I saw her any other time. Still, I used to always buy the flowers or the card with such hesitation because I hated the fact that I was doing what big business wanted me to buy something for my Mother. After all, it was “Mother's Day.” I did this for so long, but one day I said no! I will no longer be a pawn to big business and the government. That day, I searched for how Mother's Day originated, the real Mother's Day! Not the one our government put on a calendar to benefit themselves and our economy.

Anna Jarvis, just someone's daughter, decided to have a Mother's Day celebration back in 1908 or thereabouts to honor her Mother, who had died years before. Then, in 1872, Julia Ward Howe started a Mother's Day for Peace. This was to advocate for world peace as well as honor mothers. None of the about was about buying a gift, a card, or flowers; it was not about boosting the economy, but that is what it sadly has become.

In 1914, the president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, made Mother's Day an officially recognized holiday. Think about that, a holiday! That was not what it was meant to ever be, nor was it meant for people to take their Mother to breakfast, or buy them flowers, or a card. It was meant to show your love to your Mother, your appreciation, and that is not truly accomplished with a purchase of any kind; it is accomplished with a hug, kind words from your heart, not from a card that came down an assembly line by Hallmark or anyone else. It is not a time to buy anything it is a time to show your feeling with your words on a piece of paper folded in half, a breakfast you made with your own hands, flowers you picked from your garden or got at a simple road side stand that might help another simple person not a dozen roses that cost you at this point far to much because big businesses know that any holiday is their time to recoup their losses for the rest of the year and make sales by the millions.

That day, years ago, when my Mother was still with me, was the day that I made my own card for her on a simple piece of paper, and I wrote in it how much she meant to me and spoke about a time we shared that no assembly line card could have ever known about. I hugged her and told her this day is no different for me than every other day of the year because I don’t need a special day to tell you how much I love you, to give a hug, or to spend time with you. Her response was simple: “I love you too.”

I can not tell you how good it felt to know that the card I gave my Mom that day was one with my words, handwritten by me and that hug well that was nothing special because I gave her a hug all of the time and the breakfast we had well she actually cooked it like she always did if I was there at breakfast time and I helped like I always did and cleaned up wit h her after we all ate together like we did so many other times on days without names, days without holidays attached to them by our government.

So, really, Holidays that are on our calendars were never meant to bring a family together. They were meant to, in reality, at times tear families apart in the end because so many people feel that on these holidays, like Christmas, they should go and spend money they often do not have because of the pressure society, the government, television stations, and stores put on us every year on every holiday that our government recognizes to buy, buy, buy.

I, for one, will not be pushed by anyone to do something that I can't afford to or don’t agree to, and in the instance of Mother's Day, I did it every day anyway. I called my Mom, told her I loved her, and often brought her some cookies I made, some flowers from my garden that I loved to share, or just gave her that hug that goes unsaid and needs no holiday to initiate.

Mother's Day is the day you came into your Mother's life; it is not in May; it is the day you were born, and the gift you both have is the memories you will always have throughout your lifetime.

A daughter who truly loved her Mom