Mother’s Day is in the future. Motherhood is something of which men can only stand in awe as a whole world unknown thrives.
When I was growing up, my mother’s birthday was closely tied to Mother’s Day. It’s a time of hyacinths, tulips, crocuses and other early harbingers of spring. One moment we see the detritus of winter, then a cloud of dust from the guy with the super loud blower moving winter’s dying skin off the parking lots.
Through it all, mothers manage to cope with the chaos of life with self-assurance and superhero strength. They give us our first meals, heal our ouchies, wipe our tears, and hold us up to the sky in joyous welcome to a brave and exciting new world.
Mares, ewes, jennies, sows, hens and the earth itself welcome this continuance of joy.
Exuberance rules the ties that connect mother to child, no matter the age. We like to think that mothers can survive anything. They ride unbridled Harleys, dance on pins and sew up the wounds of our shared experiences. Want to end a career? Make Mom mad!
Moms can do anything, so we kids think. They can live forever and will always be there when the monster under the bed decides to play president in toyland.
Moms do not bounce. They, too, suffer the aches, pains, fevers and emotions we all know so well. If mom gets a cold, you may get dad’s version of dinner: scrambled eggs and bacon with bits of wild critter to season them.
But still, momma does not bounce. My mother has had an experience of things going snap. It takes time to heal up. When that hits at the same time that birthdays and Mother’s Day are celebrated, it scares us all.
She is healing up and entertaining the nurses, physical therapists and doctors with a strong desire to keep going forward into the unknown world of tomorrow.
Moms know fear but it does not stop them. Happy Mothers’ Day and happy birthday to my own – 90-plus and still making the world a slightly better place.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television, worked around the U.S., and later changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
