Happy Mother's Day

Every year in the US, partly in thanks to retailers and the greeting card industry, on the second Sunday in May we stop to observe Mother’s Day. The restaurants fill, florists do landslide business and phone calls fly across town and around the country. And this is great. It’s an honorable and well-intentioned observance.

But some women don’t have children, the standard requirement for inclusion in hoopla, and never did.

About twenty years ago I realized that all women are mothers in one way or another.

With children or without, we nurture friends, we mourn with them at moments of grief and celebrate their triumphs. We care for them during illness, help see them through difficult passages of life, and are strong for them when they need a shoulder to lean on.

So whether or not you have children, Happy Mother’s Day.