Musing

2C/ 36F, sunny & calm; the neighbourhood still save for dog walkers, mountains etch a silhouette like a rip-saw blade teeth

‘The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.’ - Rajneesh

I was a precocious child, so perhaps when I was in her womb, I was expecting a great mother, expecting a great relationship, wanting to be nurtured, loved, fed, changed & kept warm

someone told me once – I think it was my mother – that if you cannot say something nice, then don’t say anything at all

saying nice things about my relationship with my mother was difficult enough during her life, no less so since her death March 25, 1999, so I won’t use this day to vent

my relationship with my mother was far from what anyone would desire, yet I have met many mothers; cut from different cloth, these women are worth praising, honouring; women carrying extraordinary loads with style, grace, dignity & aplomb

this 2nd Sunday in May seems as good a day as any to speak of mothers & mothering, the day when mothers sleep late as kids play quietly outside without a sweater while dad makes breakfast

‘Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.’ - Ambrose Bierce

mothers & expectant mothers get lots of attention on this day when florists, phone companies, hotel brunches & Hallmark really clean up, why write about mothers today ?

I want to write about 2 expectant mothers who don’t know it yet; so far as I know they are not expectant or ‘expecting’ mothers in a traditional sense, but they are expectant mothers nonetheless, for one day they will be

from the moment they exited their mother’s womb, my daughters Carla & Krista were women in the making; so too, from that moment, they became expectant mothers

from that moment I knew they would be great mothers one day – they did not know it yet, but there would be lots of time; lots of time to see examples; to watch mothers in action – their own & others, their grandmothers, aunt & so many other role models they would observe

I played no role in their mother-child relationships – at best an observer, but for the most part I was oblivious, early on at least, to those relationships; I was challenged enough with my own as their father

if/when they enter the role of mother, I cannot imagine these 2 precious women will be any less accomplished & caring as mothers than they have been as being daughters

‘Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.’ - Aristotle

in my case there is no uncertainty & I wonder how my relationship would have been with them if I had carried them 9 months in my belly . . perhaps a stronger bond early on, but I doubt I could have loved them an ounce more than I do

my daughters, neither one having advised of plans to have children any time soon, are not yet expectant mothers in the traditional sense of that term – but they are surely expectant mothers in my mind

my daughters, you ARE cut from different cloth, worth praise, worth honouring; I am expecting you will be great mothers – I’ve been expecting it since you were born

no doubt I have some things to discuss with my dad . . the guy who chose my mother for me, that guy who nearly 55 years ago first expected me to be a father, a good father

I’m having brunch with my dad today, if we can get a table

they will be expecting so many mothers

Mark

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