Motherhood and the Seed of Heroism

 

http://www.hammondgower.co.uk/piano/magnet-mothers-are-super-heroes.html

It is almost mother’s day.  May right?  I thought one time “would I get to be acknowledged for my heroism?....hmmm being a mother to my daughter?”.  Mother’s heroism is unsung.  Mothers don’t shout out at the top of their voice and to the world what they did to their children or even to their husbands. 

I thought the same to my own mother.  She was a simple, mostly silent woman.  She took care of 6 of us including our father.  I remember seeing her so skinny at our eldest grade 6 graduation.  She must have struggled and sacrificed so much for us.  Furthermore, I could not recall any moment when she asked for recognition.  I just remember her one time when she angrily shouted at us while we were fighting that she was so tired already and that one day she would leave all of us and never come back.  I never thought death would one day meet that wish. Or that God may have wanted us to learn our lessons  by giving our mother the biggest break of all…that is to join Him in heaven (hmmm that was so beautiful God but not to us that time huuh).

Anyway,  now that I am a mother myself,  I understood full well the sacrifice and the most painful cry of mothers not being noticed in their sacrifices and not really being understood in those moments when even the bouts of temper are being thought of as harsh and difficult. 

I do understand now why mothers are afraid when any member of the family get sick or when some members come home late or do not give due notice when they can’t come home earlier or when they don’t eat much or when mothers become too paranoid to imagine why some members are not home yet  or when they get so angry at some things and so many more.

Mothers just want their family to be well.  You know why?  It is too much a struggle to see any member of the family suffering in any way.  It would slowly kill the mother inside.  The emotion can be too excruciating.  Mothers though may appear strong  when and in times of crises for they have to remain steadfast when the rest of the family members may be struggling.  They silently suffer inside.  There are times when and even the describing the pain cannot be defined by words.  Thus mothers stay still until such time when she feels ready to share its depth. 

You may be wondering why I am able to write this.  I went through majority of what I have written here other than what was being shared to me by mothers themselves.   And I feel the heroism of mothers and motherhood.  I feel it to its depth and the strength that I felt everytime I decide to just surrender to God  and to allow the experience to take its shape and just to undergo and let the experience be or let my daughter just feel her pain while I stay close and make her feel that I was and am there for her.

Thank you God for the strength of being a woman.  Thanks for planting that seed of heroism inside every mother’s heart.  Thank you for giving me a husband who despite his questions and not fully understanding some parts of our journey as a family  stays and firmly stood still.  Amen.