The Mothering Heart

Is Mother’s Day for you a source of joy or of sadness?

Who would you choose most to spend it with?

The shops are saturated with cards and merchandise urging us to wish our Mother a Happy Mother’s Day for, the playgroups and nurseries have been filled with activities for the kids to create a cards for their Mums. However, behind it all - there are many women who are without their Mothers or without their children.

Mother’s Day isn’t just for those who have noisy toddlers in the house. I’d say it is for all those with a mothering heart.

One of my best mother’s days, doesn’t actually include my own children. Around 2013 B.C (Before Children) I had the opportunity to take two girls to church for the Mothering Sunday service as their Mum was away. They wanted to go and get a daffodil and I tried my best to persuade them not to as we could go and get some when their Mum got home. They ignored me, thankfully and went up, got a daffodil and presented it to me with gratitude for my role in their life. It really did mean the world. It came at a stage of my life I didn’t anticipate getting married or having my own children but had dedicated my life to working with and volunteering with other's people children.

On the other end of the spectrum, a really distressing incident was in my time as a brownie leader in an affluent area, a child had not been happy with the gift and despite me telling the parent that the gifts were all the same monetary value and I had done my best to make them all ‘equal’, she refused to support me and stated ‘that only a parent would understand’.

I’m sure what she said carried an element of truth, but there are some things you just don’t say. Being a parent really has changed my perspective, but child carers without children have their own unique perspectives and should be appreciated for that, not belittled. Our children will encounter people who have a mothering heart and will make the world of difference in their lives

So for those who can’t have children.

For those who have lost their baby before birth or their child.

For those children who have lost their Mother

For those children who have been taken in to care or who have never known a mother who loved as she should have.

For those who care for children they didn’t give birth to.

May you find peace and joy tomorrow in the smell of the spring air, the flowers in bloom, in your friendships and in your passions.