Beautiful Mother’s Day! Blue sky, fluffy clouds and just enough wind to add wind chime music to the bird song symphony. My faithful cardinals and all their friends are visiting the feeders. Oldest brother dropped by and told me he’s still got a few squirrels to kill. Last time he shot one he left his glasses on the porch rail and spent a while looking for them in the house before he looked up and saw them on the rail. I told him he was lucky that a squirrel didn’t steal them because he was killing all their friends.

Spent a quiet Mother’s Day pondering in the swing. Said a prayer for all the mothers missing children this Mother’s Day. And a special prayer for my work friend who is having her first holiday without her son. My niece was telling me today she’s enjoyed the last few weeks having both her sons home. I smiled when she said that and wished for one more day with all three of my children.

Mother’s Day honors motherhood and the maternal bonds in our families. Mothers are such powerful forces in a family and in society. We learn early how to carry a 20 pound baby, a diaper bag, a bag of groceries, and our purses. At my age I’d be lucky to just hold the baby but I remember those days — two in the buggy at Wally World and the oldest walking behind me holding on to the back pocket of my blue jeans. Mothers always put their children first. My daughter-in-law is a beautiful mother, always putting her family first and foremost.

When I visit my grandchildren I marvel at how their lives run like a well oil machine. Nightly lunch box packings, soccer practices, soccer games, Scout meetings, band practice, basketball, and play dates all run smoothly because their mother is a marvel with the workings of modern motherhood. She keeps things on an even keel and manages to get all three of them to school each day with all their homework, chrome books, band instruments, and lunch boxes. Their father goes with the flow, too. Takes two of them to handle the scheduled activities on some days.

Mothers now days have a harder time raising their children than our mothers did. Our lives are busier, fast paced and expensive. The world can be a big scary place and our children have to learn how to navigate the social interaction of the modern world. When I was a child my life revolved around the street I lived on. Children today have all the influences of tv and social media. Teenagers make a mistake or do something stupid and it is forever captured on social media and develops a life of its own. Research says seven of ten mothers are looking at Facebook everyday and are overloaded with information on raising children. Got a parenting question, ask the internet and watch a YouTube video. My generation asked our mothers or our grandmothers for parenting advice. If they weren’t any help, we’d look it up in our Dr. Spock’s baby care book.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers on this planet!

“When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.”—Mitch Albom