This will be my first Mother's Day childless. My 23 year old daughter Tori has taken a respite from her Big City Job and is off on another Great Adventure to explore the wilds of the Alaskan frontier, leaving me to be content with a card and assurances of her undying love and gratitude. To be frank, I'm thrilled for her and somewhat in awe of the fact that I managed to raise such an magnificent, accomplished, adventurous, and life-affirming young woman. Good for her ... and good for me!
For reasons that seemed rational at the time, I never planned on being a mother. Instead, I opted for being a godmother, an aunt, a mentor, an entrepeneur, and a philanthropist. It made for a rich and rewarding life, to be sure, but being Tori's mom has been the greatest gift of my lifetime. Hands down. No doubt about it. Take it to the bank. Put it in your pipe and smoke it (okay, that might be a bit much!).
Sometimes an unplanned life makes for the best life of all. The script I wrote for myself in my early 20's has long since been round-filed. In addition to being the mother of a remarkable human being, I am now the step-mother of 3, and grandmother of 7. I have been a single mom and a married mom, the foster mother and guardian of my niece, and a mentor to a number of young women teetering on the precipace of life's toughest choices.
So this Mother's Day, rather than sniffle into a kleenex because Herself is playing Eskimo, I'm going to tell my own mother that I love her, hug my sweet little granny, and lay flowers on the grave of the woman who gave life to My Beloved. And at the end of the day I'll breath a prayer of thanksgiving for one curly-haired bohemian with the voice of an angel and the unexpected blessings of an unplanned life.
