Walking Backwards

Well, after Nicholas' class this morning, we leave for Dallas for my sister-in-law's graduation. I am disappointed that I am going to miss my son's preschool's open house and mother's day in my own home, but it can't be avoided it seems. I hope everyone out there has an enjoyable mother's day. I'll leave with this poem I got from one of my local parenting boards and promises that I'll return to tell my tale.

A Mother's Day Prayer
© Kim Lane

Help us remember the day
each of our children came to us,
the pain
the tears
the joy
the sorrow.
Help us remember what we left behind that day,
and the abundance we carried away
in our arms and hearts.
Help us understand there are two births
every time a child is born.
Help us remember with caution and reverence
that we dwell with tiny witnesses to our lives,
who silently and exactingly note how we
give selflessly
love intensely
work tirelessly
yearn longingly
or burn bitterly,
who note how we reach for the world with a tender hand
or lure it with a curled fist,
who note if we cradle with one arm
our beloved babies
and carefully balance our own evolving spirit
in the other,
or if we continuously deny ourselves our own dreams
paths
passions
interests
bonds
and growth,
in deference to others',
our fingers forever threaded together
callused from boosting the feet
of those around us
while our own feet and spirit
grow heavy with moss
and tethered to shadows.
Help us remember that our tiny witnesses
will take these self-stones we have forged
and build parts of their future with them,
with ample windows, doors and ladders
or densely roofed
with barely cracks for light,
because these structures are familiar
and pieces of the road that lead home
and away.
And help us remember to make eye contact
and smile at other mothers,
because regardless of situation, location,
vocation or generation,
we are forever bonded
by a universal experience.
We share a single word
recognized and translated
by all speakers
of the proud language of women