By Jennifer Elizabeth Masters
Whether you are male or female each of us has our mother to thank for bringing us into this world. Our father contributed to conception, but it was through our mother's birth canal we struggled for air some of us kicking and screaming. Without our mother's life force, we would not be here to celebrate her today.
No matter the trauma you have experienced, our mother gave us life. She didn't abort, terminate or expel us. We have a great deal to be grateful for because of our mother.
Even if you were given up for adoption, you are alive today because she gave you life. Thank you, mother.
Our mothers fed, cared for us, changed our diapers, nursed and bottle fed us.
As we began to walk, she shared the excitement of our new discoveries.
Mothers are the ones that teach us table manners, etiquette, social skills and how to speak. Mothers are the ones that encourage their children to get up and run, to write, to sing, to play the piano even when they weren't able to do so.
Our mothers took us to ballet, tap, karate, baseball, soccer, singing, piano lessons, for haircuts, dentist appointments and watched us in our dance recitals, and church plays even when we were terrible and forgot our lines.
We must heal this very important relationship to feel whole, valued and validated. We might never have heard the praise we longed for or the exact words we expected. Our relationship with our mother above all others must be re-written with a positive perspective. She had her personal issues, shadow material and limiting beliefs that prevented her from being everything we thought we needed. The truth is our mother was exactly what our soul ordered for our greatest and highest good; no matter how it turned out.
Sacrifice is part of a mother's burden. She gave up a lot for us. She gave up her figure, perky breasts, and her youth. She had less time to do what she loved, fewer clothes, and hairdos for herself, her profession, acting or singing career she made sacrifices. Children require time, attention money, and sometimes rob a mother's joy. Mothers can be disappointed that their life didn't turn out the way they dreamed it would. No matter what she gave up you know it was a sacrifice of her time, energy and money.
How can you view your relationship with your mother differently so that you are able to see her life from a higher perspective? What trauma did she experience in her life? What did she overcome from her past? What challenges did she have that affected her ability to love you the way you wanted to be loved?
I work with both men and women in my sessions. One person that comes up again and again in conversations about life challenges is our mother. Mothers are the biggest contributor to our pain, suffering, and story of woes. We often look for partners who mimic our mother's personality traits. So today, let's salute our mothers for giving us something to work on and making our lives so....... interesting. Until we have children of our own we will never recognize what it means to be a mother. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most challenging and thankless of jobs without any remuneration. Mothers do the following for free:
- Carried us in her belly for nine months
- endured backache, hemorrhoids, and stretch marks
- experienced the torturous pain of labor and delivery
- breast fed or bottle fed us every four hours or less: midnight feeding, 2:00 AM feeding, 4:30 AM feeding
- lost sleep for years while we cried, screamed and yelled
- changed thousands of diapers
- paced the floors with colicky babies in the middle of the night
- countless hours at hospitals, doctors and dentist offices and in waiting rooms
- bench warming in all kinds of weather cheering on her athletes
- ferrying to friends houses
- cooking our favorite meals
- baking cookies, cakes, gifts for teachers
- sleepovers when no one sleeps
- birthday parties
- shopping for school projects
- helped us complete school projects
- drove us to school with our school projects
- encouraged scholastic ability even when she didn't have it
- countless kittens, puppies, sheep, horses, goats, rabbits and other farm animals that we bring home for care
- kissing our cuts and bruises
- wiping tears
- cleaning up vomit and other items we shall not mention by name
- listening to our breakup stories
- hearing about our exes
- helping us pack, move and move again
- listening to our complaints about our children, husbands, wives and animals
- listening to us complain about our weight, jobs, and unhappiness
- listening to us complain about not having enough money, love, attention
- waiting for the phone to ring while we are busy with our pets, children and partners
- waiting for us to visit
- bailing us out of jam after jam and then making us jam
Jennifer and her mother 95 in July 2017 |
Mothers are underappreciated, underrated, and maligned; yet make the greatest impact of any person in our lives. Strange isn't it that we cause the greatest pain to our mothers through childbirth then she is who gives us the greatest pain. Mothers are the one we want to please the most, the one most of us try to make happy. Thank your mother whether she is still on the earth or not for giving you life and allowing you to have the experience of today.
If it weren't for our mothers we wouldn't be here. Here's to you and all mothers everywhere! Thank you, Mom!
Visit Jennifer's website: JenniferElizabethMasters.com
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