Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of you Moms who might visit this site! I have been incredibly blessed to have the wonderful women in my life who through both example and tenacity have shared their love with me. I agree that a woman who gives birth is not necessarily a mother. It is a certain spirit that a woman possesses, even if she has not given birth herself, that makes a woman a mother. It is a unique sixth sense, a silent understanding, the gift to discern. These are some of the quailities that a mother possesses, along with a fierce and loyal love. I do believe that any person who has not been a mother, by the act of giving birth or more importantly by choosing and committing to that bond, cannot know what being a mother is.

Without a long life story, I can summarily tell you that my mother has literally been the wind beneath my wings, my entire life. At times I knew she was carrying me, loving me enough that by her sheer will I would make it. At others, even when I questioned if she was there for me, her guiding hand and absolute determination that I would keep going moved me forward each day. Even our closest girlfriends can be gone in an instant, gone the bonds we were sure would be sealed forever. But it is only a parent's love that has the ability to be truly and genuinely unconditional. Arguments occur, disagreements happen, life happens. But my mother has taught me that true unconditional love can and does exist.

Are you familiar with CNN's Heroes campaign? Or the MLB's hero campaign? I always nominate my mom because she is the most remarkable person I know. She has given at every stage of her life, nurtured and been driven to improve whatever is around her. Her "golden years" have only amazed me all the more, from her community activism to her incredible journey fighting for every inch back from a series of strokes.

And she has cute clothes.

Thankfully my mom had the good judgement to ask her good friend Denise to be my Godmother. Imagine the pre-baby Bay Area fun life of the late 60's. And the same woman who stood for my baptism was forty years later standing for my Confirmation and First Communion. A constant through every single year of my life, Denise has taught me how a woman can choose to be a mother. Of couurse it helps if the child involved participates........

I sign off with a heart full of love for my Mom, my Godmother, and the many other women who have been in my life who shared their mother's love with me. We uncannily seem to know that we each have to make it. We will find a way to help each other see another day. Because only a mother knows instinctively that there is no other choice. We're Moms!