A tribute to mothers

Artwork by Leah Dorion. Accessed https://www.leahdorion.ca/gallery_2009.html.

Happy Mother’s Day to…

Adoptive mothers.

Biological mothers.

Grandmothers.

Mothers by whom you were not raised but have chosen to mother you anyway.

Mothers who fight for their children.

Mothers who show you what it is to delight in their children.

Mothers who hid in the bush, refusing to let their child be taken from them.

To the…

Mothers who have lost children.

Mothers who want nothing but to raise their children but cannot.

Mothers who are raising their children but are struggling, questioning why they don’t “feel more grateful.”

Mothers who never knew the colour of their child’s eyes, who never had the chance to smell the top of their newborn’s heads.

Mothers who have fought to simply become mothers.

Mothers for whom the “fight” never brought a child into this world.

To the…

Mothers who are doing so much of the work alone.

Mothers who are surviving with the help of their community.

Mothers for whom this life was not planned but who wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Women who have chosen not to be “mothers” but are mothering the children around in them still.

Mothers whose pain palpitates in their chest but whose children will, undoubtedly, remember the good morning smiles over the late night tears, the impromptu bedtime dance parties over the middle-of-the-night bad dreams, the laughter over the fighting.

And to the…

Fur mamas.

Bonus mamas.

Aunties.

Big sisters.

Matriarchs.

I love you all.