On Mother's Day

Being a parent is hard work. Being a parent on your own is 10 times harder.

I don't speak from firsthand experience -- but from secondhand. It’s one of the only silver linings I’ve found in having missed out on motherhood. I know that if I’m honest with myself, I might well have repeated, in many respects at least, my own childhood. (Definitely not a good idea.) And I know that it would not have been as easy as many of my friends (very much to their credit) make it seem.

I can’t imagine having the awesome responsibility of creating, caring for and molding another human being. The complexity of it does not escape me. I think it is one of the ultimate things that anyone can do and one of the most arduous tasks that can ever be undertaken.

So, it is with the maximum amount of love and respect that I offer a sincere thank-you to the person who embodies my longest relationship: the mother.

Things probably would have been easier (and a lot more enjoyable) had she not taken her parental responsibilities to heart and made them a priority. No, make that the priority, in her life. I can’t count the times I’ve wondered what might have become of me if she had decided to conveniently forget that she had a child and focus only on her own wants and needs. (It’s a chilling thought, considering that I had one parent who did just that.) And she easily could have, too.

But she didn’t.

And while it’s not always been the easiest of relationships, I know that I am loved, I have always been cared for and I have always had someone in my life truly in my corner, someone who has wanted for me many times more than I even want for myself. Someone whose enduring love, trust and respect are sometime more than I deserve.
And for that, I will be forever grateful.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. Especially to mine.