Eve

It's always the eve of something, isn't it?  And tonight it is Mother's Day Eve.  This year it seems that everyone is acknowledging Mother's Day as fraught, and we should all be careful as we step around the edges of the holiday.  I have felt, on occasion, mixed feelings about the day.  My philosophical side can't always be around to gently roll her eyes and buoy up my emotional side, but this year, philosophical trumps and I'm pretty happy about that.

I am also pretty happy about things because I do have a great mom.  And I have some great kids.  Five great kids, actually.  And while I often think of myself as a semi-adequate mother, I can see myself improving in that area of my life, which is nice and a relief, and so, good for me.  I think being a mother is important.  I think learning to mother is important, whether or not you are a biological mother.  I think that mothering has a lot to do with the creative process, but we just use other names, because our society has made mothering something sort of passive (perhaps passive-aggressive) and uncool.  To teenagers, sure, they can think it's uncool.  But mothering is demanding and active and intense and full of cosmos in chaos, to borrow a phrase from Madeleine L'Engle.

It's a good thing, to be able to find or make or notice that cosmos, I admit, because there is an awful lot of chaos out there.  So, I wish you, unabashedly, a happy Mother's Day.