A Mother's Day Note

8th May 2022 Written by Dvonne Loring

“Sunday, the 8th of May, is Mother's Day here [in Australia]. Mother's Day as we know it started in 1907 by Anna Jarvis, who continued the work of her own late mother in campaigning for a day to celebrate the work of mothers and mother figures. Ironically, Anna Jarvis spent the later years of her life lobbying for the removal of the very day she started, arguing that its commercialisation distracted from its original intentions. For better or for worse, Mother's Day remains. Thankfully, since 1907, a lot has changed in how we regard the importance of mother figures, and who is considered a mother figure. And although seemingly commercial, we can't deny the role that the emergence of Mother's Day may have played in that. At the same time there is still a way to go in honouring the work of mother figures, which is the intent we are bringing to this Mother's Day.” - Statement from Sense of Self Bathhouse

To raise children in today’s societal landscape is inexcusably challenging. What was once the tribe’s shared responsibility now falls on the shoulders of at best two sets of shoulders of the parents, or solely on the shoulders of single parents

Women have, as we’ve done throughout history, adapted to the often unjust demands laid upon us

And so, despite the tribulation that is (not always, but often) the rite of passage of modern day motherhood, women continue to dig deeply into the recesses of their humanness to meet the task at hand

With the pouring of unabashed care, women rise to raise generation after generation

“Why do women find it honourable to dismiss themselves?” - Glennon Doyle

Culturally, women continue to be silenced

The narrative breeds and reinforces the idea that the path of a woman who deserves respect

One who is classed as successful and worthy

Is a woman who wears learned selflessness with tight modesty

That her struggles aren’t to be aired and to only have silence as her witness

This is an immutable injustice

To the mothers before us and after us

To the women who chose to not bear children

To those where the choice was taken from them

To the mothers to be

To those who have miscarried or terminated

To those who have lost and are bereaved

To the mothers who wished they did better

Who feel remorse and sorrow or are filled with regret

To the mothers who are beyond exhausted

To those who are estranged from their mother

To those whose mother is no longer here in human form

To those who never had one

To those who lost their lives becoming mothers

This is for you

Your unabated strength, your heart, your plight, your sacrifice, your soul’s ache and hunger is acknowledged

We owe our lives to you

With the deepest gratitude and respect

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