Editor’s Perspective: May 9 2019

“Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” – Barbara Kingsolver

It was 14 years ago when I truly got to appreciate the sentiment behind Mother’s Day after a lifetime of celebrating them. Because, although I have always had a mother, it was not long before Mother’s Day in 2005 that I became one.

I’m not sure to this day if anything can truly prepare you for motherhood and all that encompasses. The overwhelmingly love that would drive one to give the figurative and literal shirt off your back if it was needed is not something easily captured in words. Family – both as a whole and in its separate parts – comes in all shapes and sizes, mothers included. So whether you are a mother, a mother figure, a dad raising children alone, you’re a foster mum, you have adopted or had a whāngai arrangement, this day is for you.

Although for many of us, this special day is about chocolate, flowers, cards and breakfast in bed, the second Sunday in May is equally about honouring your role in the lives of those who depend on you; it is the one day in the year when children, young and old, do their best to demonstrate in a tangible way just how much their mums mean to them. After all, mothers are said to hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.