Oakland Voices correspondent Hannah Moore shares a poem about the journey of motherhood.
Mother’s Day is every day.
Mama hood is the hardest hood.
Mothering is an art.
And Mothers are deep and engaged creative architects.
In my daily prayer, I pray for the mothers
In Yoruba, we say: Iba Awon Iya Wa Eleiye (Homage to our mothers, owners of birds)
As teenage girls we hate our mothers.
We think they do everything wrong.
We blame them for all our and their shortcomings.
It’s not until we are older that we start to understand that our mothers are human beings who have their whole lives before, during, and after us.
Whole lives that require their own mothering and care.
Some have lost their mothers.
Some have mothers who are lost.
Some of us learn how to mother ourselves.
Many of us must mother each other.
Mothering as a verb is the hardest.
We don’t talk enough about how hard it truly is.
We don’t talk enough about how hard it truly is.
No that’s not a typo – I said it twice.
Let it sink in.
And we don’t talk enough about how virtuous motherhood is – like to get up day after day and choose to do the hardest job there is.
What a grand and honorable gesture.
Can we sit in that for a moment?
Because I see you.
I see us.
Struggling through what it means to get it right.
To know we don’t know.
To return to the will to care and give care time and time again.
Mother’s Day is every day.
Everyday Mothers in all shapes and forms should get their flowers.
Everyday Mothers show up because that is what we do.
Mothers are practitioners in the multiverse, the multi-task, in forgiveness, in grace, with boundaries, balance, love, and deep care.
Mother’s Day is Every Day.
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