By Kim Olver (originally posted May 10, 2014)
Today I want to acknowledge the people who may be in pain on Mother’s Day and in all the days and hype leading up to it. Who may those people be?
- A mother whose child has died
- A person whose mother has passed away
- A mother who has put their child up for adoption
- A child whose been adopted
- A child living in foster care
- A woman with a regretted abortion
- A woman who has suffered a miscarriage
- A mother and child separated by pride and misunderstanding
- Anyone else I may have left out
- Couples who are infertile
Experiencing emotional pain is never easy but it is made even more difficult when the world around you is celebrating while you are feeling so sad. Those who have their mothers and their children to celebrate with will be happy and pampered on Mother’s Day. It is a special day set aside to honor the woman who gave birth to us.
If you are child without your mother on Mother’s Day, you have similar choices. You can embrace your feelings of grief, loss and sadness and just be in that space. You can pretend all is well when you know it isn’t. You can distract yourself with other things, trying not to think about her. You can find a way to be grateful for the mother you had, for better or for worse. She gave you life and taught you things . . . some you will embrace, others you will never repeat but all lessons nonetheless. Or you can find something else to celebrate on this day.