My Time 4 Talk by Madona Cole-Lacy

May you live to experience the joy and pride of motherhood one year at a time! That well-earned joy that does not come without its own measure of heartaches, headaches, sleepless nights and anxieties, as you go through the portals of the ultimate test that precedes the proverbial testimony.

Onward faithful mothers, you diplomatic openers of doors, the quintessential child and youth advocate, the earthly “fixer-uppers” of your children’s physical and emotional pain and providers of the resolute x that was chosen to partner with the paternal x and y chromosomes – an enviable position that makes you the mother of all!

Onward I say, never you mind that the going gets tough  –  just keep focused on the bigger picture.

Tenacious, truly giving, trusting, faithful, the greatest earthly teacher, ever! Yes, I know about the trying times you struggle through as you reach for a grasp of the fruit of the spirit. For how can you in good conscience raise children devoid of a lesson on kindness, gentleness, peace, long-suffering, self-control, faithfulness, goodness and healthy love?

So your darling adult or young adult child did not acknowledge you properly or even call at all on mother’s day? Don’t be    despondent, you know ‘tenacity’ is your name, and for you, Mother’s Day is 365 days a year any way. Keep your head up high enough to do something kind and gentle in their name today! And now for the bitter pill. If per chance, you know you contributed to that dynamic, perhaps the time is now for you to make peace with yourself, or have that conversation with your child.

Hold on to hope! Believe that your hard work will pay off someday. Good seeds planted on fertile soil will take root and sprout into healthy-looking seedlings that you can relate to with an abundance of knowing smiles to accompany your bountiful harvest.

There is also another special breed of mothers who, despite the fact that they did not go through the physical gestational and or birthing process, are just as vested in that all important institution of motherhood. I duff my hat to you adoptive mothers, and all women who care about and for children and youth. Thank you for caring enough to subscribe to the future of the world in such a special way. We cannot forget mothers who have walked into a ready-made family with or without children of her own. The delicate family dynamic, which more often than not, results in this setup calls for mutual love, understanding, education/enlightenment and support to be in place for a successful outcome. Be strong, be encouraged and be enlightened!

Every good and benevolent mother deserves favor in return – and no, you shouldn’t have to know how to play the piano to get it from your child!

Rally around like-minded and supportive people you know. Even though this may seem difficult at first, work hard at weeding out those who, like a poisonous plant, creep up on you when you least expect it, to not only disturb the flow of things, but to corrupt the thinking of the ones who will one day bring you an abundance of joy. If you already know and benefit from this, it is time, I say, to spread your wings and reach out to mothers in your midst whose children have passed on, for they are mothers too, STILL.

The time has come to rethink, reassess, reconstruct and redefine – for the sake of you and your children, dear mother. My wish for you is that you never tire of mixing lemonade when your children toss lemons at you, for at the end, they are yours and you are theirs – for better or for worse as they venture out into their own.