Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

my Mom and me, circa 1977

 Becoming a mother has taught me just how blessed I am to have a wide circle of mothers in my life beginning with my very own mom. Although I know she worries about the kind of job she did raising my brother and me, it was she who taught us, by example, the most important lessons I carry with me: kindness, compassion, generosity, faith, understanding, good manners and gratitude. She has always taken note of the beauty in the simplest things around her from the shape of a cloud, to the color  of the sky. I see my own two kiddos noticing the very same things. I know I don't say it enough, but thank you, Mom. I love you.

Motherhood reminds me just how much

I am grateful for 

the memories and legacies of my grandmothers 

and my Aunt Terry who loved me in a way that only grandmothers can

and who all left far too soon.

I am blessed to have my three Conaty aunts,
who are not mothers themselves but have the hearts of one.
They have loved me like their own my whole life.

I am grateful for women like Mrs. G. who had four children of her own

but somehow always found room to take on a fifth. Me. 

I am lucky to have a mother-in-law who not only raised a remarkable son for me to marry,
but loves me, treats me, and encourages me like a daughter.

I am so fortunate to have friends and family to share this experience with:

ones who understand the ins and outs of my days, my worries, my bedlam.

They are my sanity and laughter. 

They've sat with me in the E.R., run to the supermarket for me when I've been sick

and listened to me only the way a girlfriend can.

It seems it takes a village not only to raise a child, but to raise a mom, too.

Happy Mother's Day to all of these women and to you!

Erin