A Note on Mother's Day
A day is hardly sufficient to recognize the role of our mothers and those people who take on the parent role. Those people who take little, floundering souls under their wings. Babes who are filled with unfathomable potential and rely on someone to nurture them and provide them the support they need to tap into it and find their way in the world.
Working closely with animals has given us such insight into to the significance of good mothering. Good, doting ewes birth their young and immediately attend to them, drying them off and shooing away any curious onlookers. They stand to nurse their young within minutes and while the tots nap in the stupor of their first full belly, the mother grazes, never straying more than a few yards away. Sows (mother pigs) are so cognizant of the sounds of their piglets (sometimes up to 16!?). Piglets are born with quite the pipes for a reason. Adult pigs weigh hundreds of pounds and in sleep can roll over on their young. Piglets notify the group with their built-in siren squeals if they feel pressure at all, a great survival instinct. When we used to have pigs, we would provide health checks for piglets. It only took one time to learn to pick them up under their bellies rather than around their sides as your ears would ring from their wailing and the good mother would come barreling toward the noise, frantic in defense of her kin. Most notably with animals we noticed that good mothers raise daughters who mother well themselves, and sons who were strong, healthy, and notably bigger. The mothers who neglected their young or rejected them required us to play parents, and those young were the small ones, some got sick, some didn't make it...they failed to thrive. They didn't have hours laying in the warmth of their mother, the nuanced nudges that a ewe dishes out to direct lambs here and there, the verbal communication between the two that we'll never translate.
Parents are the foundation of humanity. If we teach kids how to take care of themselves and we give them what they need, they can go on to take care of the world...which we dearly need...contributing their goodness and pizzazz which makes a community strong. They deserve our commitment to them as they come from the beyond into this realm of ours and try to get their feet underneath them. Parenthood is an almighty undertaking, and if only our modern world prioritized the start we give each generation, we as a people would thrive. Parenting is undervalued in this modern, career-driven world. Raises for parents and less working hours so that there is enough time in the day to give kids a good start! One can dream :).
Having gotten the chance to be parents ourselves, I can attest that it is truly an honor to welcome little humans into the world. And perhaps May and Jack have taught me more than I teach them, as they are closer to stardust than we adults: so inherently good and full of wonder. I am such a better person, though a more wrinkled person ;), for caring for them.
Happy Mother's Day to you all who mother them. I see you.
Thank you for reading.
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