As we celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend, we take a few extra moments to recognize Mom for all of the wonderful things she’s done for us through the years and to thank her for being the best mother anyone could possibly have. After listing off everything to thank her for — years of household chores, school lunches, gas money — what we should really be saying thanks to, is all the painful and physical changes she put her body through to bring us into this world.
A witty post from The Atlantic brings up the physical changes that women go through during childbirth, simply pointing out that it would be rather difficult to find a greeting card that really gets to the heart of the matter: “It’s hard to completely blame the greeting card companies. Talking about the physical toll of being a mother is awkward. It requires using words like ‘saggy,’ ‘queef,’ ‘episiotomy,’ ‘cankles,’ and even ‘vagina,’ which is still surprisingly difficult for many people to say.”
The author goes on to raise the question of why women are not “warned” of these changes before giving birth, further making us stop for deeper reflection on just how much a mother’s love is to be appreciated. The physical repercussions can be slight and temporary or extreme and permanent.
From stretch marks to varicose veins, a woman’s body is forever changed when she becomes a mother. And not only does her body change, but her whole being becomes transformed in ways that only a mother understands, because as it turns out, “we are all mama soldiers returning from the battlefields of life-creation.”
This mother’s quest for the perfect mothers Day card concluded “without finding a single card saying anything close to what I’d like to say to my mom now . . . something along the lines of: ‘Dear Mom, thanks for rocking those gigantic varicose veins—which I caused—without complaint for all these years.’”
The perfect words, countless thank-you’s, and brightest flowers will never really get close to what a mother really deserves in gratitude for what she’s done for her children. This Mother’s Day, as you search for the perfect way to say thank you, take a moment to also thank her for allowing her body to take the physical toll it did to give you a chance in this world.
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photo credit: Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton via photopin cc