Writer's Celebrate Mother's

 (For my mother, Lenora Rosalie Cooney)

What is a mother ? Wonderful mother. A mother’s worth beyond compare. Mothers and Daughters. My mother, my friend. A Mother’s  heart , devoted and true. A legacy of love.  These are  only some of the endearing  sentiments  reflective of mother’s  throughout the ages  -  especially on Mother’s Day—a day of celebration honoring mothers and motherhood.

                                                         

                                                           

 Because this is a blog for writers about writing,  and Mother’s Day is this Sunday, I thought it would be  good to look at what some of the writers of classic literature and poetry have to say about mothers .

Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all—Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world, a mother’s love  is not—James Joyce

Mother is the name  for God in the lips and hearts of little children  - William Makepeace Thakeray

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness—Honore de Balzac

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause a peace to return to our hearts— Washington Irving

In  a letter to his mother, dated Paris, December 23, 1826 Henry Wordsworth Longfellow wrote to his mother :  Two months ago this was in my mother’s hand. It makes me sensible that time  as well as distance separates us….. And then  I look forward to the distant day of our meeting until my heart  swells into my throat and tears into my eyes. I cannot help thinking  that it is a pardonable  weakness…

And this letter to her mother (one of my favorites),  dated December 25, 1854  Louisa May Alcott wrote:

Dearest Mother,

   Into your Christmas stocking I have put my ‘first born’, knowing that you will accept it with all its faults (for grandmothers are always kind), and look upon it merely as an earnest of what I may yet do; for, with so much to cheer me on, I hope to pass in time from fairies  and fables to men and realities.

    Whatever beauty or poetry is to be found in my little book  is owing to your interest  in and encouragement  of all my efforts  from the first to the last; and if ever I do anything to be proud of , my greatest happiness will be that I can thank you  for that, as I may do for all the good there is in me; and I shall be content to write if it gives you pleasure.

     Jo is fussing about;

      My lamp is going out.

    To dear mother, with many kind wishes for a Happy New Year and Merry Christmas.

     I am ever your loving daughter,  Louy  

I think of letters I ‘ve written to my dear  mother  while I was away at college, or travelling in Europe;  I  wrote  not only  what I was doing , and about the people I met, but  I  shared  freely my exultant joy over some special happening , and sorrow over some sad event.  I wrote of my hopes and fears, knowing  my mother  would understand better than anyone.  And always, expressing my love for her, so grateful for my mother’s  unconditional love.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM!


*** Note of Interest (Wikipedia) -  When Anna Jarvis had the phrase "Mother's Day" trademarked in 1912 she was specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honor their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers of the world.  
President Woodrow Wilson also used this spelling when signing the Bill into law passed by Congress making Mother's Day an official holiday in the United States