They Are Special Because They Are Mothers After All!

It is truly a wonderful coincidence that my mom’s birthday, May 8, happens to fall on Mother’s Day this year.. Like other years, I somehow feel the need to share a few thoughts. 

Each of us has a bonding with our moms, and each experience is unique. Yet there are  commonalities because an amazingly large percentage of moms are molded from the same clay that has pure, undiluted love as its basic substance.  

I reflected on a few of these attributes that I have seen in my mom and in most other moms I have known. And being a mother myself, I am not an outlier in this group. It’s a potpourri of the warmth, the kindness, and of course the silliness too that makes mothers the most beautiful entities on earth.

From the moment she first held you in her arms to the time you grew up to be an adult and even after you flew out of her nest, there is one constant. Moms have the superpower to care for you eternally.

The eternal worrier and the telepathist

Mommy talk on Instagram is replete with a granary of heartwarming posts. One of these quotes goes: “Motherhood is really about accepting the fact that you will be permanently worried for the rest of your life”.

In my fifties, I still have a mother who worries about whether I will be able to manage the guests I have invited for dinner. Hearing my voice over the phone, she instantly reads my mind and comes to know if I am sick or unhappy. In no way can I fake it otherwise.

A mother is that rare soul who will invest so much time in thinking about your well being!

Your mom is the person who will never judge you!

Your delinquencies may upset your mother. She may also dislike some of your annoying habits, but she will never judge you. 

The saying “To err is human, to forgive divine” is the philosophy that mothers inevitably follow. She is the one who will not hold grudges against you. A mother’s energy comes from her overwhelming altruism and her seemingly endless capacity for forgiveness.

Moms are always the master chefs

I remember a funny incident from 30 years ago. Over a cup of coffee, I shared with a cousin that my (then) fiancé had mentioned his mother being an excellent cook. With a smile beaming from ear to ear, my cousin commented that he had never heard anyone saying that their mother does not cook well!

That is the absolute truth. Rather than the sense of taste that needs to make the verdict, it is the emotion of love that takes over. By default, we think that our mommies are the greatest cooks in the world.

With this story comes the epilogue. Women are often stereotyped as not revealing the secret tip of their signature dish. Your mom, however, will give you the full, authentic recipe!

Moms can be silly with their histrionics 

Be ready for the emotional drama, or should I say blackmailing, from a mother. If she wants you to see her point of view, that’s the strategy she resorts to! 

“I have done so much for this family, yet no one understands me,” is the often-heard one liner!

There is an artistic perfection in Mommy’s act of lying

How do moms manage to fool their children with those harmless lies? It only speaks of their fine theatrical skills.

A story I have told and retold over the years is how my mom made us wake up in the mornings when my brother and I were growing up. She would scream her lungs out, announcing how late it was and how we were still in bed. The time she would mention would always be advanced by an hour than the real time. This trick was played on a regular basis, yet I don’t know how we kept falling for it.

The stories go on….

It would be an unlimited collection of stories if I were to narrate my personal anecdotes with my mother. The bond that we all share with our moms is organic and is a testimony to the sanctity of genuine human relationships.

“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers,” they say. It is a quote that has become so clichéd, yet it is the truth that weaves the fabric of our existence. So let us celebrate our mothers who have brought in sunshine when the day was cloudy and warmly snuggled us when the night was cold!

A very Happy Mother’s Day to my Ma and all other moms across the world!

(This article was featured in Women’s Web )